Notes from a Nomad

Remarkable People, Memorable Events and Fascinating Destinations from Around the World.


by 1 Comment

106 – 2025: My Favourite Images

I have been a passionate photographer all my life dating from when my parents gave me a second hand Zeiss Ikon Rangefinder camera in the early 1960s and both my enthusiasm and modest ability as a photographer is genuine and longstanding.

In 1972 after working as an assistant prospecting hand in the remote Kununurra area of Northwestern Australia I sold images I had taken to the Australian Journal of Photography to help finance future travels and from 1979 to 2011 it was my images which featured heavily in all the colour brochures and marketing material used by our International Educational Travel company Casterbridge Tours.

Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

105 – An Art Deco Showcase: Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, NSW, Australia. December 2 2025

I first discovered an interest in Art Deco in my late 30s and this has grown into a love of this genre which incorporates both Art and Design. And unlike other periods that have been defined by an artistic or architectural style, Art Deco is both short and easily identifiable as being very much defined and delineated by the period between the two World Wars 1918 to 1939, and in particular from the mid 1920s.

I started buying small pieces of Art Deco sculpture at auction in 1990 and even attended Antique Fairs as a seller with our eldest daughter Sarah, then 7 or 8, accompanying me as my assistant! I guess that could have been a formative influence as she now owns a successful Vintage and Collectibles store in Vancouver Canada (see here).

Continue reading →


by 1 Comment

104 – A unique 50 year reunion – Sydney, NSW, Australia – November 27 2025

I was in Switzerland when I received an email in early September 2026 advising me that there was going to be a dinner three months later to celebrate 50 years of Football (Soccer) at Sydney Grammar School and I wryly commented

‘That’s a long way to go for a dinner’. Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

96 – Where on earth is Sangkhla Buri? Thailand, January 4 -13 2025

Hands up if you know where Sangkhla Buri is located!

Not very many I suspect, and the answer is very close to the Thai Myanmar border about 210 miles or 375km northwest of Bangkok, and far from any of the well known destinations in Thailand that attract the bulk of the 30+ million international tourists who visit Thailand annually.

Continue reading →


by 1 Comment

95 – 2024: My Favourite Images

All my life I have had both a strong interest in photography and an interest to chronical my life, family and travels initially with photo albums and for the last 25 years with digital folders.

In 2024 I saved 11,489 images in 304 Folders (numbered 4128 to 4431), each folder titled with a date and description.

As the year progressed  I composed 27 thematic folders drawn from the 11,489 images above of family, friends and my travels.

Continue reading →


by 3 Comments

90 – Slowing Down in Mürren: August 12 – September 21 2024

I arrived in the Swiss mountain village of Mürren on August 11 2024 after spending almost 3 months in the UK which was my longest continual period in the country since 2009!

I had spent the time in the UK with and visiting family, competing in Backgammon tournaments and exploring Wales, the West Country and London with my Filipina friend who was visiting the UK to select a university to continue her postgraduate studies.

Continue reading →


by 1 Comment

89 – ‘When a Man is tired of London………’: July 27 – August 2024 + June & July 2025

………… he is tired of life! The immortal and perennially repeated words of Samuel Johnson.

I have always had a love-hate relationship with London – I studied there as a university student from 1967 to 1971, taking first a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography at University College London, and then a Master’s Degree in Soviet Foreign Policy at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, now also part of University College.

Continue reading →


by 2 Comments

88 – A Return to Wessex: June 20 – 23 2024

Hands up all those who know where Wessex is located!

It is a fictional region in the South West of England and the term was popularised, if not created, by the famous English author Thomas Hardy who used it as the setting for all his novels. (‘Far from the Madding Crowd’, ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’, ‘Jude the Obscure’ etc).

Continue reading →


by 1 Comment

87 – Wales and its Castles: July 15 – 18 2024

Of the three Celtic Nations that make up the British Isles – Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, it is by far Wales that is the least well known to overseas visitors.

Scotland with its Lochs, Mountains, Whisky, Golf courses and one of Europe’s most beautiful cities in Edinburgh, is a major international tourist destination whilst Ulster and Ireland attract many visitors seeking to discover their family roots after a significant percentage of the Irish population emigrated to the New World to escape poverty, search for wealth and pursue a new life.

Continue reading →