A Bunch of Transients Never ask the Germans to decide territorial disputes. This rule is hopefully typed and pinned above the British Foreign Secretary's office door in Whitehall. Many years ago (I say that because I can't remember the date!) Britain and the United States nearly went to war over the ownership of the San Juans, a jumble of islands between mainland Washington, the Olympic Peninsula, British Columbia and Vancouver Island. The dispute kicke...

Hi All As always I start with best intentions, intending to write a blog and upload photos from the place where we are actually staying. A couple of things conspire to make this impossible, the amount of places we need to see in the time available and, frustratingly, the randomness with which our Fujitsu Siemens laptop conspires not to connect to the internet. The latter problem, given the amount of free wireless connections in this part of the USA, is particu...

Volcano Visit Grey, crusty and liable to explode at any minute. You may think I'm talking about Angela but actually it is a volcano, Mt St Helens, that I have in mind. Without wishing to reveal my age (silly Ralph, you told everyone you were 50 on the last blog!) I can distinctly remember the BBC News footage of the eruption of Mt St Helens in May 1980 and I have always wanted to visit the volcano. A relatively clear day,an impressive Visitor Centre, archive ...

Breakfast in America You may, hopefully, get the impression that Angela and I are enjoying ourselves when you read our blogs and look at our pictures. There are times however when enjoyment is probably the wrong word. That particularly applies when we walk in to a diner for that traditional American ritual, breakfast. The food is not the problem, apart from the sheer quantity you are given; it is the ordering process that daunts us. The British are not used ...

Senile in Seattle "50th birthday? But you don't look 50!" My adoring female fan club (membership closed I'm afraid, the club already has too many members) will be well aware of the fact that I have never looked my age. Normally a comment like the above would have me beaming from ear to ear. However at this particular moment in time I was using my age as the trump card in an ultimately futile attempt to get the British Airways check-in Rottweiller to ...