travelling allrite

It's less than a week now until Sydney's monorail makes its last circuit to nowhere. After 25 years of service it will be shutdown for good on June 30. It might be largely unwanted and unloved by Sydneysiders, but I like it nonetheless. Last Friday evening after work I gave Alex, who is a bit of a transport fan like his father, a last chance to ride the monorail. I bought a day pass for myself - he's still free - and we did a couple of circuits, stopping at World Square to discover that the Sony Centre has gone, and back to City Centre. The monorail stations were rundown and somewhat unloved. It really does go nowhere useful. You can easily walk to Darling Harbour from Town Hall Station  or catch a train/tram combination to Central, Chinatown and the soon to be demolished Convention Centre if you find it too far to walk in that direction. At $5 dollars a ride it's not cheap, it's not fast (though Alex noted it was travelling faster than the cars below) a...

Jetstar recently ran a 9th birthday  Instagram competition for photos that best represented the entrant's favourite place to travel with the airline. I submitted quite a few and was fortunate to be nominated as one of the winners. Yes, that means that we are currently planning the next trip (just waiting for Jetstar to send the prize!). The photo is of the famous bamboo forest at Arashiyama in Kyoto. I've been submitting many of my other photos from my rather extensive archive to my Instagram account - it's a rather addictive process.

Vivid Sydney is an annual festival of lights, music and ideas running for around a couple of weeks. What motivated us to attend this year was a Doctor Who 50th Anniversary light show on Customs House at Circular Quay. It was a wet and crowded night and the sound was too low, but the event was still enjoyable, plus we saw a number of other lighting installations around Circular Quay, including the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Opera House. My video is below... ... But the official video is way better! Museum of Contemporary Art Customs House Opera House The crowds at Circular Quay Station The MCA again. Yesterday we decided to visit the other major lighting installation at Darling Harbour. CityRail have a Funday Sunday ticket which allows family travel across the network for $2.50, so it was a good excuse to explore the city. I had thought to include a day of riding around on the Sydney Monorail  too, with the system being...

In the course of my travels I've taken many thousands of photos. Some are good, some not so great. One day I hope to pick out the best ones. In the meantime I've been playing with Instagram, which is quite a lot of fun. You can take a look at my Instagram album , or see most of the others at Picasa . More travel fun can be had at Geoguessr , where you have to pick the location based upon the Google Street View picture in the background. Highly addictive!

Lonely train through a quiet place Take your time, no need to race! Wind whispering through the reeds Bending to its silent needs Along the fields made of dust Past the towns becoming rust Platforms devoid of people now Nobody around to tell you how The trains came to take them away Children left to elsewhere play To cities tall and full of light Never knowing the stars at night Nor hearing peace amongst the noise So busy playing with their toys Yet here I am in their wake The slow path I choose to take Wandering this decaying land I hear myself and understand.

Japan is a fantastic destination for a family with young kids. It's safe, clean, easy to get around and full of interesting activities for all ages. Let me say first up that I am not an expert on travelling with kids. All I can do is to relate what we've learned from trips to our son, currently four and a half years old. That said, he's already been to thirteen countries and five times to Japan, six if you count in the womb. Here are some things we learned along the way. Getting there For many of us, reaching Japan means a long flight. Overnight flights probably work best, except for restless babies, as the kids will probably sleep. But that isn't always an option. We usually bring a collection of new books - the thinner and lighter the better. In Australia we found that places like K-Mart and BigW often have some suitable options. Drawing materials are good, as are snacks. What works best of all tends to be a media player (eg a tablet) filled with the child...