Update on my travels

The plan was to blog my journey around the world in November-December 2016. Unfortunately I took so many photos, narrowing it down to a handful to upload kinda blew my mind. So it was something that was put off and put off.

Finally when I decided to upload the text I had worked on with the intention to add pics later before publishing, I found access to my website blocked. An email to my host, while acknowledged, essentially went unanswered. I did email him a few times, to no avail.

Now that I’m home – it’s 2:30am, but I had a wonderful 7 hours of sleep so I’m cool with being a bit out of tune with the sun’s journey for a few days – it would seem my problem solving brain has kicked in and now have access again.

With that introduction, here is the first of a few posts on my travels in search of my family history.

Adelaide to London: 15-18 November 2016

Equipment on this trip:

• Macbook Air
• iPad 2 (about 100 years old)
• iPhone 7 (newest baby to join the family)
• Nikon 7100
• Nikkor 55-300 lens
• Olympus Tough T4
• + cables and chargers for all.

About a week before my departure I woke one morning with the thought: will my bags be over weight? I grabbed my phone to search where I could buy some scales to make sure I didn’t go over. It was about another hour before I wondered what the hell had gotten into me!

When I checked my bag at the airport, it was 17kg. I’m good to go!

The trip started without a hitch. Emirates is a well staffed and efficiently run airline. The video graphics of where we currently are, how far travelled, how far to go, the places on our port and starboard – and probably much more – was helpful to avoid the constant ‘are we there yet’. The A380 on the Dubai to London leg was like riding a Clydesdale: until you have ridden one, that may be too obscure a reference. The usual thrust as a plane in taking off doesn’t occur and banking is barely noticed. Turbulence still occurs, but one suspects it doesn’t bounce around as a little brother plane might. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t impervious to turbulence, it just cruises though it smoother.

The camera on the tail, giving a complete view of aircraft and runway is fascinating, yet conjures thoughts of how horrific it would be to watch us crash. Or maybe that is just my somewhat macabre mind.

Flying direct to London in 24 hours can be problematic: jet lag is worse and takes a toll. The intent was to maximise the time I had in my primary purpose of the trip. It is a toss up between getting to the destination and taking the jet lag in stages.

One thing I hadn’t factored into my arrival in London was that sunset was 4:07pm. By the time I got myself organised and at Westminster tube station, it was almost 4pm. I had only hoped to check out Houses of Parliament and of course Big Ben, I didn’t consider how many other weirdos would be there too on this cold wintery day. I’m guessing the crowd was mild compared to summer.

With the sky grey and gloomy and the light failing, and the cold meant only the Olympus Tough and iPhone camera were used on this occasion. I did look for angles that were a little different to the norm. Not sure if I was successful.

The following day I got the tube to Piccadilly Circus then walked through Trafalgar Square bringing the realisation that my memories of how to get about London had sadly gone. I’m guessing this is due to lack of use so had been purged from the system rather than massive rebuilding or shifting of these well known places.

Charing Cross station was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. When checking out the map of my journey to Kent, it occurred to me that I lived in this area 26-28 years ago, but was either unaware or had forgotten the typography of the region. The trains to Gillingham have definitely met with an upgrade.

I was met at Strood station by Brian and Hilary and it was a pleasure to see their faces again. I had last seen Brian in 2007 after he had retired and came out to Australia after mum had recovered from her knee surgery. It was 1990 when I had last seen Hilary so it was an absolute pleasure to be with her again. As we arrived at the house at Isle of Grain, I enquired about Karen.

Karen is the neighbour who allowed me to sometimes commandeer her phone to call home. I would go to the bank and withdraw £60, which would pay for 60 minutes of phone time. No, Karen wasn’t taking advantage. That is what it cost back then to call – £1 per minute. Today many phone plans include free international minutes.

So we popped in to catch up with Karen. Now a granny many times over, almost a great granny, she still has the bubbly personality. It was good to catch up with both Karen and Hilary. As I was leaving Karen mentioned how she missed my letters. Later as we were driving out of Grain I pondered this and realised one thing I hadn’t forgotten over the years is Karen’s address, down to the postcode. I wrote to out so many times that it is imprinted in the ol noggin.

I had a wonderful catch up with Brian and Hilary. Probably the only downside for the day was the long commute back to my accommodation. Due to the rain there were delays during the day and they still hadn’t caught up. First was the delay getting into Charing Cross, then having crossed to the Piccadilly line, I had the misfortune of being offloaded with everyone else at Barons Court as there was a backup at Acton Town. Thankfully the walk to the hotel was well lit, as it was 9:30pm by then.