This & That

The Cottage on The Fell

Nigel Utting — 2012-02-12T23:00:57Z

All through my teenage years, I spent the Easter and summer holidays in a tiny cottage near Caldbeck on the edge of the English Lake District National Park, and later in life my parents lived there full-time.

Anne Utting, my mother, who was an experienced writer and craftswoman, wrote 61 articles over a period of five years about the pleasure and pitfalls of living in such a tiny, isolated house and the difficulties of 'gardening at altitude'. Other topics covered include the author's weaving and spinning activities.

These articles, published in the UK magazine Cumbria, attracted a substantial readership and were subsequently published as a successful soft back book entitled "The Cottage on The Fell".

Time has now moved on, and "The Cottage on The Fell" has been released via Amazon as a colour-illustrated, Kindle e-book.

Take a look. Download the sample pages and maybe buy a copy!

(Don't have a Kindle reader? Download Amazon's free Kindle reader software for Mac, PC, iPod/Pad/Phone or Android).

Nifty little Miroku 20-bore

Nigel Utting — 2012-01-03T20:29:48Z

The bulk of modern shotgun shooting is conducted with 12-bore over/unders, and a typical 12-bore over/under is my own Japanese-made Miroku MK70.

For people of a certain generation, the phrase 'Japanese-made' has not always been a recommendation; however, Miroku have been making firearms since 1893 and currently manufacture Browning shotguns and Winchester rifles as well as highly-regarded shotguns under their own name.

Miroku MK70

It is an accepted fact in the gun trade that the name engraved on the barrel may not identify the actual maker (this includes 'best' English gunmakers who happily had their 3rd and 4th grade shotguns manufactured for them by makers with good but less illustrious names, leaving their own workers to concentrate on the expensive stuff).

In the 1970s and thereabouts, Miroku made side-by-side shotguns for a number of American distributors (e.g. Charles Daly and Montgomery Ward) in both 12- and 20-bore, as well as selling the same models under their own name.

I have a strong attraction to small-bore side-by-sides, and my eye was caught recently by an advert for a Miroku-badged, 20-bore, side-by-side at an affordable price (no-one in the UK associates Miroku with side-by-sides, only over/unders). After negotiations which saw shipping and some barrel work wrapped into the asking price, all I had to do was fulfil the legal requirements and wait.

Miroku M500

Double-barrelled shotguns need some means of joining the barrels at the breech; traditionally, on high quality guns, this been by means of integral extensions at the bottom rear of each barrel ('chopper lumps') which are brazed together. Around a hundred years ago an alternative system ('monobloc') was devised where a single breech block with two chambers is press-fitted and soldered to barrels manufactured separately from the breech block.

Both systems work well, neither has serious failings, but chopper lumps are generally seen as superior. Amazingly, on what appears to be a very straightforward, relatively inexpensive shotgun, this little beauty has chopper lump barrels!

The Miroku M500 is a boxlock, non-ejector ("BLNE") weighing in at 6lb 6¼oz (2.915kg). Not particularly light but, for that reason, it is very comfortable to shoot with typical 20-bore 28gm loads.

The gun has seen only moderate use; there is some wear to the bluing and some light marks on the lefthand side of the woodwork (the side on which it was habitually laid down on a rough surface?).

The bores, however, are mint and I had the original ½ & Full chokes opened up to ¼ & ½ (enough for me to straight a couple of stands at the monthly 100-bird).

Top lever & tang-mounted auto-safety

A plethora of Japanese and British proof marks

Choked 1/4 & 1/2

Not as cheap to feed as a 12!

Birmingham gun trade

Nigel Utting — 2011-12-14T10:26:00Z

When I was a child, my mother told me that her grandfathers had worked in two of Birmingham's major industries: the gun and the jewellery trades. By the time I was born, the family had moved away from the Midlands, I felt no link to Birmingham and investigated no further. However, a lifetime's involvement in the shooting sports eventually led to an interest in British shotguns and an urge to find some information on my great-grandfather, William Spendlove.

The British gun trade had two main centres: London and Birmingham. London (and this is a substantial generalisation) produced a lower volume of more expensive, higher quality shotguns, while Birmingham produced a much higher volume of more run-of-the-mill guns (which is not necessarily to suggest low quality) as well as a smaller number of high-quality, 'best' guns.

