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Oh, I wouldn’t say that. We all look at travel from different standpoints. I know that you took a lot more photos than I did.

Edinburgh has so many great spots. I think I like the Princes Street Gardens with a view of the Castle most, but Calton Hill has a lot to recommend it. The narrow old lanes and closes of the Old Town are charming. I like the Meadows, the soaring spire of Barclay Viewforth, the Union Canal, a...

Most kind! Thank you. I’m currently enjoying a Gold Coast winter, catching up after a long drive. The next Aus/NZ unconvention is on Waiheke Island in October but so far nobody has gotten aboard for the next world anniversary convention due in April. There may not be one; these things...

Turning into Custard My flight out of Sydney was due to depart at 0805 - QF508, I noticed - and the flight from BKK pulled into the gate at 0741. I was pretty sure that not even the most spirited gallop through Sydney International could get me aboard. I wasn't too worried. Qantas would get...

There's usually enough information in even a dark photo to bump up the light and bring out some details. I’ve fiddled with the light levels and “denoised” the article photo. On an iPad. At two in the morning. Lying in bed.

Dawn over Botany Bay as the Bangkok flight positions for landing. Night flight home We're in an Airbus A333, from the same batch as the outward flight a week back. I'm even in almost the same seat: 51A. If I have a window seat in the cheap cabin, I like to be well clear of the wings so I can...

Goodbye Bangkok I can't say that my visit to Thailand got me much in touch with the spirit of the nation. Nor, come to think of it, did my visit to Pattaya Beach some years back. Rice paddies and temples and gentle people would be more my idea of the real land. Nevertheless, I'm glad for my...

Ah, that may have been me. Sorry.

Oh yes. There was a sauna. I didn't check it out, though.

Box Living Again with the immigration and baggage claim but this time I wasn't really leaving the airport. In theory I had about thirteen hours before my next flight - to Sydney - and I wanted to stay within easy reach, rather than worry about rush hour traffic both ways. I looked at the...

Back to Bangkok After dinner, we turned left over Turkey and aimed ourselves toward Thailand. And a swiftly approaching night. I closed my window shades and watched movies, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris and the hobbit-sized Daniel Radcliffe starring in Weird as the two-metre tall "Weird Al" Yankovic...

Heading to Bangkok Once again I made use of that little red oval and took the priority boarding, turning left where the jetway diverged. My allocated seat was 3H - a centre aisle seat - but once again there were window seats available and I slid my bum into 3L after checking with a FA. See my...

I was sucked in by all the light. It didn't feel like it was anything more than late afternoon. I barely scraped the surface of things to look at.

Lounge time If you have been paying attention, you'll recall that my Business Light ticket came without some of the regular J perks. Like luggage or seat selection or lounge access. Luggage I had to pay for, if only to get my Tim Tams and books to Europe, and I let the rest slide except for one...

Brekkie and back During the night I rose at least once for the usual reason. Outside, pulling back the curtain, even the wee small hours of the morning were nothing darker than dusk. I was having a lot of trouble dealing with this. Not just the fact that the sun was still hanging around at...

Stroll around the grounds… As it happened, my hotel room had curtains that provided an almost complete light seal, and it was well into the evening before I woke. A function of totally bollixed body clock and getting up early in Edinburgh; by now my body probably thought it was morning tea time...

Helsinki and the midnight evening I had a layover of 23 hours between my arrival from Edinburgh and departure to Bangkok. While this effectively added a whole day to my travel time back to Australia it also gave me a quick look at Finland. And Finland in midsummer. The photo above shows the...

Return to HEL I'd been allocated seat 4D in the so-called Business cabin. Alas for my hopes, this was not a window seat and there were no free windows anyway. My seatmate, as we see above, must have spent the previous night seeing the sights of Edinburgh, because he wasn't interested in seeing...

In the Belly of the Beast The trains and trams worked perfectly. Comfortable, efficient, good value. They ran on time, they got me to Edinburgh Airport well in advance of my target time; 0634, going by the timestamp on my camera. I wasn't so sanguine about what awaited me inside Edinburgh. At...

The first steps back homeward - boy, you've got to carry that weight! Facing me on my return journey were four days, five flights, two long layovers, and four international borders. For some of these I'd have to carry all my luggage with me. So. First step was careful packing. And planning...