It was a massive move from Liverpool to London for my parents in 1960 ... and an incredibly exciting holiday when we flew for the first time in a plane from Southend to Rotterdam for a Thompsons package tour of the Netherlands with coaches to places like Arnhem and Keukenhof.   To some extent the world has become a smaller place and long distance travel a natural part of our / my life.  And yet - speaking with a local friend the other day - he's concerned to the extent of planning half a year ahead about the travel plans he has to take his girlfriend to Rome for a short break and how they'll manage with hiring a cat car to get around. And I am minded that he and his friend were very concerned when I showed him the ropes of the summer Saturday train to and from Weymouth at the start of September ... and had a series of cancellations on the way home.

My data feeds are filled with far flung news of rail attractions (and Stella the Labrador!) such as the Darjeeling Himalaya Railway and I note that's a growing concern.  I can't think (may be wrong) there's a blossoming local traffic.
My new passport arrived ... and I'll be headed off again next year. 













For 2026 - might you be travelling "far flung"


Edit note: A rather amusing grahame typo corrected, for clarity. CfN. 

 
As things stand we will continue trips to our Yorkshire branch next year, with a visit to the K&WVR on the 'to do' list. In January we are having a few days in Paris - Eurostar out & back - primarily for the Stade Francais v Exeter Chiefs EPCR Challenge Cup rugby fixture although SWTSMBO will undoubtedly visit several retail emporia (A Paris trip for the other game against Racing 92 next month is also already booked). Next October we will head to Singapore for another family wedding; by then the full KTM electric train service from/to Johor and the rest of Malaysia should be up and running so we can give that a go.

 

Coming up on my feed today from the BBC


I certainly recall using Typex ... and a number of other "products gone" too like, err, typewriters, slide rules, calculators ... film cameras, etc.   What is to follow them?    "Sorry - we don't take cash" - and that in a pub in Trowbridge; bit of a transitional one - our favourite Chinese Takeaway remains "Sorry - we only take cash".

 
Coming back on this thread - looks like I failed to summarise the results of the poll.    But what it does show is that there wiil be a great deal of travel in '26

Personally, three month pass bought ... early May will see me meeting distant relatives in Amsterdam, taking in the final days of the tulip gardens, and the spending 10 days or so with them on a bit of a zigzag up to Denmark, from where they fly home to their distant home in California.  How I get to Amsterdam and how I get home from Copenhagen yet to be planned and will be left to the last minute. It is said that it's a female trend to do lots of things at the same time / meet lots of objectives in the same trip from home, whereas a male tends to set a single objective and go for it, and on this I am definitely female.

... at the end of May, after a visit home to wash my clothes and recover a bit, Lisa and I will be heded out together for a trip down to one side of the Adriatic, a ferry across, and then up the other side, stopping multiple nights in different places, enjoying the cuisine, and seeing the place / region we are in.

... following on before, or after, plans are a bit more woolly. This year just gone, my plan to visit Kars was re-jigged by the extreme heat and I went instead to Svolvaer.  Probability is that I will try for Turkey again in '26; possiblity is that it will end up very different.

I don't expect you'll see much difference in my rate of contribution here and I will try to avoid the boastful "look where I am" stuff, flavouring it instead with "why don't we do this" or "so glad we don't do that".  2026 is planned to be the first year since 2019 that I won't need to be physically home for certain dates and meetings, nor restricted because of covid, and I look forward to it.  I probably won't be away any more than I have been, but I have a flexibility that's glorious, and have had a planned clearance of things I have found unpleasant from being the sole independent on a town council where others/parties want to come out on top and do so by pushing others towards the bottom in some not-very-nice, hurtful, devious ways.

 

Tales of the demise of some items of everyday life have been premature.  Predictions regarding the end of vinyl records have been replaced by talk of their rediscovery by a whole new generation, apparently attracted to the tactile and visual appeal that so obviously is absent with downloads.
High street travel agents, once spoken of as a thing of yesteryear, have been making a return as people become increasingly distrustful of on online scam sites and also simply find coordinating all the various aspects of a holiday online too tiresome.
I could go on but there do seem to be limits to what the digital world can properly do to serve some aspects of life.

 
"Tippex"

 
Yes: 'Typex' was something rather different.