June 2025 – Where is Phil now?

The end.

London – Saturday 22 June 2025

After much mental wrangling I’ve decided that I’m going pause the blog for a period, and at this stage I’m not certain how long that period will be. It could be forever, it could be a week. It’s likely to be somewhere in between, but it’s likely to be much longer than a week.

I’ve just renewed my subscription with WordPress so the site will be available for at least the next 12 months, maybe I will have decided on its future by then. There are about 15,000 images saved here and though I have all these backed up elsewhere it’s the only online archive I have of them. The questions I need to ask myself, and then answer honestly are;

- Will anyone care if the blog disappears?
- What happens when I stop paying? Do all my photos that massively exceed the free limit get deleted?
- What happens when I die? This is an inevitability, my blog will stop at some stage, so what is the point of keeping it going now? Though to answer that one, I do reference it every now and then.

I’ve hit a roadblock with India. It’s not that I had a bad time as I didn’t, it’s that I have a thousand photos to review and chose a small number from, and then there is all the research I need to do to make some sense of the history of the places I’m showing. It just seems like a lot of work and there is a lot going on at the moment elsewhere and I’m staring at the India photos on almost daily basis, but going nowhere with them.

I’ve decided to sell my flat in St Leonards and buy somewhere a bit cheaper, though still in St Leonards. We’ve been there a lot since we returned from our holiday and I’m enjoying being there. Hopefully at the end of that process I can be mortgage free, but that requires a lot of hope. Knowing how long it took to buy my flat in the first place I suspect this will be a long winded and stressful process. Not having the blog hanging over my head will help me focus on what is important.

Maybe once I’m settled I will have the desire to start blogging again.

Thanks to anyone who has read my ramblings and to even more so to those who found them useful.

Phil

A day in Hong Kong

Hong Kong – Friday 28 March 2025

When I was looking for a flight to get me from Brisbane to Delhi, one of the first options that popped up on the flight aggregator I was using (I use three as there are deals to be found) was a 31-hour journey on Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong. Even though it was one of the best price options, short of flying via two or three (other) Chinese cities, I discarded it as the layover in HK was 11 hours. I like to get to my destination as fast as possible. I eventually circled back to that option and when I discovered I can leave HK airport for the duration of the layover, which was almost entirely during daylight hours, I booked the flight.

I don’t sleep well on planes and this was a midnight flight out of Brisbane after a full day of family, and all the emotions attached to that. So I was tired when I finally made it through HK immigration into the public side of the airport. It took me a while to find the left luggage counter where I could dump a small bag with a change of clothes, and then I was on the train to the city centre.

I ‘d tried to work out a bit of an itinerary to make the best use of the day I had, taking in a couple of HK’s limited number of brutalist buildings, but it all seemed too difficult. I ended up with no plan, which kind of worked. At least there was no stress with trying to do everything.

I love travelling from the airport on a train, especially in modern Asian cities, the high rises are just so BIG and so everywhere, so alien.

I took the train to Central and walked around there for a bit. It was just coming into morning rush hour, though it was reasonably quiet, certainly not as manic as I expected. I ended up in some form of mega mall/office block complex and spent way too much time walking in circles trying to find somewhere to have coffee and kick my sleep-and-wine-addled brain into focus while I planned what to do with the day.

Google Maps wasn’t helpful at all, Hong Kong is built on layers and the maps app is flat. Just because Starbucks appears a hundred yards away on the map it may, in reality, be three flights up or 20 down. As I said, my brain was addled. I hate Starbucks, but it was where I ended up as it was all I could find.

I was hit by a monster wave of humidity when I finally made it out of the mega mall/office complex. I was expecting it, and had been slightly prepared after the warm and damp day in Brisbane yesterday. Still, it wasn’t nice. As soon as I was outside, the sweat just poured out of me. Locals were wearing suits and looking cool and relaxed. I looked exactly like what I was – a middle aged, saggy, pallid tourist who’d had little sleep.

