Even at Glasgow Airport, I was making last-minute arrangements for our holiday in Sharm el-Sheikh. Finally the email came through from Emperor Divers to say that they had our details and I could pay for the courses and dives we had organised. Yay for mobile broadband and a smart phone! This was my first “family” [...]

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  Back in June 2008 I took a quick trip to “real” Ireland a.k.a Eire to visit the lovely Joleen Cronin who I first met in Phuket, Thailand. Details of the couple of weeks I spent there can be found elsewhere on this blog. Part of the trip was sponsored, after a fashion, by her [...]

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We had our final hearty breakfast at the hotel with the idea being that we’d not need to eat again until we got our inclusive sandwiches on the flight to Amsterdam. That kind of didn’t work out. After checking out, we decided to wheel the suitcase around with us rather than leave it at the [...]

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Today there would be boats. The travel tickets sold by the hotel could be used on the buses or the vaporetti – the water-borne transport service that circles the islands of Venice. We wanted to head for Murano and see the glass museum, and hopefully some glasswork being made. According to the map, we needed [...]

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Today I broke my shoes. Well, kind of. The insole decided it didn’t like being anchored to the sole and thought it might be entertaining to make a break for freedom via the ankle. I’ll re-secure it when I get home. The reason for the shoe destriction was a huge amount of walking. After the [...]

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We got to Glasgow airport at 10-ish, with breakfast at the Wetherspoons which was fine aside from being provided with something akin to a spatula with which to cut my sausages and bacon. Our flight to Amsterdam was on time, and in fact we anded early which gave us over 4 hours to run into [...]

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OK, getting ahead of myself by a day or so. Gill and I will be on a plane to Venice via Schipol on Saturday, coming back Tuesday night. I’ve been to Italy twice before (a couple of days in Rome, and hiking up the north west as part of the 1000 Mile Walk) – oh [...]

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Due to my change in circumstance (i.e. having a job and finding someone stupid enough to go out with me), backpacking is a little bit of a no-goer at the moment. Travelling, though, is still very much on the cards. First up, the amazing Gillian is treating me to a long weekend in Venice for [...]

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Again, a quick post so that the blog doesn’t look like it’s completely lying fallow. I had “kind of” plans to travel over xmas, but they fell through for a variety of reasons. One was price, another was that I’ve started seeing someone who lives in Glasgow and I’d much rather spend the holiday season [...]

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Sadly, I couldn’t get to the wedding because of work commitments… but Katie and Ben almost didn’t make it either! Due to a handful of incidents involving forgotten cases, volcanoes, monsoons and bad airlines, what is usually a stressful time for any couple became unreal for them. However, thanks to Holiday Inn Atrium, Singapore and [...]

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