America
RMS Queen Mary 2
My US literary agent asked me to cross the pond to boost the flagging sales of my book Magic of Banking, but I seem to have developed a flying phobia of late, as I get [more…]
Travel
20th Century
Desert Mysteries, Part Five
The Royal Tank Museum In Part 4, I described the vehicles that belonged to the British and Arab “Special Forces” of WW1 and WW2 that are displayed in The Royal Tank Museum in Amman, Jordan. [more…]
Hobbies
Queen Ann Naming
Some Puffins may be vaguely aware of Mrs A’s enthusiasm for cruising, and in the course of this has booked us a cruise on the spon-new Cunarder, Queen Ann. Unfortunately she was unable to book [more…]
Arts
Postcard From The Royal Mile
Having exhausted Edinburgh’s King’s Gallery, myself and Mrs AWS spilled into the street and faced the caravan park, timeshares, swimming pool, shop and public lavatory complex opposite. Hold on a minute. On closer observation, the [more…]
20th Century
Desert Mysteries, Part Four
The Royal Tank Museum Amman in Jordan is home to one of the best museums of its type in the world, The Royal Tank Museum. A project of the King of Jordan, Abdullah II, the [more…]
Hobbies
A trip to Albania, land of the Eagles – Part Two
The family we stayed with were very hospitable, and as they were being paid something for the inconvenience of us staying there, I am sure we were very welcome! B and I and our lovely [more…]
16th Century
Postcard From The King’s Gallery
On our day trip to Edinburgh, Mrs AWS and I de-trained on Waverley’s Platform 9 at 12:17 prompt. While a disappointing first-class breakfast rattled in our tums, we allowed ourselves to be swept out of [more…]
Hobbies
Classic Railway Journeys of a different kind
As one or two of you may have noticed, I have recently passed a Notable Birthday milestone. (thanks to all who sent good wishes, BTW). One pf the many prezzies received was one from Mrs [more…]
20th Century
Desert Mysteries, Part Three
In Part 1, I described how from the signatures on the front cover of a June 1939 edition of “Blackwood’s Magazine” purchased from an antiques fair, I found that the original owner, Edward Davis Moore, [more…]