Oceania Sirena visits Villefranche

Saturday 26 September 2026. It's early morning and the colours are muted still as we gaze out over the ship's rail at the French resort of Villefranche which sits neatly between Nice and Monaco's Monte Carlo.

It is, I think, our fifth visit to this lovely village on the Frenh Riviera. It has a wide bay but a shallow harbour and so we are anchored safely in the bay whilst the ship's tender boats take us into the harbour, weaving through the moored fishing boats and pleasure craft to drop us conveniently at the western edge of the village.

I know that plenty of passengers look upon the prospect of getting on and off these smaller boats as something of an ordeal, but the crew will tell you when to stand still and when to step on or off and hands are waiting to ensure you make it across safely. Grasp at forearms not at hands to make it as easy as possbily. Yes the boats can move up and down quite a bit relatively to the ship's gangway, which will follow the side of the ship, not hang out over open water. But follow instructions and you will soon find yourself on or off the boat.

We have for the last few visits, made our way along to the opposite end of the attractive seafront to the very last cafe before you reach the railway station. The cafe was there but shut. And from the state of the interior, it didn't look like it was about to open soon as boxes and chairs were stacked on tables and the place looked somewhat deserted.

But almost the entire seafront is lined with cafes and tables and we had no trouble at all in finding somewhere to sit, which action soon brought forth a waiter from the cafe across the road.

And then to our surprise, there came the sound of laughter and an accordion and a small group of folk dancers appeared along the seafront road.

Stopping not far in front of our table, they did a short sequence of dance moves without a single hobby horse, wave of hanky or banging of sticks and then turned off up a narrow street where a series of steps led up into the town proper.

We made our way back towards the maritime building but stopped for almost an hour on a bench on a raised platform of land that on a previous visit had housed a collection of market stalls and where my mother had wandered off heading in the opposite direction to that which we had told her. Luckily I spotted her, just about to disappear into the town and had to go running after her... I did 75% of the pencil sketch whilst we were sitting there then finished it later in Baristas.

Oceania Sirena Cruise Index

Return To Sorrento, 2026

Tuesday 22 September 2026. We are at anchor off the cliffs of Sorrento. Across the Bay of Naples is the familar sight of Vesuvius. We always remember our visit in 2014 when gazing at the same view before breakfast a fellow passenger said slowly, as if it took great thought... "You know, that looks a bit like a volcano, doesn't it?" We laugh about it every time Vesuvius, Pompeii, Naples or Sorrento ever crop up in a conversation...

Anyway, Vesuvius isn't going to feature greatly in today's plans as we are looking forward to just catching a tender boat to Sorrento, having a wander along the colourful narrow streets of shops and a drink (sadly non-alcoholic). I do miss being able to sip at an Aperol aperatif in Italy. We won't be bringing a bottle of Limoncello back with us either this year!

But we do make for the little cafe named for Belgium's Mannekin Pis that we have visited several times in the past. The waitress has a rather familiar accent... she was from Leeds!

Most Italian towns have fabulous displays of pottery and Sorrento is no different. There are lots of Chinese girls wandering about in groups dressed in long flowing layered skirts and dresses.

The non-alcoholic drink of choice this holiday is a cloudy lemonade with a splash of orange syrup. Very refreshing and, let's face it, those weather-beaten features need all the refreshing they can get...

Then we carry on along the narrow street until the shopy peter out and so we turn to head back to the cliff tops above the harbour. I don't know whether people take one look and then feel sorry for me, but I always find it very easy to fall into conversation with people on holiday.

Having found a space to sit on a bench I chat with a couple from Garstang, just a few miles from our home, who are staying a short distance along the cliffs at San Agnello where we had stayed with my mother in 2005. They were replaced by an American couple from our ship.

We fell into many such conversations with our fellow cruisers from across the pond. I was careful (and so were they) to avoid any mention of Donald but from reading between the lines I don't think we met anyone in favour of him as any talk about conditions back home was about rising prices and axed services.

Once back onboard, we caught up with Tom and Maris as they performed on the Pool Deck and went in search of some lunch. As far as eating went on the ship, we used the buffet for breakfast and lunch and then every night but one went into the Main Dining Room for our evening meal and a bit of outrageous flirting with the young lady who was greeting and directing waiters to take us to our table.

