Diary
WG’s Christmas Cruise 2025 – Part Five
Friday 2nd January – at sea (mostly) The sea seems to have calmed down overnight. It is still rather windy, but the sea state has changed to moderate, with a long, slow swell, and it [more…]
Travel
Diary
WG’s Christmas Cruise 2025 – Part Four
Monday 29th December, Lanzarote I woke up about 05:30 and we were moving very slowly off the coast of Lanzarote. It is still dark and the lights along the coast were twinkling. Much too early [more…]
Geology
Carlisle-Settle-Preston
It’s Wednesday morning around 9:00 and I’m at Carlisle station. AWS didn’t manage to make his proposed rail journey down to Preston because of cancellations. Hongkonger has done rather better. The train at platform 3 [more…]
Diary
WG’s Christmas Cruise 2025 – Part Three
Thursday 25th December, Christmas Day at Sea I started my Christmas Day with the Bing Bong of the ship’s tannoy waking me from my slumbers and the voice of the ship’s Captain apologising for the [more…]
Diary
WG’s Christmas Cruise 2025 – Part Two
Sunday 21st December. Sailing Day. There is no mad rush to do anything this morning. Apple Maps tells me it will take 1 hour and twenty minutes to get to the cruise terminal, and I [more…]
Diary
WG’s Christmas Cruise 2025 – Part One
The Prologue I really enjoyed last year’s trip to the Caribbean but, there is always a but, I had to settle for a standard seat on the TUI Boeing 787. Despite the huge cost of [more…]
Engineering
New Year Transport Update
The big day arrives! Puffins will recall a previous unread article, Christmas Transport Catastrophe. This detailed the railway and motorway closures and diversions required as a West Coast Mainline bridge is being replaced over the [more…]
19th Century
Railway Review
Following the outpouring of joy over the street cars of Paramaribo – complete with a trip to Kabelstation (where a rope-worked gondola spanned the Suriname River), and a railcar ride with the Queen of Holland, [more…]
Christianity
Christmas at Christmas With Christmas
Spending Christmas at Christmas with Christmas sounds a very Puffin thing to do. First of all, we’ll have to decide when to meet. The eagle-eyed among you may point out that we’ve missed our chance, [more…]