I had expected to see fewer westerners than previous visits after the clampdown on dissent and a firmer grasp on affairs by the Chinese government over the last few years. I thought that many would have returned home, but that didn’t seem to be the case. It was very cosmopolitan in the areas of the city centre I roamed. It’s an economic powerhouse I guess, and I imagine there are some good jobs here.

Back in the mall I grabbed some brunch (I’ve no idea how I had room for food after two good meals on the plane) then caught the train out to Tung Chung to see the Big Buddha at Ngong Ping. I had to buy something because the ticket machine for the train only took cash, and only small bills. The ATM only provided 100 dollar bills so I had to get food to have change to buy a ticket. Hong Kong isn’t as modern as it appears on the surface.

There was an example of HK modernist architecture right outside the station in Tung Chung.

To get to Ngong Ping, in the middle of the Lantau Island hills, from Tung Chung you can get a very long and mostly pleasant cable car. What I had stupidly failed to think about was that hundreds of others would want to take a long and enjoyable cable car ride as well. There was a long queue and I was getting a little anxious as it slowly dragged itself towards the cable cars. I ended up having to rush a bit when I did get to the top to ensure I got back to the airport in time for my flight.

On the cable car ride up I shared the car with a family group with a very busy dad who just didn’t stay still for more than five minutes. This didn’t help with the anxiety I had about being hundreds of feet above jungle in a small swaying glass container. Though he is in my favourite photo from the day, so I shouldn’t complain.

The journey takes about 20 minutes and we pass over a small harbour and up and down some quite steep jungle-covered hills. At times it was quite misty and everyone in my cab was trying to be first to see the Buddha through the murk.

The Big Buddha is, by Buddhist standards, relatively new, with construction finishing in 1993. It sits on the top of a hill on the outskirts of Ngong Ping village and near Po Lin Monastery.

There are 268 steps to climb to reach the base of the 34-metre statute. There was some serious puffing going on from my fellow visitors and I must admit I didn’t stop half way up JUST to take a photo…

The view from top was great, clearer than I expected, and as busy as I expected from the queue at the base. I was pushing time a bit so didn’t linger too long.

There was a little bit of wind on the cable car ride back down to the train and I found myself pointlessly hanging on to the seat as the occasional gust rocked the cab. I was on my own, which was good, but also a little unnerving. I did get to take pictures from wherever I wanted, without being ‘the dad’ and getting in others’ way.

I took a train straight back to the airport and after retrieving my bag from left luggage, passed back though security and immigration to await my flight onto Delhi. I used a discount offer from my credit card to access an executive lounge, with the expectation of using the advertised shower to rinse off the sweat of the last 36 or so hours. Of course it was out of order, and I ended up having a sink wash in the bathroom to what I imagine was the distaste of some of my fellow ‘executives’. I did eat and drink enough to make up the fee, though, and was feeling pleasantly relaxed for the next leg of the journey. India here I come!

I enjoyed my day in Hong Kong, I wish I’d used the time more constructively, though I loved the trip to Big Buddha. I kind of had plans in my head to do stuff with the day and not just be a tourist, but a tourist is what I am.

Doing a long layover to break up a long flight is exhausting, but worthwhile and I will do it again sometime.

Family time

Brisbane, Australia – Thursday 27 March 2025

I arrived in Brisbane late Wednesday afternoon, with a mix of trepidation and excitement swirling in my head. This was potentially the most problematic leg of the entire holiday and I had no idea how it would go.

Australia isn’t high up on my ‘favourite country’ lists, and Brisbane is my least favourite city in Australia. Growing up, and spending most of my adult life in New Zealand, and most of my working life working for Australian companies I have an unhealthy, and probably undeserved, antipathy for the country. For a lot of New Zealanders it’s an almost gene level dislike, though I’m English by birth so I guess it’s just seeped into my psyche by some form of osmosis. The Aussies just think us Kiwis don’t like them because we’re jealous of their superiority; though that doesn’t seem to help the situation much. Plus they keep stealing our stuff; pavlova, for example.

