Geo: -17.5327, -149.838Today the local organising committee had arranged for officials to have a day trip to Moorea, an island about 30 minutes by ferry from Tahiti. This is a volcanic island with majestic green peaks rising sharply skywards. We walked to the Ferry Terminal and departed at 9-15am. The ferry was a large one with comfortable seats and a capacity for vehicles as well. The trip over was fairly smooth and we had a quiche each for breakfast on board.On arrival there were two buses waiting for us and they took us first to a Viewpoint overlooking the Sofitel Resort. The sandy white beach was beautiful and the bures stood over the shallow water of the lagoon. Stunning. We then continued along the coast around two bays in which Cook had first anchored in 1777. ... read more

Geo: -17.52, -149.56The Championships started on Monday but not until 3pm. Fletcher and I went for a walk along the waterfront and to the market in the morning. The harbour is interesting with many different boats of all shapes and sizes. It was different to see the roller shutters up and the shops offering their wares. The big focus here is on Tahitian pearls. These are cultivated black pearls, very beautiful but also expensive. The market had a variety of tourist wares, fruits and vegetables as well as fresh fish. The Athletics has been fun but busy. On Monday I had to take the warm-up for the Pole Vault by myself as the rest of the team were finishing a Long Jump. This involved looking after 7 athletes, finding their foot position, catching poles, all the ... read more

Geo: -34.9258, 138.6Our last afternoon in Singapore was very enjoyable. Once we had checked out and stored the bags we caught the train into City Hall. From there we walked to /suntec City which is the terminus for the bus company. We wanted to ride on the third route but that bus wasn't going for 30 minutes so we hopped on the Yellow line again and rode round the circuit to Orchard Road. Though I am not a big shopper everyone expects a visitor to Singapore to at least stroll down Orchard Road. We did alight there and had a look at a couple of the huge shopping malls. found a bookshop where Fletcher found a rare sports history book then looked for lunch. On the third floor went into the Crystal Jade Lao Mian Xiao ... read more

Geo: 52.3738, 4.89095The last two days have been thoroughly enjoyable in spite of the cold and rainy weather.Yesterday morning we caught the tram down to the Rikjsmuseum. This has only recently been reopened after a 12 year closure for renovation and upgrades.The building itself is magnificent, beautifully decorated and grand in its aspect. We went inside to one of the newly covered courtyards. Here we stopped at the mezzanine floor cafe and had coffee and cake for breakfast. I then went and queued to get tickets. The first thing we headed to was the Great Hall, the central focus of which is Rembrandt's masterpeice, The Night Watch. In 1980 Fletcher had found this in the 5 minutes he had had while I and the children had been sidetracked into a room with dolls houses and other ... read more

Geo: 52.3738, 4.89095Our last day in London we spent mainly at the British Museum. They had a special exhibition called, Pompeii and Herculaneum, containing many artefacts from both cities. As we had just visited Pompeii and not had a chance to visit the Archaeological Museum in Naples, we thought that this was a great opportunity to expand our understanding of what happened at both places.We had checked ut availabilty of tickets on Sunday. We arrived at 10-10am and managed to buy two of the 500 tickets released each day as prebookings now are onlu available for June.Our entry time was 11-40am so we had muffins,croissants and scones for breakfast in the Courtyard Cafe on the Ground floor of the Museum. We also used the time to see the Easter Island staue as well as revisit the ... read more