When I was 60 I vaguely thought I should mark the event by going to 60 countries, but then did not do anything about it. But this year knowing both age was against me and the cost of insurance I did do much more travelling than normal. Initially I was going to go to Japan in September and travel on from there, when I realised that would be too much for me and that I could not wait that long to get to Japan. So I hatched a plan to go to Japan in Spring and then to friends and family near Australia. Having met two lovely Australian women in Germany I shifted my starting point from Melbourne to their home town of Adelaide and even before going to Japan booked that flight and then did nothing till I was back from my wonderful holiday in Japan. It is only now I am back and thinking I was away for 7 weeks that I realised that is quite a nice way to celebrate being 70. Three weeks in Australia, two in Bali, almost a week in Singapore and finally just over a week in Malaysia.
In my youth I was very keen to get to Australia, indeed I knew many Australians when I was training in radio and through them joined the community radio project. I had such an Aussie accent that newcomers to the group thought I was either mad or Australian. I was part of the inaugural group that helped put together the criteria for community radio in the UK and attended conferences etc, but things change, and although I engaged a little with community radio and of course eventuallly became a teacher of radio, gradually the friendships disappeared, but it was exciting to be involved with. I can trace one of the key participants, now backin Aus and still engaged with the community and media, but got no response from him via Facebook. So with him out of the picture up in Townsville, and having decided much as I love the film and book Town Like Alice, that I would pass on Uluru, that left, three key towns to visit Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. Originally I was trying to fit them into two weeks, but in the end extended that to three,which was great.
Then through a volunteer platform I managed to secure a cultural week, and a teaching week in Bali. From there it was a hop to see my brother in Singapore and as Mr. Portillo had kindly introduced me to the idea of travelling through to Malaysia, I asked a friend of my sister's about going onto KL as it is known to those in the know as he is now living there.
So I had my programme and on the whole it went very well, in fact much more smoothly than I anticipated except that it almost never happened at all. I thought I had checked every visa and document I needed, but when I handed in my ticket to get to Adelaide, they then asked for my visa. Visa, for Australia, I do not need one I said, except I did. I don't know what would have happened if one of the ground staff had not seen me looking very distressed, but with his kind and steady help, I applied for and got a visa within an hour of arriving at the airport and the rest as they say s history. Without his help, I would never have had this holiday and I would have lost all the costs as it would have been my fault. So thank you Stansted, Emirates staff
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| Me in Adelaide cafe. |
