Category: Jetsam

LOR’s everything else floating around

From the archive: SMS #68

SMS68 #2 Canadian train behing trees
From the archive. The train is heading for Toronto. This is not the view we got because we were in the train. When you see posters of trains travelling through mighty landscapes remember the view from the train is much less vast. There again we liked the trains in Canada; rushing through the night, being called for dinner, seated then served and leaving the washing up to others.

More travel, less travail

So often travel turns out to be travail. At least this is what happens to me.

I will give you an example. A few years back on a previous French trip we determined to go to the Airbus factory. The instructions for getting there seemed clear, as did the instructions that required visitors to register online for a tour of the factory. Needless to say, we didn’t manage to register for the tour and we got lost on the way.

The good side, though, is when we finally arrived at the factory, a tour had just started. And two of the registered particpants hadn’t turned up. The reception staff slipped our 80 euros into the till and shuffled us into the recently started tour. It was all in French, which suited J but left me occasionally bewildered, often baffled, and sometimes klutz-like.

And so to this book. This is my story about the 2014 journey to Paris and beyond. J, who travelled with me, tells her story in another book. Her writing is much more travel than travail. She tells of the places we went to and the things we did. I guess there is a place for that in travel writing.

You can read the whole story here.  More travel less travail 1

 

 

I’ve been thinking #1: Navigation lights

I have been thinking. Early morning walking can be a bit hazardous. The danger comes when others hove into view and one cannot be sure that the oncoming has seen you. Now, at sea, at night, there are very definite collision avoidance instructions; you know red to red go ahead and other rhymes (red over red the captain is dead and red over green sailing machine). Don’t be fooled, there is nothing cute about these. They are intended to avert calamity.

My idea is to adopt nav lights for walking in less than optimal visual conditions. So, I would have a red light on my left shoulder and a green light on my right shoulder. To complete the ensemble, I would have a white light shining out my rear. This lighting configuration would signify a person walking at walking speed. When the person was of a younger ilk and was either scootering, running, jogging, skateboarding or in some other way being propelled along the footpath, they would have the same lighting configuration with the addition of an all-round white light on top of their head.

Now the Government needs to mandate this form of lighting to ensure safety on our streets. I will email the Prime Minister about this. I reckon it will be law by sundown; so, look out your lights.