Author Archives: Sue

Who’s a pretty polly?

Posted on by Sue

Mark Carwardine, the wildlife presenter, amused the audience at last year’s Paul Morrison Guide of the Year Awards, run by Wanderlust magazine, at the Royal Geographical Society. He courageously sat on stage with interviewer Derek Moore (AITO’s Chairman/Founder Director of Explore) while a clip of a parrot trying to mate with his head appeared on the (very big) screen above him. The parrot had taken a fancy to Mr Carwardine while he was filming a BBC “Last Chance to See” series with Stephen Fry.

1,000 dominoes fall in Berlin, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall

Posted on by Sue

School children in Berlin individually designed and painted 1,000 dominoes – probably twice the size of the children themselves – and were arranged in curves and lines close to where the wall itself stood; a transient and see-through barrier to remind people that, just 20 years ago, East and West Germany were separate entities, with communism one side and capitalism the other – and, terrifyingly, death by shooting if one dared to try to cross the dividing wall

Cats and canal boats in Amsterdam

Posted on by Sue

Amsterdam’s canals were particularly pretty in the August sunshine, and the waterways offer a great way to see some of the key sights. We admired the skill of our captain, manoeuvring what was a wide and heavy traditional barge from one canal into another – some nifty wheel-turning and spot-on judgment was called for!

Twits or Tweets?

Posted on by Sue

Oh irony of ironies! The Government, reports The Daily Telegraph, has produced a 20-page guide to Twitter for civil servants. What a shame that the people who produced it couldn’t explain the social networking service more succinctly, since Twitter is the ultimate tool for encouraging brevity of communication: it has a 140-character limit per message… [...]

In the wake of the deaths of two children on holiday in Corfu, is it possible to make holidays 100% safe?

Posted on by Sue

Probably not, in the way that life at home can never be 100% safe, says Sue Ockwell, speaking on behalf of the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO, www.aito.com). There are some sensible precautions that you can take when going on holiday, however – read on…