We always say (well Miss Franny does and usually in a resigned tone) "Once seen, never forgotten..." and by just the second night I was greeted by name and we were placed on a table next to a window, which agreeable treatment became a nightly feature. We tried one of the speciality dining rooms one night but be patient and it will feature sooner or later...

That afternoon we made our way to Baristas coffee bar and I found a table near enough to the window that I could so this pencil sketch of the coast and Sorrento. Apparently once again this gathered an audience but as they mostly stayed behind me I was totally unaware of them until Miss Franny told me later.

This was slightly tricky as the window only gave me a narrow view and each side had to be done as the ship swung that way at anchor. I'd usually get to a tricky point and the subject would disappear behind the side of the window...

That night we were sitting in the Horizons bar, listening to Tom and Maris when an American lady came up to me and said "Oh, we have so much in common!" I must have looked a little non-plussed as her husband bent down to my ear and said, "Don't worry - she frightens me too sometimes...!" They went to sit at a table a little way away and after a while I went over and said, "I'm intruiged, what do we have in common?"

They were from Seattle and were a lovely couple who we had a little chat with every time we came across them. If you get to read this by any chance, guys, please do feel free to get in touch!

Oceania Sirena Cruise Index

A Day on Sicily

Sunday 21 September 2026. We are on a cruise from Malta to Barcelona in Spain which goes the long way round. It's a ten-day cruise and there are no sea days, every day will see us in port somewhere around the Mediterranean.

Today we have arrived at the island of Sicily, famed for its being the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It once had its own species of wolf - the Sicilian Wolf but that was driven to extinction during the 20th Century by deforestation and hunting. The last possible sighting of it was in 1970. Likewise there had been a species of miniature elephant roaming the island. Last sighting of that was around 20,000 years ago.

The island's other claim to fame, apart from the Mafia, is the rather impressive Mount Etna, seen here as we passed in a coach. It is one of the most active volcanos in Europe and is in almost constant state of eruption. Records of eruptions, some of which can last five years or more, have been found well into the BCE period of time with evidence of the earliest having occurred some half a million years BCE. It even has an old legend of being the home of King Arthur and his half-sister Morgan-le-fay...

Our first stop is Taormina, a lovely place that we visited in 2008 and whilst it hasn't changed very much, the shops have moved about as each year they have to apply anew for their premises. It's a Sunday today in any case so many of the big name shops are closed. What a shame...

Here coaches have to park on the bottom level of a multi-storey car park. The vehicle entrance is not far above sea level and the entry/exit for those on foot is on level 7 as the main streets sit more than halfway up a steep rise in ground level. Toilets are on a level somewhere in between and thankfully there's a lift to get you up to the top and back down again. The view from the top is stunning.

We bravely set off trying to keep up with the tour guide but I was struggling to walk so fast and we usually reached the group as he was coming to the end of eplaining something and then set off again. Having been before we knewwhere he was heading anyway and we caught up with them as he went off to buy tickets into the Greek/Roman amphitheater - more properly just theatre as the seating just goes around one side in a semi-circle rather than the full encirclement. The Greek theatre afforded patrons a view beyond of the sea as it was built right on the edge of the hillside, but the Romans added their trademark brickwork at the side and around the back of the stage, effectively blocking this view.

We entered this time at the stage level. The last time we had entered right at the top of the tiers of seating. I found the guide and said we would make our own way back to the coach park as we were dur to visit a hotel for lunch and the a mountain-top village. We stopped at a cafe for an ice cream and a lemonade drink that had a squirt of orange in it - absolutely lush.

Lunch at the hotel was predictably pasta - I'm not a great fan... Not even a lukewarm fan if I'm honest. Several options were on offer but they were all pasta of one sort or other. A bit like going into a chippy and all they have are fat chips, skinny chips, crinkle cut chips, a huge whole potato dropped in a pan of fat... I tried my best. "It's just flour and water," I kept telling myself and then I'd think, "Oh yuck it's just flour and water..."

