Brighton: 5 takeaways

I’ve just spent a couple of nights in Brighton. I must say I’m underwhelmed but then maybe what it offers is not what I look for. Anyway these are my five takeaways (four positive and one negative to make up the numbers).

Switzerland 40 years on

We lived in Switzerland in the 80s (and a couple of years either side). Clare and Charles were both born there and we bought a house. We had a good life but then the world changed and we moved on.

Five great upgrades

I’m fortunate but I’ve also got to apologise. I’m fortunate in that I’ve enjoyed lots of interesting business travel often in business or even first class. At one time I had three gold cards: with BA, KLM and SAS which meant that even when I was travelling economy I still got to avoid the long economy class check-in queues and was able to use the business class lounges.

Letter to Kyoji

I’ve had an on/off relationship with Japan since the very first days of my working life but today it’s only continued through a Xmas card exchange with and a letter to Kyoji Ohtake.

5 business trips (which didn’t go to plan)

I’ve travelled enough so that I’m pretty adept at avoiding the pitfalls of business trips and the stresses that go with them but even then stuff happens which is outside your control and then you have to adapt. It’s happened to me several times, fortunately never catastrophically, but in today’s world the consequences of the earlier ones wouldn’t have been so easily managed.

Indonesia 2019 (and 2020)

We’ve just spent a couple of days short of four weeks on holiday in Indonesia. It’s a longer trip than we’d normally make and with hindsight would have been better if it had been a few days shorter but you can’t change history so why dwell on it.

Sicily again: 5 highlights

We’ve just come back from a week in Sicily. We had a full itinerary which showed us most of the island and immersed us in its history and culture. You come out at the end with a blur of memories but what really stood out? Here’s my list of five highlights.

I’ve been to Sicily again

temple E at Selinunte … with wild flowers!

I’ve been to Sicily four times now. Twice recently on tours with the most recent being just last month. The other two visits were more in the past and I’ll come back to them later.

Indian Triangle

Some time back I did a post on ‘5 significant holidays’. I’m not sure if my recent trip to the Golden Triangle in India would count as significant but it was truly epic.

what we did that summer …

Earlier this month the Guardian’s travel supplement ran a feature with ten people remembering their ‘most memorable’ holidays. Here’s my memory of my first independent holiday ‘Four in a Mini to the South of France‘ as featured in my earlier post ‘Five significant holidays’. Click here to read it.