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Fort Lauderdale, is where we were to embark on an Eastern Caribbean Cruise. Here I realised that I'd been a bit too critical of Miami, that had begun to grow on me. Perhaps it was fungal? Fort Lauderdale was my new new bête noire.
Despite the apparent green, much of Fort Lauderdale is an urban desert. We didn't have a car and it's not pleasant to walk around.
But very shortly we would be on the boat.
In July and August 2022 Wendy and I travelled to Europe and to the United Kingdom (no longer in Europe - at least politically).
This, our first European trip since the Covid-19 pandemic, began in Berlin to visit my daughter Emily, her Partner Guido, and their children, Leander and Tilda, our grandchildren there.
Part 1 of this report touched on places in Germany then on a Baltic Cruise, landing in: Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Sweden and the Netherlands. Read more...
Now, Part 2 takes place in northern France. Part 3, yet to come, takes place in England and Scotland.
Gabriel García Márquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera lies abandoned on my bookshelf. I lost patience with his mysticism - or maybe it was One Hundred Years of Solitude that drove me bananas? Yet like Albert Camus' The Plague it's a title that seems fit for the times. In some ways writing anything just now feels like a similar undertaking.
My next travel diary on this website was to have been about the wonders of Cruising - expanding on my photo diary of our recent trip to Papua New Guinea.
Cruising to PNG - click on the image to see more
Somehow that project now seems a little like advocating passing time with that entertaining game: Russian Roulette. A trip on Corona Cruise Lines perhaps?
In the meantime I've been drawn into several Facebook discussions about the 1918-20 Spanish Influenza pandemic.
After a little consideration I've concluded that it's a bad time to be a National or State leader as they will soon be forced to make the unenviable choice between the Scylla and Charybdis that I end this essay with.
On a brighter note, I've discovered that the economy can be expected to bounce back invigorated. We have all heard of the Roaring Twenties.
So the cruise industry, can take heart, because the most remarkable thing about Spanish Influenza pandemic was just how quickly people got over it after it passed.
2011 marks 300 years since the birth of the great David Hume. He was perhaps the greatest philosopher ever to write in the English language and on these grounds the ABC recently devoted four programs of The Philosopher’s Zone to his life and work. You will find several references to him if you search for his name on this website.