Shetland is an open paradise.  A pattern of land and sea, of moors and lochs, of slopes and tarns, of green and blue, where you can see as far as…

Anyone can add to this, or correct it. If I've got something wrong, or particularly if you have beautiful words/dishes of your own, do contact me and I'll add them.…

20 US States Clooney, but more so.For what reason, O Merciless one?Barack’s scarfaced brotherI, of cranial displacement, live here.“Does Derek know?”Bereft  of mineral deposits.Trumpeter Armstrong’s memorabilia.Mary’s memorabilia.Where they keep 8.American…

On our way A Long Time Ago, we had no idea where the Azores were. But on the back of an exciting holiday in Shetland, where for the first time,…

At the beginning of the year, if someone had showed me my diary for the 19th-22nd April 2012 and I’d seen the word Yerevan printed there, I wouldn’t have had…

(This account, only scratching the surface of this marvellous city is a story based on two entirely separate trips, in 2002 and 2003.) That’s how it’s pronounced, when you’re there.…

Azerbaijan! What an exotic name that is!  For weeks before going there I was almost boasting about it, as if the name itself would conjure remote possibilities, as it did…

I was in Yangon, capital of Myanmar, formerly known under British rule as Rangoon, capital of Burma. But today I left behind the gleaming pagodas and everyday city life, and crossed…

Dubai is dull.  At least in March 2017 it was dull.  It’s a building site.  There are no pavements.  As you tramp along the uneven boardwalks or even edge along…

This was a biggie, one I’d been looking forward to with some excitement. Previous visits to Japan, four I think, had all been as part of more extensive far-East run-arounds,…