After lunch the coach took us up to a village called Castelmola. The guide's pronunciation made it sound more like Castelmora. There would be many steps of steep streets and I'd had enough. The coach driver was happy enough to let us stay on the coach. We had the front row seats so had a good view and he just left the driving seat, sat back in the seats opposite us, put his feet up and went to sleep, snorting and snoring as the mood took him. I had the A4 sketchbook with me and, with time limited, opted to use a pen to sketch the scene before the coach.

I must have done something right, as several passengers when they climbed back onto the coach and walked past us said "Wow!" or something similar. Once we set off down the hillside back to our ship, docked in Catania, it started to rain heavily. We spent the night in Horizons bar listening to Tom and Maris. I'm not a late owl these days I'm afraid and if I try to be then I just go to sleep wherever I am anyway. We caught their 10:00pm slot and then had to leave them with one spot still to go.

Oceania Sirena Cruise Index

Torquay with G-Line Coaches 2026

Sathurday 25 July 2026. I have a break from medical appointments for a while so today we are on a coach which will take us to Torquay for a week.

Regular readers will remember that we took this same coach holiday in May 2024. We'll visit a few different places and take a few trips which will seem new to me because I went to sleep during them last time!

I'm still running that risk but nowhere near as bad. Meanwhile I can also enjoy the scenery from the coach window as we head down the M5 motorway towards Devon. Also, as can be seen from the top pic above, I have some snazzy new caps to wear in blue and beige!

Sunday 26 July 2026. Our driver has put on an unscheduled excursion to Brixham. Unfortunately the local authority has now decided that coaches have to discharge passengers and park quite a walk away down past the harbour. The legs are far better than the last time we did this holiday but I'm not up to a sprint yet and it was a full half-hour's walk in temperatures well into the 30s before we came to the harbour, having passed by the somewhat odorous charms of the local fish processing plant. Lovely...

We were glad that the first café to be seen had room to let us sit down and I thankfully wrapped myself around a cup of tea. Blimey is that me? I look like Methuselah's granddad...

Miss Franny meanwhile is making short work of a latte...

Brixham was making the most of the weather to bring out the blooms. The last time we were down in Torbay there was a water scare in Brixham.

The replica of Drake's Golden Hind No plan exist so we don't really know what it looked like exactly but someone at least wrote down the measurements so that although the other replica in London looks quite a bit different at least they are the same size front to back and across!

There were a few craft stalls along the edge of the harbour, one an old van with a somewhat less than swarthy old sea dog selling pirate-related carvings.

Monday 27 July 2026. Dartmouth. We went from Paignton on the steam train, took a ferry over the river and then a boat ride up the river and down again to where Ian was waiting with the coach. I managed to stay awake this time too...

One of Dartmouth's older buildings.

Tuesday 28 July 2026. We have a free day and get a bus to the point where the promenade sweeps off to the right. We stop at the first coffee shop - a Costa - sitting outside on the terrace. A woman comes to sit at the next table with a small dog. "She's a bit quiet..." explained it's owner, "she was bitten by another dog yesterday." But the old Burke animal magic tempts her to come for a reassuring pat and stroke. We walk a bit further then turn to walk back, with regular rest stops where a conversation can always be found.

Wednesday 29 July 2026. Our excursion today is to Plymouth, once a regular visiting place for work, but then I never got to take a boat ride along the coast and river mouth. Our tour is to sail from close to the famous Mayflower Steps, where the Pilgrims set sail in 1620 for the New World across the Atlantic.

Our boat squeezes into it's space on the jetty. And we settle down for a hour's sail.

Also that evening we went to an excellent variety show at Babbacombe Theatre, starring Steve Laister with comedy, music, magic and dancers providing a wonderful night's entertainment.

Thursday 30 July is another free day and Ian puts on a shorter excursion to Teignmouth and Dawlish. I'm afraid I didn't take any photos that day, but once back we did get on our usual table in the hotel garden which allowed me to finish this sketch of the side of the hotel.

Friday 31 July. We take a trip up the coast to Sidmouth. Now I had booked two holidays in quick succession, so that despite having to head home tomorrow, we will be coming back down to Sidmouth the following Saturday! However this particular weekend the famous Folk Festival takes place and there were many craft stalls along Sidmouth's elegant promenade and a fair number of singers of (it has to be said) various degrees of tunefulness...

