24th July 2023 Hi, On 10th July I headed up to the north of Scotland to spend a week on the croft with friends Norman Schouten (a former travelling companion - see Patagonia blogs 2012), wife Nem and family. The croft house is called Tordarroch, and is in Rogart, a beautiful part of Sutherland. Tordarroch means 'mound of the oak-wood' and an oak clad hill is just across the main road from the croft. This blog is just a brief note to introduce the photos of the...

15th June 2023 Hi, Sorry for the delay in publishing this blog for my trip to Tuscany last month. Even at my age life is full of surprises. I got a call at the start of February from The Travel Department to advise me that I had won a holiday to Tuscany in May, having entered a competition for said holiday on their website. Hard to refuse…… Thursday 11th May 2023 Accompanied by nephew Dave we left Glasgow at 0410 and in an hour reached Edinburg...

31st May 2023 Hi, This is just a brief note to accompany the photos taken at the marriage of Alex Macarie and Rachel Mary Macleod which I was kindly invited to attend. Instead of the usual distance travelling I walked the 1.3 miles from my flat to St Judes FP Church at Woodlands Road on what was billed as the hottest day of the year so far. The service was conducted by Rev Roderick Macleod, father of the bride who also gave her away. The reception was at Bocl...

Hi Saturday 1st April This is the fourth and final blog from my Vietnam odyssey. We checked out of our hotel in Ho Chi Minh City and headed south west towards the Mekong Delta. We stopped at Tay Ninh a visited a Cao Dai Temple. Cao Deism started in the 20th century and is a multi-faith religion which fuses east and western religions and secular philosophies. We travelled through the largely agrarian landscapes (check out the photos) and eventually we boarded ...

Hi, So we move onto the third leg of the tour. Arriving in Saigon or Ho Chi Min City (HCMC) from Danang, you immediately felt the rise in temperature from moving south. It was 31 Celsius on arrival. Our hotel, the Renaissance Riverside was centrally placed and ideal for getting around. We checked in and had dinner at a French influenced local restaurant. To be honest we kept being told that certain restaurants were French influenced but I didn't notice a great d...