London (the generalisation continues) typically adopted the factory model, where virtually all the processes to produce a gun were carried out at one location. Birmingham, with a small number of important exceptions, worked on the pre-Industrial Revolution model where a large number of small (often one-man) producers manufactured specific gun components on a piecework basis, which were then assembled by someone else.

The majority of those small producers worked in Birmingham's Gun Quarter in tiny, Dickensian workshops (see photos below) right up to the 1960s. For a fascinating insight into this world, read The Birmingham Gun Trade by David Williams (ISBN 0752432370).

I had entertained hopes that my great-grandfather was a gunsmith, and that his name would be found engraved on a set of quality shotgun barrels; however Nigel Brown's British Gunmakers: Birmingham, Scotland and the Regions lists a more modest: William J. Spendlove, lmkr [implement maker], 1926-1944, 11 (back of) St. Mary's Row, Birmingham.

St. Mary's Row was also the location of W. W. Greener, Birmingham's (at one time, possibly, the world's) largest gunmaker and, since William's workshop was literally next door, I wonder whether he was one of Greener's suppliers?

I found two photos of gunmakers' workshops at the rear of 9-11 St. Mary's Row. These photos were taken in 1960, long after William was dead, but I suspect that very little had changed in the intervening years.

Photos (c) University of Birmingham

See: Phyllis Nicklin's photos of 1950s-1960s Birmingham

Still making mistakes....

Nigel Utting — 2011-12-03T15:53:12Z

I used to work with a lawyer who liked to say 'Too soon we grow old, too late we grow smart'. All too true.

Since moving away from film, I have always used Canon digital SLRs, starting with an EOS D30, followed by a 10D and a 20D and a small selection of Canon L series lenses. If you use L series lenses you will know the problem: buy one and you are hooked, the image quality is unbelievable.

I started off with a 17-40mm, followed by a 200mm f/2.8 (not sure why I bought a fixed length prime, but the results were worth the non-zoom restriction), a 70-200mm f/4 and, finally, a 24-105mm. The downside was that this kit is heavy and I got tired of carrying it around; at the end of 2010, I decided that it was time to go for something lighter, and I sold the Canon gear.

Canon 5D and 24-104mm f/4 L

In the time since I bought the lenses, prices had risen to the extent that I was selling used lenses for more than I had originally paid for them! Buyers were nearly biting my hand off, so I could clearly have asked for more. In the event, the cash from the Canon kit bought me another shotgun to add to the collection, with enough left over for a replacement camera.

After reading around, I chose the Panasonic Lumix GF1 with the 14-42mm and 14-140mm lenses. In terms of image quality the results were great, but - and it's a big but - the issue is the rear-mounted viewfinder screen.

External rear screens are fine except when the sun is directly ahead, directly behind or 90 degrees off to one side. Under those circumstances, the sun shines either directly into your eye or reflects off the screen making viewfinding impossible. 'Transitions'-type lenses which darken automatically in sunlight also render the rear screen unusable. Add to that the fact that I wear bifocals and, to see the screen in focus, I have to tip my head uncomfortably far back

On the basis that the slip-on electronic viewfinder would be an improvement, I bought one (£140). The lack of resolution - not bad in itself, but poor in comparison with a genuine optical viewfinder - and the delay in reverting to the through-the-lens view after a photo was taken, convinced me that rear screen/external electronic viewfinder cameras are simply not for me.

The GF1 was sold on for a good price (I'm good at selling cameras!) and replaced by a Lumix G1, with SLR-type eye level viewfinder, so that I could continue to make use of the Panasonic lenses. Better, but not the answer.

Well it's taken me 12 months, but it's been a learning - or do I mean, confirmatory? - experience.
The answer is remarkably simple: if you want to take decent pictures you need a decent camera, and for me that's a genuine SLR with an optical viewfinder.

I've just been offered a Canon 5D at a great price and I'm back on the trail of some L series lenses, starting with a 24-105. I think I just heard a little voice say: 'Welcome home!'

Google Translate - you have so much to answer for!

Nigel Utting — 2011-12-01T20:47:22Z

French: fine
Spanish: fine
English: clearly the output of Google Translate!

Parking notice at Pont d'Espagne, above Cauterets, in the Pyrenees.

Staying in a hotel in Lourdes, we noticed that the multilingual menu included 'Hurried trout'.

Ignoring the obvious fast food reference, we checked the French version and discovered that our fast fish was in fact truite pressé, something like a fish terrine.