We got back to Torquay and our hotel to see a procession of three or four traction engines trundling past the hotel.

Holidays and Day Trips in the UK Index

The Respite Ward

18 June 2025. I had moved from Blackpool's hospital to what was described to me as a "respite home". I found such a place on the map and happily told everyone where to find me. But... OMG! I have just found out that I'm in Clifton Hospital, not the Respite or Care Home. I had to hurriedly give the correct address, further on towards Lytham when travelling from Blackpool. I only found out when Miss Franny and a friend couldn't find me, having asked at the Care Home.

19 June 2025. Ok, so all confusion done with now hopefully. Clifton Hospital Ward 2 Bay D, bed on the right next to the window. We get an afternoon drink here and one of the options is strawberry milk shake! How cool is that? However, I'm on a liquid intake restriction so I set my mind firmly but it failed to inform my mouth... oh, that milkshake was good...

Well now I've had chance to suss out the place in daylight now and the ward has 6 beds. I'm by the window with a bank of earth and trees forming my horizon before the sky but probably only 30 feet away. Between that and the hospital is a flat lawn. At 4.00am a few nurses came to peer through the vertical blinds as a family of foxes comes out to play some nights.

I can't see much of the lawn, I would have to be standing at the window and parting the blinds to see, but it makes a nice mind picture. I've spoken about my surprise at the progress my legs have made over the last few days. Yesterday I stood up on the sack truck thing and sat in my chair for 5 hours with my legs down - not flat on a recliner. Very little pain and just a little bleeding. Once again more a pleasant shock than surprise. I'm on my way back folks!

20 June 2025. Very busy 2 days. Yesterday I was halfway through drawing the scene through my window when I was told I was moving to allow a very confused new patient have my space, where the view would calm him down. So intense concentration and drawing the bottom half of this which is a wild grassy bank and a smooth well kept lawn. The foxes' den is somewhere between the two trees on the right.

So I am now in Ward 2 still but Bay A - a bay with just 4 beds. One occupant just never stops talking. If he's not talking to someone else he mumbles to himself keeping up a non-stop flow, of a commentary repeating over and over.

Anyway I have discovered the delights of the communal Day Room, otherwise known as the Garden Room as it has a large expanse of windows like a conservatory that opens onto a beautiful garden with trees shading areas with tables and chairs. All the windows have decals of birds, flowers and animals.

One table has a label "Breakfast Club". Patients able to get out of bed can go and meet for breakfast. I got into my chair with some help and was pushed to a spare place at the table. We'll... there were several places free really as the only other person there was a little old lady. What a joy she was! Bright as a button all her marbles working. She was 89 and we got on famously, swapping memories of the 1950s and 60s and all sorts of things. We made a date to meet tomorrow.

The legs continue to improve. I stood up today at a Zimmer frame, something I've not used before, and (FANFARE) I walked 6 steps, paused for a rest then walked 6 more. That totally exhausted me. The Physio nurses who had hold of me all the time in case I fell, brought my chair up behind me and got me sat down and pushed the chair back into place. Cue an hour's sleep... Wakes a very chuffed man. First time walking for 5 weeks. It will get better and better.

23 June 2025. Start of week seven in hospital. Yesterday T from the bed diagonally opposite and I spent the best part of the day in the day room, relieved to be away from the relentless non-stop flow of talk from the chap opposite me.

We had a full table for breakfast as we were joined by a chap from one of the other bays and two ladies, including my cheery friend from the other day. She stood me up yesterday haha.

T and I spent most of the day in there. At times the room got very full as they were holding a craft session to keep patients occupied whilst their ward was being deep cleaned. This takes most of the day as all areas get disinfected, bedside cabinets, emptied and cleaned etc. One ward gets done every week

I'm here again now at 7.00am already. Washed, changed and enjoying the prospect of breakfast. The sun is shining but it's very windy. Sadly I have an hour to wait for brekky but I use the time to give Miss Franny a ring.

