Getting ready to roll

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Composite image L-R: Street in Twickenham; grandchildren and friend (in black) at Sidcup area park; 

Nickolai Church in Berlin.
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IN MARCH and April 2014, I took a trip to England and Germany to catch up with family and good friends, and, of course, to see the sights. At that time, my wife was quite ill, and I recognise her selflessness in encouraging me to take the trip as, throughout our married life, we had rarely taken breaks away from each other, unless they were in some way work related.

As I said to my daughter when she dropped me to the airport, it's always better being lost in company than being lost and alone.

I was only away for a fortnight that time, and am glad to report that I hardly got lost at all.

Less than a year after that trip, Chris died; and around the middle of the following month (while travelling home from a cousin's funeral) my brother and I got word that our mother was unlikely to see the month out.

Although confined to bed for all but the most necessary purposes, mum lived on resolutely until the beginning of September when she, too, left us.

2016 was a continual round of visits to solicitors and chasing up paperwork. I am greatly indebted to my children for all they did in relation to their mother's estate.

But there wasn't much time for holidaying, so, other than a four day trip with family to Tumut and the snow, I again didn't have a break. This year, I have really been focusing on going again, catching up with family and good friends, and seeing parts of the world I haven't seen before.

The first stage of the trip will be to spend two nights in Singapore. I had been there for brief periods in the past, but, for various reasons, we hadn't been able to explore as we had hoped to. So, watch this space for more information.

The big issue for me just now is of getting everything organised. So far, I have my flights booked to and from the UK, accommodation in Singapore, bus from Heathrow to East Midlands Airport, and accommodation in two holiday spots where I will be going with my son and his family.

There were a few glitches in establishing precise dates for my travel, which is one reason my preparations are a little behind just now. And then there were some friends who wanted to catch up in continental Europe, and coordinating my travels with theirs is still a matter of negotiation. But we will get there in the end.

Because Chris used to organise clothes, I generally worked on tickets and paperwork, and on making sure we had the right equipment and technology, from airline-friendly bags through to a range of travel plugs, and, of course, camera and, more recently, laptop (so that I can post to this blog and, I suppose, to Facebook. I still find it harder to think of clothes than of technology!

Which will it be?

I think the Sony will probably stay home this time. It has a lot more functions than the little Nikon, but it also has a lot more weight. We shall see. I have a netbook, too, which takes up about half the space my lead-filled Dell did in 2014, and potters along with simple tasks. I don't expect to be able to run the software to create automatic panoramas and such, but I do expect to have some acceptable photos. My wife's old point-and-shoot camera will probably go into a pocket as well. I found out that backups were important when travelling!

In 2014, I was trying to get an old but elegant small laptop working for the trip, and learnt a lot about Linux on the way. Eventually I gave up the fight and lugged a full-sized but definitely not lightweight device halfway around the world. This time I am glad to have a netbook-type computer which runs Windows 10, does a small range of tasks effectively, and is pretty much a tablet with a keyboard (but no touch screen at that price!).

So, things are coming together...

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