Chatting with the owner at the front desk he cheerfully admitted that he had blindly trusted Googe Translate, and was as amused as us at the image of hurried trout.

He was amused; madame, however, was not.

Pyrenean sunshine, minus the goats

Nigel Utting — 2011-11-17T12:19:32Z

Three years ago (in fact, exactly three years ago, to the day) we signed the papers to sell our French house and set off to enjoy the rest of the day by driving over Col du Tourmalet and going for a walk above La Mongie. On the way back to the car, we 'acquired' a herd of goats which decided that we looked like their new owners.

This year, we found ourselves above La Mongie on the same path on another beautiful October day. We had decided to chance a week in the Pyrenees in late autumn, and although the wind was cooler this time, the sunshine was just as bright and our gamble paid off handsomely.

There was a light dusting of snow on the very tops, and way, way across the valley I could just make out, through binoculars, a party of climbers making their way along a narrow, snow-covered crête. That would have been me many years ago, and I felt a small twinge of jealousy.

The télécabines up from La Mongie to the Pic du Midi observatory were not running or it would have been a perfect day to go up - the views would have been fantastic. The webcam at the observatory is the only one I check every day, without fail.

One fish or two?

Nigel Utting — 2011-08-29T22:09:43Z

Driving down a French motorway I saw the word bois on the side of a lorry. 'Bois' meaning both wood (the substance) and wood (as in forest) retains the same spelling in the latter context both in the singular and the plural.

This set me thinking (you have to think about something on a 600km drive). We also have a selection of words in English which retain the same spelling both in the singular and the plural, e.g. sheep, deer, salmon, and the occasional word with an optional plural, e.g. fish/fishes.

Here we come across another point of interest: why are there so many names of fishes which have the same singular/plural? Salmon, as mentioned, cod ('cods' has a totally different connotation), haddock, mackerel, snipe, plaice, turbot, the list goes on.

Where land animals are concerned we have sheep and deer, as mentioned, but I can only immediately otherwise think of elk.

If you can think of others, let me now via the Comments facility.

OK, I've had the first suggestion via the Comments: grouse (thanks Fi).

That's set me thinking again. We say pigeon/pigeons, but wigeon (a duck, and it rhymes with pigeon) is wigeon in the singular and the plural.

Keep the suggestions coming.

iPad in France - signal availability

Nigel Utting — 2011-08-10T17:54:00Z

If 3G is available you will see one of 3 status reports at the top left of your iPad screen:

SFR 3G
SFR E
SFR o

Representing 3G service, Edge service (not so good) or no data availability (self-explanatory!)

Our trip has so far stretched from the eastern Pyrenees, up through the Auvergne to the Loire. 3G has been widely available, perhaps surprisingly so, dropping to Edge occasionally, then dropping out completely on occasion.

I'm sitting in an outdoor bar in Blois as I write, with 2-3 bars of 3G signal. With 3 bars I can access the iTunes store, with 2 bars I can't.

Driving up to Blois from Clermont Ferrand on the autoroute, 3G was patchy, regularly dropping out where SFR's signal was replaced by that of another provider (to whose 3G service I was not subscribed).

On returning home I re-installed my 'home' 3G SIM but received no service. Unlike the first time I installed the SIM, my telco's APN setting was not automatically picked up. As soon as I entered this manually, 3G was immediately available.

This trip to France has been my first experience of 'Internet accessibility everywhere' via 3G and I like it! There's no going back now! Further trips abroad will add to my collection of 'local' 3G SIM cards.

iPad in France - how much credit do I have left?

Nigel Utting — 2011-08-07T20:12:36Z

Ok, the 500Mb top-up has been added and we have been using 3G on and off for 2 days as well as hotel/cafe wifi. How much credit do I have left?

I have an online business meeting mid-week (holiday notwithstanding) and I need to be sure that, absent wifi, I will have enough 3G credit to see me through 1-2 hours of a Webex presentation.

Using the SFR online help facility, it appears that I need to access the Consulter mon info conso.

At this stage you should have created yourself a user account on the SFR website (www.sfr.fr) and associated your 3G number with that account.

The Consulter mon info conso is available at: https://gcppinf.sfr.fr/infoconso/026_loginInfoConso.do

If this link doesn't work for you, search for Consulter mon info conso on SFR.

iPad in France - the first top-up

Nigel Utting — 2011-08-06T20:22:14Z

After the initial 3 days of 3G access expired (they were included in the cost of the SIM) it was time to buy additional time online.