My ex-wife lives near Brisbane and my two oldest children live in Australia, one in North Queensland and one in Darwin in the Northern Territory. Brisbane is their closest big city. My youngest lives in Auckland and has flown over with my grandson and the theory is we were all going to get together tomorrow. It will be the first time in 10 years since all three children have been in the same place at the same time and 16 years since them, my ex and I have been together. Who knows who will turn up and how the day would go.

I landed in a storm, an auspicious start; it was only late afternoon but it was almost dark when I exited the airport and took a taxi in the pouring rain to my hotel which was just down the road. I unpacked and got in contact with my eldest son who had come down from Darwin the day before. We agreed that he would drive to the hotel with his girlfriend and we would find somewhere to eat.

I was loathe to go far as I was tired and he’s not exactly a conversationalist and it could be a long night, I wanted a quick escape if need be. We ended up in a bar in the mall next to the hotel as the hotel restaurant was really expensive and we just wanted to eat. The burger was decent and exactly what I wanted and a couple of glasses of wine eased me into the evening and prepared me for tomorrow. It was lovely to see him and get some time together.

I’d arranged to meet the family on Brisbane’s South Bank late morning, time to hang out for a few hours, share a meal and then do our own thing. We’re not a close family, 10 years is a long time to not be together. There is no animosity and we get on fine, but I was expecting the day to be hard work, and it was, but at least everyone turned up, which was sort of a surprise and it was properly nice to see everyone after such a long time.

I had a bit of sorting out to do, repacking and getting organised for a day in Hong Kong tomorrow. I’d booked a flight from Brisbane to Delhi that gave me an 11 hour layover and I was keen to get out of the airport and see a bit of the city. I’d researched left luggage at Hong Kong airport so I could leave my small pack while I walked. I wanted to have a change of clothes for the onward flight to Delhi. Hong Kong was going to be hot and humid and I would have been three days in the same clothes if I didn’t change, and no one would want to sit next to me on the Delhi flight.

After breakfast in the same mall as last night I checked out of the hotel and headed to the left luggage lockers at Brisbane airport via a free shuttle from the mall.

I’d planned this part of the trip reasonably well, I had to do something after waking up at 4am. After dumping my bags I took the train from the Airport into Brisbane city centre; for a while I was almost the only person on the train. It was weird.

And here is where the story takes an (un)dramatic twist. I got off the train at Central station and left at the nearest exit, which was right outside the Queensland Railways building; an unexpected piece of Queensland brutalism.

I’d unexpectedly stumbled into the capital of Australian brutalism and the city is littered with lovely 60s and 70s concrete masterpieces, especially on the South Bank, fully deserving of their own post, which I will do next. I’m starting to like this place, and a return visit sounds very plausible now.

I didn’t have a huge amount of time before seeing the family so walked through some late morning drizzle down through the centre and across the Brisbane River to the South Bank. Brisbane is an interesting city to walk through, though warm and muggy on this damp day.

I waited over a coffee near our proposed meeting place and surprisingly everyone turned up, and pretty much all on time, and at the same time. We caught up over coffee and it was lovely to see everyone together, strained as it was. We are all very different people with vastly different adult experiences, expectations and aspirations. It was difficult at times, but still we’re family and it was good.

We walked for a bit, the weather didn’t really help and we had my 10 year old grandson with us, so though we were near the museum and art gallery we didn’t venture in, it didn’t really interest my ‘kids’ either. Though to be fair art galleries are only a recent interest of mine, so there is time for them to show an interest. We stopped for some photos at the Nepalese Peace Pagoda.

