Forgive the slight variation on Charles Dickens, but this is a great thought for the start of a new decade. This is a time to look forwards to the road ahead rather than staring backwards in the rear view mirror. Our legacy from the past The past is gone – this is an indisputable truism.…
Author: unwrapping
Norway Cruise – Days 2-6 : a Week on the Ocean Waves
It’s a strange and wonderful world living on a cruise ship for a week. We are not on one of those massive 3,000 berth Caribbean monster liners with 7 passenger decks, 7 bars and 17 nights of restless B-factor entertainment. Rather, we are on something of a mini-cruise on a robust Hurtigruten Nordic ship, working…
Norway Cruise Day 1 – Vardø Bewitched
Our giant ship sidles into the little Norwegian town of Vardø, gently buffering up against the daisy-chain of old tyres pinned along the dockside. Then, throwing out its ropes as an invitation, it is accepted and entwined to the harbour cleats. Five minutes later the boat opens its mouth, sticks out its gantry tongue and…
Norway Cruise Prequel – It’s cold up north
Kirkenes is a long way north. I mean a LONG way north. For those of you in London, it’s WAY beyond the M4. Even the Watford Gap is a comparative nip to the shops. For those of you have ventured a little further upwards, you may have seen the motorway signs on the M6 for…
GROUNDED – Day 8, The Great Escape
I have escaped. Having survived a whole 11 nights* of confinement at home, with the occasional release into the exercise yard of my local town, I had to break free. Yes, I know I wrote all of that positive stuff about being grounded and relaxed. But a travelling habit is not so easily kicked. As…
GROUNDED – Day 5, Literally & Metaphorically
I always work at home on Friday, so this is in theory a “normal working day”. It is as if Monday and Friday are two anchors for a rope bridge which I had walked across for three days, and now I am back on terra firma. But that doesn’t seem right. I feel like I…
GROUNDED – Day 4, Loungewear to Lycra
I interacted with other humans a bit more today, which wasn’t difficult after yesterday’s mainly solitary confinement. My wife was out all morning (again), but my daughter came for the day. Not specifically to spent quality time with her dad – rather because her car needed an MOT at the garage at the end of…
GROUNDED – Day 3, easy does it.
I am acclimatising to my confinement. I only have two meetings in my diary today, and I miss them both. The first is at 8am, but I wake at 8.30am, with a shrug. I neglected to set my alarm last night. Then, I simply forget the 1pm meeting. I take some comfort from this neglect…
BEING GROUNDED – The first 2 days
DAY ONE – MONDAY I have been grounded for the month of February. Normally on a Monday I would be taking the evening flight to Copenhagen, where I work for a very well-known optician. We have offices in five northern European countries. For February, we have instituted an international travel ban, to save some cash…
Wish You Were Here
It was a Friday night. I was at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen to enjoy Roger Waters – creative force behind Pink Floyd, protester, political provocateur, poet and progressive music pantheon. My seat was at the extreme front left of the balcony, parallel with, and high above, the edge of the stage – almost the…
Unwrapping The World 