Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category


Our round be world trip (9): Alice to Ayers

March 14th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Day 10 (Thursday) was essentially a travelling day as we went overland from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock. At first the weather was cloudy with a moderate temperature, but soon we had totally cloudless skies again and the heat rose to 34C/93F. The journey by coach took seven and a half hours, but we stopped […]

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Our round the world trip (8): Alice Springs

March 13th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

We left Melbourne on Wednesday (Day 9 of our holiday) as the heat wave started to break and preparations built up for Sunday’s Formula One race. We took a Qantas flight north-west 1,858 kms (1,162 miles) to Alice Springs in “the red centre” of the country. It was a flight of about two and a […]

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Our round the world trip (7): sightseeing & friends in Melbourne

March 12th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

The group’s second full day in Melbourne – Day 8 (Tuesday) for Roger & Vee – was a free day in the schedule and most of the group left the hotel by 7 am to go on an all-day optional tour of the Great Ocean Road. We two remained in the city where it was […]

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Our round the world trip (6): Melbourne and penguins

March 11th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Day 7 (Monday) was a public holiday in Melbourne because the state of Victoria celebrates Labour Day on the second Monday in March (each state and territory decides when to hold the holiday) and there is local festival called Moomba (the name comes from an local Aboriginal language and means something like ‘having fun’). The […]

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Our round the world trip (5): wizard! – we’re in Oz

March 10th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Day 6 (Sunday) of our trip was effectively a travelling day. Our flight on Qantas Airways Airbus A330-200 was another ‘overnight’ journey east into the sun. The journey from Bangkok to Sydney was nine and a quarter hours, so we landed at 7 am Bangkok time but – since this part of Australia is four […]

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Our round the world trip (4): last day in Bangkok

March 9th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

After a late lunch and some chilling back at the hotel, for our last evening in Bangkok we decided to do something a little different and, following a recommendation from the hotel, had dinner at a restaurant called the “Naj Exquisite Thai Cuisine”. It was a pleasant ambience since it is located in a century-old […]

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Our round the world trip (3): what? more wats!

March 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Another day in Bangkok: Day 4 (Friday) of our trip. Another wat – or two: why not? Things did not get off to a good start though. Our hotel called a taxi for us and explained our destination to the driver. However, no sooner were we on the move than he announced in very broken […]

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Our round the world trip (2): Bangkok’s Grand Palace

March 7th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

This is our first visit to Thailand, although we have been to adjacent and nearby countries Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia. The country has the longest-reigning monarch in the world: King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) – who is now aged 85 – has been on the throne for 66 years. He rules over a nation […]

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Our round the world trip (1): getting to first base

March 6th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

We have been together for over three decades now and done lots of wonderful travelling as a couple, the last decade and a half mainly outside of our home continent of Europe. We have long harboured a wish to visit Australia and New Zealand, the one continent we have never experienced, but knew that it […]

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Best ever week for my web site

March 4th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

I state on the homepage of my web site that each day I receive over 8,000 visits to the site. In fact, last week, visits on the five weekdays averaged 9,000 a day. Around half of all the visits are to NightHawk. So many thanks for your interest and support. The coming month will probably […]

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