There was a time when the only place that might not accept a non-French credit/debit card was a French petrol station, but that time is long past; foreign credit/debit cards are accepted everywhere in France as long as they are of the 'chip & pin' variety (which may give holders of US cards a problem).

Sadly, SFR is the new French petrol station; my attempts to buy additional time online on the SFR website were always met with a 'there has been an error' message as soon as I tried to pay with a UK debit card and the message, amusingly, continued by saying that 'the error would be defined later'.

OK, so off to the SFR website (using a local bar's free wifi) to look for an SFR shop in Aurillac. At least 50% of French bars and 90% of French hotels now offer free wifi, just ask for 'le code pour le wifi' and you're away.

SFR top-ups come in two flavours: time-based and volume-of-data-based. Disappointingly, the assistant in the SFR shop said that they only had time-based top-ups available (not what I wanted).

When I pointed out that this was an SFR shop, for crying out loud, and I couldn't understand why the entire range of top-ups wasn't available, as per the printout from their website which I was waving in frustration, I was treated to the full Gallic shrug.

OK, I said, I'll go to Orange and see what they can do for me.

Amazing! Mention the competition and, all of a sudden, a 500Mb volume-based top-up was available from SFR.

After handing over 25 Euros I was given a piece of paper with a 10-digit top-up code. Since my existing credit had run out and I had no 3G Internet access I was slightly concerned as to how I would process the top-up. In the event, on the iPad you go to Settings, Cellular Data, SIM Applications, Solde/Recharge, Rchgt Coupon, Par Texto.

You are then presented with an input screen entitled Code Coupon? where you enter the 10-digit top-up code and hit Send. A few seconds later a message pops up on the screen saying that your top-up is in progress. Switch off cellular data in Settings. Switch back on again and you are in business. The top-up has been applied.

The hardest part was persuading SFR that they could sell me one of their own top-ups!!

Llivia - Is it France or is it Spain?

Nigel Utting — 2011-08-02T17:54:00Z

The Treaty of the Pyrenees which settled the border between France and Spain in 1659 caught several villages 'on the wrong side' and the deal was that they would simply change nationality (life was so simple before democracy).

However the town of Llivia, the former Roman oppidum of Julia Libica (population currently about 1600 but technically a city at the time of the Treaty due to its former status of capital of Cerdanya) retained its Spanish nationality and now exists as an exclave of Spain (being a part of the Spanish province of Girona) 2km inside France on the southern slope of the Pyrenees.

Everything in Llivia is exactly as it would be if it were still on the Spanish side of the border. The language is Catalan (there are those for whom Catalunya is not a part of Spain, hence the graffiti saying ¡Catalunya no es Espana!'). Shops are apert or tancat, open or closed, today is dimarts, Tuesday, and tomorrow will be dimecres.

There is no visible border, but dotted around the town are 45 boundary stones marked LL on the Spanish side and marked with the initials of the relevant French village on the 'outside'. I'll get some photos before I leave.

Boundary stone no. 1, marked 1 and LL

Boundary stone no. 1, marked 1 and U.C. (?) on the opposite face

Boundary stone no. 1 in context, looking into Llivia from about 25m on the French side of the 'border' (south of Llivia). The boundary stone is at the side of the road just in front of the first electricity pole (note the change in road markings at that point). The mountains in the background are in France, to the north of Llivia around Font Romeu.

'Please close the door' in Catalan.

More Catalan.

Fruit growing by the hotel pool.

iPad in France (well, Spain really) - day 3

Nigel Utting — 2011-07-31T14:53:23Z

Not such a long drive today, just across from Castelnaudary and a few kilometres down the Mediterranean coast to Llança (pronounced Yansa) in Spanish Catalunya (as opposed to the French bit).

The hotel boasts free wifi on all floors and, indeed, it has; the only problem seems to be that whilst I can connect in reception, on the 2nd floor and even out in the garden, the access point on the 1st floor where we have our room, will not play the game.

I'm jinxed! Dodgy keyboard in Rennes, dead DHCP service in Castelnaudary and now a flaky access point in Llanca!

I had wondered whether I would be able to pick up an SFR wifi signal this far from the border so I switched on the 3G to check. Of the three French 3G signals I might expect to see (SFR, Orange & Bouyges) I could see ..... Orange and Bouyges. No SFR!