Cancer and Leg Ulcers Index
Family Memories: Personal Index

My Time in Hospital Reaches June 2025

Saturday, 31 May 2025. Having moved back into the ward from my nice individual side room yesterday, I am forced to eat someone else's choice of food for the day. By which I mean lunch and the evening meal. The food is really good when it's something that you like, but let's just say that whoever was in this bed yesterday, their taste either didn't match mine or they had a really evil sense of humour...

After the pain and sight of the pool of blood yesterday when I tried to stand, I was quite apprehensive of what might follow. But the doctors left me alone for the day.

Miss Franny came to visit - a steady stream of good friends, family and buses bring her each day and we are very grateful when someone volunteers to pick her up and bring her. Also to those who come to visit me when she can't come - it does break the day up and it's good seeing people many of whom have been good friends for decades.

Fran brought me my A5 sketchbook to fill the time and I did this - my first sketch using a ballpoint pen and the first to come from a mix of memory and imagination. More the latter if I'm honest, the memory cocked up some of the more important things... Anyway it was inspired shall we say, by houses seen on the Italian Riviera.

Monday, 2 June 2025. Today marks the start of my fourth week in hospital. My legs are better than they were, but just as painful due to exposed wounds following the bleeding the other day. The right leg in particular looks a bit like a joint of raw meat. It's not pleasant. Now they have to get the delicate tissue toughened up enough to let me stand and walk about. Photos of my legs - scroll past all the v pointers to get past quick if you are squeamish...

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Right leg above. Left leg below, the orange is surgical antiseptic.

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One of the household staff saw my sketch the other day and asked if I had any of Italy's Lake Como. I hadn't... but now I have! It turned out she was getting married and they had booked their honeymoon at Lake Como. She was really taken with the sketch, so I ripped the page carefully out of the sketchpad and gave it to her.

More visitors today. Most of my visitors, it has to be said, are female. It's nothing I can help... One of the young nurses though is convinced I've had a long string of conquests and each new face adds much to her amusement. She grins behind their backs and raises a quizzical and what she obviously thinks is a knowing eyebrow at me at every new face! All I can say is I'd have been an old man far earlier...

Tuesday 3 June 2025. This morning the doc came to say they were going to transfer me to a respite home pending Physiotherapists coming to see me. A few alarm bells started to ring as I haven't stood since the bleeding event a few days ago. Physios came this afternoon after I had been dosed with morphine and I got to sit on the edge of the bed. It took longer but the pain hit and blood blossomed on my bandages even before my feet touched the floor and I had to get back in bed on the verge of shouting and screaming at the level of pain. So I am not going anywhere for now. To be continued...

Cancer and Leg Ulcers Index
Family Memories: Personal Index

Artworks, 2025 Part 2

3 January 2026. Welcome to the second and final article showing my artwork over the previous year. 2025 was a difficult year in many ways, but in this second article we have to start with a stay in hospital. I had been suffering with some very painful leg ulcers for a year, a side effect so I was given to believe of my cancer which was still with me on my liver, but stable after an intensive course of radiotherapy at Christies hospital in Manchester in 2024.

I had had a fall on the stairs in early May 2025 after which I found I couldn't stand or walk. Five weeks in Blackpool's Victoria Hospital was followed by four weeks in respite at Clifton Hospital in Lytham St Annes, learning how to walk again. Whilst there I got Miss Franny to bring my smaller A5 sketchbook and used the only drawing tool I had - a ballpoint pen.

4 June 2025. Drawing from memory I found really hard. I don't like drawn art that is photographically realistic because I just don't see the point in it. If you want something so realistic just use a camera, but I've never just made up scenes before. So this is based on memory of more than one such meeting of streets in Italy and the island of La Palma in the Canaries, but I'd bet I'd never find an exact match!

11 June 2025. In 2023 we took a holiday up in the Trossachs and Highlands of Scotland. This was our hotel - the Loch Tummel Hotel - and I used the holiday brochure we had booked the holiday from to find a photo of the hotel. We were in a room around the right hand side as you look from this viewpoint.