My grandson had been promised a visit to an amusement arcade in the city so we crossed over the bridge and went up to a viewing deck on what I think was The Star building, ultra modern and attractive in its way. It did have a very ‘cool’ glass floor overhanging the motorway a lot of floors below. I tip-toed slowly onto the glass, and then had a good laugh when I realised everyone else was doing the same. My grandson was a little nervous getting on there.

When the kids went off to the amusement arcade, I took a sneaky side trip to the nearby Queensland Parliament building, which had the look of being the best, most brutal building in Brisbane, but sadly there weren’t any good quickly gained angles, and of course being parliament I couldn’t just wander in for a nosey.

I joined up with everyone for bao buns for lunch which was nice, a good opportunity to sit around a table and chat and catch up a bit on the last few years. After lunch we all walked back to the South Bank and went our separate ways. I took a few photos of the brutalist buildings on the South Bank (which will be in the next post) before taking a short river boat ride to an area of the north bank with a bunch of bars where I had a beer to kill some time before heading back to the airport on the train.

Next stop Hong Kong!

Steampunk HQ

Oamaru, New Zealand – Tuesday 25 March 2025

Steampunk HQ. I have previously, and erroneously, referred to it as the Steampunk Museum, which it clearly isn’t. It’s an art installation and gallery and it’s mad and fantastic, and we loved it.

Oamaru is a small town about three quarters of the way down the east cost of New Zealand’s south island. It’s probably most famous for its colony of blue penguins, which Eleanor and I planned to visit when we were in New Zealand in 2022 and down this way for my nephew’s wedding. Sadly, we couldn’t because of Covid; and we didn’t get to the wedding either.

It’s a rural and local administrative centre and the largest town in the immediate area. It has a lovely ‘old’ (by New Zealand standards) Victorian heart, with some excellent examples of the local stone buildings remaining, a number of which are sadly semi-derelict. The town needs investment, like so many other rural places. Hopefully tourism will fill some of the void.

Steampunk HQ is part of that recovery. It opened in 2011 and is a popular tourist destination. There are numerous installations, some interactive, and some audio visual, inside, but the best part was the amazing collection of original imagined future vehicles. It was all very ‘Mad Max’ and totally bonkersly wonderful. I took a few photos and below are some of them.

Australia next.

Christchurch to Dunedin to Christchurch

Christchurch, New Zealand – Wednesday 26 March 2025

On Monday morning, we did what has now becoming routine, and left Christchurch after rush hour and the school run had finished. We’re staying within walking distance of the city centre, as I will discover when I return, and Christchurch traffic has not improved in the 14 years since I last visited. Our destination is just outside the city of Dunedin, about five hours south.

We missed the first place we planned to stop at, the ‘Book Barn’, a vast second hand book shop recommended by our Christchurch hosts. We didn’t see the sign until after we had driven past. Much of the drive south is a flat straight road, with the occasional ‘S’ bend as the road crosses the main train line. then back again a few kilometres further on. Unlike the trip from Blenheim to Christchurch, where we did the reverse as we travelled by train.

It’s not the most thrilling of rides and I felt a bit for Paula who did all the driving; practice she will make perfect after we go our separate ways tomorrow. The only excitement was crossing really long bridges over the frequent and very wide rivers, and stopping for lunch in a garden centre just south of Timaru. You can (usually) trust a garden centre lunch. We were, as expected the youngest people there, and we’re all in our 60s.

THE highlight of the journey was the Steam Punk Museum in Oamaru, about two thirds of the way down the coast. We stayed for a while and I took too many photos for this post, so will do a separate one next. Needless to say, it was fun!

Our final stop was to see the Moeraki boulders. I was warned that they were underwhelming and to be honest, they very much were. They are interesting and unique and worth seeing, but keep your expectations in your backpack, and maybe keep that in the boot of your car, locked of course. I wanted to see them as I don’t think there is anything else like them anywhere else in the world and for me that alone is a reason.