Fortunately I can sit by the pool and pick up the garden wifi access point so all is not lost (and that's why you can read this)!

iPad in France - day 2

Nigel Utting — 2011-07-31T14:39:08Z

Tonight's hotel allegedly has free wifi and, yes, there's a signal! Unfortunately it also has malfunctioning DHCP service and fails to give connected devices an address on the network.

Ah, well - Plan B.

Off to the SFR shop in Castelnaudary to buy a prepaid 3G data card (as I had been intending to do all along). To make life easier I had printed off a copy of the relevant page from the SFR website and had only to show it to the helpful lady behind the counter (thank you, Christelle).

Success, they had them in stock. Euros 14.99 for an ipad-compatible micro-SIM card and the first 3 days of data. Plugged in the SIM, gave it a moment to find the network and, hey presto, 3G data!

Performance? 1574kbps download (pretty much identical to what I get from my 2Mbps landline ADSL at home) and 400kbps upload (better than I get at home!).

Top-ups are available from SFR shops and paper shops and over the Net [Update: no online updates unless you have a French credit/debit card] either on a per-day basis or by volume of data.

We will be staying just (only just) over the border in Spain for the next few nights and I am hoping that I may still get an SFR signal. If not, no problems, the hotel has free wifi. Allegedly!

iPad in France - day 1

Nigel Utting — 2011-07-31T14:33:29Z

So, off to France with the iPad.

I could rely on free hotel wifi, but it isn't always free and it isn't always there; however, tonight the Novotel in Rennes is offering 6 hours wifi for free. Just type in your name and email on their webpage and it's up, up and away.

Or it would be if the iPad wasn't dropping down the keypad then closing it again so fast that you could't type a single letter! I've had issues with a MacBook on hotel wifi before, but it was because I had custom DNS settings. If the phrase 'custom DNS settings' means nothing to you, then you probably don't have them! The iPad problem was different and refused to be solved.

No playing online with the iPad tonight, then; not the end of the world, but annoying. Since this trip is to check out the iPad's travel capabilities, I have the MacBook with me as well, so the mail won't go unchecked!

Revolvers don't have safety catches! I repeat ...

Nigel Utting — 2010-08-20T20:07:44Z

AAarrrghhh!

Few things make my blood boil faster, or cause me greater frustration, than when an otherwise competent author has one of his characters click off the safety catch of his/her revolver.

I am part-way through Stieg Larsson's 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' (brilliant, read it!) but on p.231: "Modig ... drew her service weapon [and] clicked off the safety catch ..[later].. she still had her service revolver in her hand".

OK, people, I'm only going to say this once, so pay attention: some cows have 5 legs or 3 horns - it's not unknown, but it's very, very rare.

Some revolvers (the Webley Fosbery, one model of Mauser (both of those from around 100 years ago) and a 1960s French police-issue Smith & Wesson (dropped after police officers started getting killed through forgetting to disengage the safety) had safety catches - it's not unknown, but it's very, very rare.

The remaining 99.9% of revolvers have no safety catch, because they do not need one.

Authors, please note.

Please.

FFS.

New musical experience

Nigel Utting — 2010-03-10T18:54:00Z

I'm not sure that I expected Radio 4 to deliver me a real slap-in-the-face experience, but it happened today.

As a serious Purcell fan I listened to the current edition of 'Soul Music' and its explanation of why Dido's Lament has such strong emotional appeal.

As part of the programme, it revealed that apart from the well-known classical renditions (of which Janet Baker's must surely be the best) there were versions by Alison Moyet and Jeff Buckley.

Now Jeff Buckley's name is known to me but I had never heard any of his songs. A quick Google for his version of Dido's Lament revealed his performance at the Meltdown Festival in London in 1995. Quirky but phenomenal. The fact that he claws for the high notes is painful at first but the genuine emotion of the performance is clear.

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxBKtqSha4w and plug in a decent set of speakers. Sadly I can't find an MP3 download at present but I'll keep looking.

A search for further Jeff Buckley tracks revealed his version of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'. Even better than Cohen himself. Find it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKnxmkOAj88

I'm off to iTunes to get Buckley's LP 'Grace'.

It must be the pointy hat ...

