2000-25
Dropping out in Chiang Rai
Previous | Contents | Next After giving us a chance to compose ourselves, he led us along a path of concrete blocks, laid in pairs in the dirt, and up several steps to the dining room. I stepped carefully with my stick, spacey with tiredness, and was glad to take off my boots. The dining room opened…
Travel & terrorism, 2001
Contents They also liked the fact that — even though we came from the other side of the world — we were going to do business “as if we were local”. Photographers could pick up the phone and call us any time, we’d deliver door to door — freight free — and they could…
The cell phone as alarm clock
Previous | Contents | Next This was May 2000. Mobile networks, roaming arrangements and phone charges have improved a bit since then! The iPhone was still 6-1/2 years or so away. ~ Ian So here we are, leaving LA on Day One of our road trip, doing what I’ve always wanted to do — drive a car…
Istanbul and Gallipoli
Previous | Contents | October 2001 It used to be the Austro-Hungarians we had to thank for keeping the Ottomans out of Europe but for now it’s the EU, while they consider Turkey’s application to join. For such a big shift — from Christian society to Muslim, from Europe to Asia — the flight from Dublin to Istanbul…
England and Ireland
Previous | Contents | Next October 2001. We only had 2-3 days to spend with Heather’s relatives in the UK on this trip. I was a bit worried about meeting Uncle Bert, the BOAC pilot, again. He definitely hadn’t drunk me under his sister-in-law’s table when he came to New Zealand, but apparently I did need his help out…
September 11
Previous | Contents | Next It’s not often that your flight plans align with a world-shaking geopolitical event, but we managed it in September 2001. Our plan — after joining the Queensberry contingent at the WPPI show in Las Vegas — was to host a round of seminars in Canada, England and Ireland, and to follow that up with…
Out, damned slots!
Previous | Contents | Next March 2001 This was Queensberry’s first WPPI trade show in Las Vegas. ~ Ian Well, the Trade Show is over and we’re back in the LAX Departure Lounge. It feels good to relax. The show was a non-stop assault. We’d been pretty busy even before we left home, what with house alterations and preparations…
Into the Mystic
Previous | Contents | As we drove east across northern New York State the trees were in full leaf. Leaving Quebec, further north, everything had just been greening up, as the buds formed and opened. It would have been nice to go back for another look at Edmonton later in the Spring. We roared east along the…
When I die I wanna go to Schwartz’s
Previous | Contents | NextI wrote my last 2000 despatches back in sunny Los Angeles. We’d spent the last four weeks driving through Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and New England. Having flown back from Toronto we were lying low for a few hours before catching the flight back home. ~ Ian We’ve driven about 9,000 kms, and the…