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Dougie
Jun 20, 20222 min read
Must all good things come to an end? For now ...
We begin our long journey back to Australia tomorrow -- north to Paris by train then two flights back to the big southern island. So here...
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Dougie
Jun 17, 20221 min read
Some days there is only one way to be ...
The chirping of cicadas in 70 year old olive trees is the only sound to disturb the peace. Do cicadas chirp? I am too hot to care. The...
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Dougie
Jun 14, 20222 min read
Not quite Route 66 -- coast to coast on Puglia's SS16
We drove from coast to coast across the 'heel' of the 'boot' that is mainland Italy. From the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea. From...
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Dougie
Jun 12, 20221 min read
Trigger Alert -- nearly naked Scottish guy almost smiles
My brother warned me that life in the Trullo would be rustic ... that's the word he used. Rustic. Did he mention it would be rustic and...
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Dougie
Jun 10, 20222 min read
A short and simple tale. Two brothers meet.
My younger brother provides my verifiable first memory. In a taxi. In the rain. In Aberdeen. I was -- what? -- three and a half years old...
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Dougie
Jun 7, 20223 min read
Au revoir Paris ... Benvenuti a Roma.
Our first Italian train -- Frecciarossa 9281. The 7:20 a.m. from Paris Gare de Lyon to Milano Centrale, arriving 2:07 p.m. Change trains...
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Dougie
Jun 5, 20225 min read
The curse of the east coast mainline strikes again
Taking the train between Edinburgh Waverley and London King's Cross has been one of my favourite journeys since my first trip in the late...
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Dougie
Jun 3, 20224 min read
In the immortal words of John McEnroe ...
You cannot be serious! We took a mid-morning train to Edinburgh Waverley. As far as I know, it's the only train station named after a...
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Dougie
Jun 2, 20223 min read
Let Glasgow Flourish
We visited Betty again today for three hours. By the time we said our goodbyes my mother was tired. It was time for us to go. Betty was...
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Dougie
Jun 1, 20226 min read
From the sublime to the ridiculous
Today we visited the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum; Glasgow's finest and my favourite for all kinds of reasons (not all of them to...
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Dougie
May 29, 20226 min read
The Journey Home ... delayed by a deer on the tracks
The promenade at Weymouth is a peaceful place at seven o'clock on a Sunday morning. The only sounds are those of the natural world. The...
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Dougie
May 28, 20223 min read
(Not too) Far from the Madding Crowd
We are still in Hardy Country -- in a place where his best loved book collides with John Schlesinger's film. A day when 1874 (Thomas...
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Dougie
May 27, 20225 min read
High Tea (and a less than stellar poem) in Hardy Country
We were in need of a good location. Spike had arranged to meet her father's sister, Anne, and her husband, Jeff, somewhere in Weymouth....
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Dougie
May 26, 20225 min read
Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside ...
Sometimes the simplest delights of a long holiday are found in the most unexpected places. This morning that turned out to be adjacent...
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Dougie
May 22, 20224 min read
A Gallery Too Far ...?
To paraphrase the 1977 Second World War "blockbuster" movie, A Bridge Too Far starring Dirk Bogarde, Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins and...
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Dougie
May 21, 20223 min read
Coming at the world through its side doors
We had no plans for today. And after a slow start (which sometimes happens with us quadriplegics) we made it out of the hotel with only...
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Dougie
May 15, 20222 min read
Intrepid explorers ... we are not!
Today we rise to our first real challenge ... cross the city by train, transfer to the suburban tram, find the market ... buy the purse....
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Dougie
May 14, 20223 min read
Bienvenue a Paris
What has it been? Forty hours or thereabouts since Spike loaded the car, said her goodbyes to Thistle the cat, and we set off on our...
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Dougie
May 13, 20222 min read
Those are 16 hours I'm never getting back
Word of advice ... Never -- I mean JAMAIS ... never get on a plane for 14 hours in the cheap seats with a tired, grumpy, Scottish...
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Dougie
May 12, 20223 min read
It's been 6 long years
And so it begins. After six long years ... a new job (which is not so new now) and bush fires and more than two years of a pandemic that...
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