Nigel Utting — 2010-01-22T12:16:00Z

Asked why god allows disasters such as the Haiti earthquake, the BBC reports John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, as saying"I have nothing to say that makes sense of this horror - all I know is that the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus is that he is with us."

Translation: "I have absolutely nothing useful to say, but if you want one, here's a platitude".

Final score: Real Life = 1, Church of England = 0

And people still spend Sunday mornings listending to this stuff?

Mac Automator - why didn't I discover this before?

Nigel Utting — 2009-11-01T20:24:00Z

I only watch a moderate amount of TV, and most of that I watch on my iPod. Until recently, in order to transfer programs to the iPod I carried out the various steps manually:

download the program from the BBC via iPlayer Downloader or iDownload
convert downloaded file (.mp4) to iPod-compatible format (.m4v)
import converted file into iTunes

Whilst this was not particularly hard work, I wondered whether it might be possible to automate the various steps. I knew that Automator, a program which can automate repetitive actions, was built in to the Mac OS and decided to take a look.

It turns out that using Automator is just so damned easy! In this particular case:

I created two new folders on the desktop called From iPlayer and Converted
in Automator I selected 'Folder Action' from the dialog which opens with the program
Automator automatically adds a first step to the process where you should select the folder you have just created
you then drag predefined actions from the lefthand side of the screen to the righthand side to build the workflow
from the selection of 'Movies' actions I chose 'Export movies', selecting 'iPod' as the output format and Converted as the destination
also from the selection of 'Movies' actions I chose 'Add any file to iTunes'
since that was all the actions required, I clicked on File/Save and called the workflow ConvertMoviesForiPod

Automator now watches the From iPlayer folder, and any new file appearing in that folder is automatically converted to iPod-compatible format and added to iTunes.

There is a screenshot of the Automator GUI here:

'Simple' (as the meerkat would say!) but it gets better: I have recently downloaded a large number of PDFs, many of which need printing, but there doesn't seem to be a simple way to open and print PDFs without doing it on an individual file-by-file basis.

create a new folder on the desktop called Print These
open Automator and choose to create a new folder action, just as we did above
select your newly-created Print These folder as the folder to be watched
from the select of 'Utilities' actions drag 'Print Finder Items' to the righthand side of the page and select the printer you want your documents printed to
save your newly-created action as PrintTheseDocuments

Any documents dragged/dropped to the Print These folder on the desktop are now automatically printed. If you drag/drop multiple files, they are all printed.

More Automator goodness follows! Let me know if the above worked for you.

It's a WIMPY!

Nigel Utting — 2009-04-19T19:11:00Z

Just imagine: a world with no MacDonalds, no Burger King.

[Pause for thought]

My childhood was enlivened by the occasional visit to Norwich and to the burger palace of the times: the WIMPY!

Fried egg, beef patty, chips and that curly frankfurter. I don't remember what it was called, but otherwise the Wimpy meal of my childhood is unforgettable. Sadly, however, the UK's Wimpy bars of yore are no longer.

Why this reminiscence? Hacking along the N2 highway in South Africa we encountered - yes, a Wimpy! In fact, several of them.

OK, I thought, fried egg, beef patty, chips and that curly frankfurter. But, no, the Wimpy of 2009 is no different from from MacDonalds or Burger King and not the place of my childhood reminiscences. Instead of the long-remembered meal-on-a-plate, this Wimpy served the wraps and burgers that every burger palace sells these days.

But I still miss that curly frankfurter ...

Should it really be this easy?

Nigel Utting — 2009-04-18T16:08:00Z

So you step on to the endless travelator that is international air travel. You queue up, check in, walk on, sit down and belt up. Food appears [ingest], you avoid watching a film intended offend no-one and you sleep fitfully.

More foods appears [ingest], and after 11 hours aloft you disembark to face the unsmiling man in immigration and eventually step, blinking, in Joburg, into the light of Africa

The girl at the Avis desk is charming and soon you are hacking along the freeway at 120kph in an air-conditioned cocoon. The hotel clerk is welcoming, the waitress attentive, the food fantastic and the bill no more than £25 for a meal for two including drinks and a tip.

After 2 weeks, simply read backwards from the word 'cocoon' above and you find yourself back at Hearthrow International Arrivals.

It's been great, relaxing, the best holiday I've had for years. I just have this nagging thought - should it all be this easy? Isn't it all a bit too stress-free? Shouldn't travel involve just a little more effort on the traveller's part?