From Manchester to nowhere... So goodbye Qatar airways. Never flying with you again.....and we haven't even set off!Lying, incompetence and rudeness appears to be your raisin d'etre and that's before we even get into our flight not taking off! We made it onto the plane and they then announced they were having problems with the electrics and needed to reset them. And we waited....and they brought drinks round and gave them to everyone but us. So I asked and I did eventually get one. And later they said the first reset hadn't worked so they were trying again. When that didn't work they said we should get off the plane while they reset the whole thing and we 'obviously' needed to get off for security reasons....obviously? It hadn't been obvious why they hadn't checked the electrics ... read more

Today I went to hospital. Now anyone who knows me won't be surprised at this as it's usually not will I or won't I get ill on holiday but which day will I get ill. Surprisingly, that day was not today so it will have to be tomorrow as we are off back to Blighty in the afternoon. I had my money on day two but luckily I only bet myself so It'll probably work out even.... No, this morning's visit was to a wonderful looking old hospital which is where Gaudi actually died. Get there for the 10am tour our English guide books said, so we did, only to find out that the first tour in English wasn't until 12. So we left as it appeared that you could only enter as part of a ... read more

In a strange turn of events, no-one tried to pickpocket me today and, yes, we are still in Barcelona! After yesterday's events I've been more than vigilant and Claire has put a padlock on the zip on her backpack. Thankfully though today has been crime free but I shall remain cautious.... So let's move on to today which has mainly consisted of Gaudi. Jeez that guy had some strange things going on in his head but thankfully people here saw it as genius; and it is. Where the English would have laughed at him the Spanish gave him free reign and thank goodness they did. Barcelona is far from photogenic from up high but thankfully there are glorious gaudy Gaudi buildings throughout the city. (Incidentally, did our word gaudy come from Gaudi?) The first building, of ... read more

And then I got ill. And it got messy. When I travelled round the world for three years back in the 90s one got used to the first topic of conversation being about your diarrhoea. No-one was immune and I picked up nasty things in Egypt and later in India. Other times it was just the trots, you drank plenty of water, took some rehydration sachets and it would go again. For a while. But sometimes it hits you bad and this time was bad. I pretty much lay in bed for four days and part of our trip had to be cancelled as I just couldn’t get there....well it was a 13 ½ hour bus journey away...with no toilet on board....and only primitive squat loos when we did stop. Honestly, if you want to join ... read more

I've never really liked people generally. I like some of course, hell I even married one! But generally all people do is get in my way, wear horrendous things, do horrendous things and get in my way again. A lot of them are quite keen on occupying the same physical space as me too which is even more annoying. And if I find whoever made this keyboard where the spacebar only works if you smack it with a hammer...I'll smack you with a hammer. Quid pro quo and all that! There have been a lot of people getting in my way around Istanbul today as you may ascertain from the opening paragraph. I'm not much for crowds and today has been very crowded but this is no excuse for not looking where you're going or pushing ... read more