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My sense of adventure is taking hold again. Returning from Europe earlier this year I chose to return home via Mongolia, because I could. Finding a business class seat on Turkish Airlines from Brussels to Ulaanbaatar for a reasonable number of miles made the decision easy for me.

An invitation to spend Christmas in Ho Chi Minh City with a small family we’d met on the Antarctica cruise last year presents another opportunity to travel via a new destination, this time to a Southeast Asian city. For no particular reason, Phnom Penh in Cambodia has always held appeal

I’m in Timor-Leste to visit the Railaco Jesuit Mission, which has been supported by St Canice’s Parish in Sydney for the past twenty years. This little rural parish is located in the mountains and – depending on your choice of vehicle and driver – about an hour away from Dili. On this trip, I’ve also been invited to participate in the special celebrations in Soibada – about three hours from Dili – to mark the establishment of the first Jesuit Mission in the country 125 years ago.

Time to kill in San Sebastian so doing a recount of countries visited. Visited Countries Map by Fla-shop.com on a trip across the border into France on the beach in Biarritz-24 May 2024

. . . We trawl the water hole, (past the sleeping croc), and I feel the first tug . . . tug . . . as my lure drags the bottom. The next tug is followed by a long z-r-r-r-r-r-r as the line plays out, and then splash . . . splash . . . splash as my first catch of the day jumps and fights. I can still see that silver gleaming 85-centimetre beauty arching her back as she jumps and . . . .

  ‘Stay out of the midday sun’ is the only thought for my brief ‘Roman Holiday’. So, when I receive the ‘“best pasta in Rome” message from my nephew Mark Schramm with the link to ‘Felice a Testaccio, Cucina Romana’, I have one thing to pursue. On the restaurant’s Martedi Menu, I see my favourite …