The ‘boulders’ are a small number of almost spherical rocks, slowly disappearing into the sand of the beach and I’m sure years ago they were much more spectacular. If you do want to visit, try and get there early in the morning to avoid other visitors, especially tours. There weren’t many people when we visited, but each one wanted a photo standing on the rocks, so I had to wait one-by-one as they did so. I was muttering with frustration by the time I got my ‘turn’.

They are cool though, and I especially liked the boulder lying at the top of the beach by itself that has been split open by a small landslide and you can see its hollow core. as if it’s a museum exhibit.

My sister lives on the Otago Peninsular in the hamlet of Portobello, a thirty-minute drive east of Dunedin’s city centre. They’ve only recently moved there from not too far from Nelson at the top of the South Island. Though there are a number of houses, a lot are holiday homes and it feels quite remote, but the house has a lovely view from the deck and the remoteness suits my sister and her family.

Just before we left New Zealand, back when we stayed here for seven months in 2021/2022, we were going to come down to Dunedin for my nephew’s wedding. Sadly we ended up not coming due to the ongoing Covid pandemic. Though it was largely over in New Zealand by then, we didn’t want to risk the confined spaces of flights and wedding venues as our return to London was immediately after the wedding. I hadn’t seen my nephews in years and had never met the eldest’s wife until today.

We had dinner with my sister, her sons and daughter in law and a very nice evening catching up. It was also Eleanor and I’s last night together for 16 days, which seems like an epically long time for us to be apart, so the evening was spent with that hanging over me. I will miss her.

We woke to an empty house on Tuesday morning as my sister had gone to work. After a quick breakfast we took a leg stretching walk down the waterfront where I found this fantastic local bus stop; I love those chairs. It was a lovely day for a walk and it is very pretty here under the sun. I expect on a windy, rainy winter evening, it’s not quite so jolly.

At the end of my sister’s road is this lovely feature made when the road was cut through, and now known as Pineapple Rock, for obvious reasons.

We drove into Dunedin and parked in a supermarket carpark in the town centre. Free parking is always good. We had a final early lunch and then it was time for (almost tearful) farewells as Paula and Eleanor headed off in the car to continue their tour of the lower south island and I took my small backpack, I’d left the big one at my friends’, and walked around Dunedin for an hour before getting one of the two daily buses back to Christchurch. Weirdly, I seem to have no photos of Dunedin, other than the below.

I discovered, a bit late, that there are some great brutalist buildings in Dunedin, particularly as part of the university. Annoyingly I didn’t really get the time to find them, though I did find the back of the hospital. There is some interesting architecture in Dunedin, a good mix of local stone buildings from the Victorian era and 60/70 construction, with a few modern buildings mixed in.

It’s a nice little city, and I want to come back again. Not least as it plays a huge part in New Zealand’s musical history, especially with Flying Nun Records in the early 80s when I was going to see a lot of bands. I remain a firm fan.

The bus ride was long and slow, but perfectly fine. It was my first time alone for a few weeks and time to mentally unwind and prepare for the next part of the trip was welcome. An opportunity to reset my brain and outlook and prepare for thinking and planning by myself.

I stayed the night at my friends’ house again, joining them, and winning, the local pub quiz, which was a lot of fun and very unexpected. On Wednesday morning I headed off with my big backpack and walked to a barbers about halfway to the centre where I had the remains of a winter beard shaved off. I didn’t want an extra coat in the hot climate of Delhi – forecast of 38 degrees towards the end of my time there.

After the shave I walked back to the art gallery and used their free bag store to leave the big and small packs. After pretending to look at some exhibits I’d seen just a couple of days ago, I grabbed a coffee and snuck out the side door in search of the brutalist council building I’d seen on Sunday. The art gallery building is beautiful.

As I previously noted, I couldn’t find the council building, so I just enjoyed an hour of walking around the city, before collecting my bags and catching the bus out to the airport for the next leg of my trip; a day in Brisbane to hopefully see all three of my ‘kids’ in the same place at the same time, a first in over 10 years. I’m excited, but pensive.

Onwards.