The ‘Grim up north’ trope reminds of Northern England’s story of endless decline. In reality, the region produced immense wealth through the likes of textiles, steel, coal and shipbuilding. Influential industrialists’ fortunes rivalled those in [more…]
Devastation struck Puffindom earlier in the year when readers heard of Mrs AWS’s Christmas present falling flat. Her once-in-a-lifetime diverted train trip from Carlisle to Preston via the scenic Settle-Carlisle railway suffered a last second [more…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
Just off Red Square in Moscow, by a Metro entrance, is a curious little basement exhibit, the Museum of the USSR. The day I visited it, I was almost alone as I viewed the dozen [more…]
Copyright © 2026 | MH Magazine WordPress Theme by MH Themes