16 June 2025. Another one from the brochure, although our particular holiday itinerary had not included Loch Lomond.

19 June 2025. I'd moved from Victoria Hospital to Clifton in St Annes. Not the easiest of places for Fran to get to for visiting but she did well thanks to good friends.

I wondered why nurses came into my room to look through the blind every night at 4:00am. It turned out that a family of foxes had their den between the two near trees on the right and came out at that time to play on the lawn. Which was unfortunately too low down for me to be able to see from my bed and getting out of bed was still not a thing to be contemplated.

23 June 2025. The Ward had a breakfast Club which met in the Day Room with this view of the garden. Patients could go out and sit there and have their meals in the Day Room which I did every day once I'd heard of it.

A nurse would transfer me via a sack truck type of affair into a wheelchair and I would sit with one chap who was suffering from Parkinsons and another, who would get up at all hours of the night wanting to come into the room for breakfast even at 3:00am, being convinced it was breakfast time, I dubbed us the Three Musketeers...

27 June 2025. I was progressing, from wheelchair to faltering steps using a zimmer frame and from that to crutches. The nurses were saying they could tell that my determination would carry me through. There were quite a few others who just gave up or who stopped at the first twinge of pain. I'd been in constant pain for almost a year and exhaustion since the first op on the cancer in August 2022. It wasn't going to beat me... The weather had turned nice and the three musketeers were accustomed to spend the entire day in the Day Room from getting up to going back to bed. This was loosely based on my memory of Limone on the banks of Lake Garda in Italy.

2 July 2025. A Cotswolds scene, but don't ask me where it is... I was walking with just my trusty walking stick by now. Physio Therapists were having me climbing up and down a few stairs to see how I could cope and in this respect things seemed to be progressing well. It was quite an emotional time though. I was getting frustrated at being in hospital and at the same time humbled by what I was either being told or by what I overheard.

My friend with Parkinsons tended to dribble quite a bit and whenever I could I sat next to him with tissues at hand to help mop him up. He could also struggle to be understood and I often had to ask him to repeat something, whilst trying not to make a big thing about it which may have embarrassed him. One day he had a meltdown and was talking to one of the nurses who asked him about his friends. "I don't have any friends," he said, "just John..."

The nurse glanced at me and said quietly, "Yes, he's great isn't he?" So I found tears streaming down my face too...

7 July 2025. They weren't all good days by far. This one had me very emotional and one of the nurses took me in hand out to a quiet spot in the garden and insisted I sit with her and draw. It wasn't a great scene but it did calm me down and she was very kind. I think the idea was just to get me to a quiet place where she could talk to me. I was discharged to go home the following day.

27 August 2025. It took me a while to get back into doing any artwork. After so many weeks away from home lots of things needed sorting. The home insurance was due to end. The company was going out of business. Just little things like that... No idea where this is meant to be, I used a photo off the Internet and went back to my favourite combination of coloured pencils in the A4 sketchbook.

30 August 2025. Another Internet picture was the inspiration for this. I was particularly chuffed with the tree trunk closest to the viewpoint. Little things...

1 September 2025. The Croatian village of Skradin in the Krka National Park. Pencil crayon in the A4 sketchbook. Remembering some selfish twonk who after having been told we were to go straight to the coach to get back to the cruise ship, decided to instead go for a drink in a bar. His wife came to the bus apologetically to tell the guide and driver, who immediately went to find him and drag him back, this taking 20 minutes. Can you imagine anyone being so self-centred that they are willing to have everyone else on the coach wait for them? Some people just make your blood boil...

14 September 2025. Miss Franny came home from a shopping expedition with a present... I set to and tried them out.

Very different to work with but quite good fun. The Priest House was owned by Henry VIII and passed on to Thomas Cromwell, Anne of Cleves, Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I.

To date that's it. The A4 sketchbook was filled and replaced by another which has yet to be sullied by crayon or pencil. I'll be back within the next few days to continue the tale of the cancer and ulcers and general grottiness BUT... The main thing is I'm still here, still thinking of mischief if not exactly capable of getting up to it and still determined to get to a stage where I can drag Miss Franny off on some foreign jaunt, preferably on the high seas with a couple of fellow musicians I know! Hello 2026!

Sketching and Artwork Index