New year, new newsletter

Well, one bit of it anyway. Still the same mix of recommendations, inspiration and entertainment you know and love though.

Hello!

And a belated but heartfelt happy new year to you. I do hope 2025 has started well and continues that way. How was your Christmas?

Mine was filled with family, food and fun, just the way I love it. And after all the festivities I was lucky enough to be able to continue a tradition I’ve had since my lovely fella and have been together, and get away over the New Year. Our trips over the years have been a combination of far-flung and adventurous, closer to home but still abroad, and in the UK, hunkered down somewhere cosy.

This year we went somewhere I admit I’ve never had on my must-see radar. A European city I knew next to nothing about but which turned out to be a near perfect destination for a short break, with the ideal combination of sights, experiences and great places to eat and explore, to comfortably fill three days and still allow time for some much needed rest and relaxation.

It’s a city where I discovered how something as simple as strips of tin foil were used to foil (pun entirely intended) a defensive radar system and allow one of the more dangerous and destructive bombing campaigns of the Second World War to achieve its aims.

A city that boasts the world’s most acoustically advanced concert hall, reached via a beautiful 82 metre long, curved escalator.

And a city that’s home to quite possibly the best tourist attraction I’ve ever seen.

You know the drill by now - I’m not going to tell you what city it was because I really want you CLICK HERE and discover by reading the blog I’ve written about it (or at the very least looking at the pictures).

But I will share this video from that amazing tourist attraction, which I’m prepared to reveal was a vast and astonishingly detailed miniature railway/world covering nearly 1700 square metres and featuring the most jaw-dropping miniature recreation of a working airport. And I really do mean fully working

See? Isn’t that just incredible? Bet you want to know where it is now! So go on, CLICK HERE, and find out.

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I’m starting off the year with this new feature which will pop up in these missives from time to time. I’m calling it

GOOD TO KNOW

That’s deliberately vague enough to cover all manner of useful stuff and information I come across which I want to share with you but which doesn’t quite fit an any of your regular slots. Like this, which I fully appreciate is waaaay too late for the deluge of Christmas present wrapping, but which I hope will be of use for any other gift giving you do in the coming year. I did use it for a number of my awkwardly shaped festive presents and can confirm it works brilliantly - with or without the handle bit.

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FRIDAY FUNNY

Talking of present buying/giving (and airports)

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THIS WEEK I’VE BEEN……WATCHING

If you’re looking for something uplifting to watch, then you could certainly do a lot worse than this Netflix film based on the true story of the only all-Black battalion of the Women’s Army Corps who served overseas during World War II.

Led by the indomitable Major Charity Adams, played with steely ferocity by Kerry Washington, who, along with the women she trained, faced widespread institutional racism and sexism in their efforts to serve their country’s war effort, and who found themselves posted to Europe with the distinctly unglamorous and unenviable orders to not only clear a huge backlog of undelivered mail to and from US troops, but to do it in a timeframe widely considered to be unachievable.

I’d love to give The Six Triple Eight my unequivocal recommendation, and certainly would on the basis of the women’s story of determination, resilience and achievement in the face of near-overwhelming odds against them. But there are turgid moments in the film’s narrative arc, and too many stereotypical depictions both of the Black characters and the white men who taunt and dehumanise them, which, whilst not spoiling the film entirely, do make it a slightly less satisfying watch than this unknown (certainly to me anyway) and heroic tale deserves.

Don’t let that put you off though, The Six Triple Eight is worth the watch especially since, in what’s becoming a familiar ending to films like this based on true stories, the closing credits include pictures of the real women the characters are based on and what happened to them after their history-making tour of duty.

You can see The Six Triple Eight on Netflix

And watch the trailer HERE

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WHAT’S MADE ME HAPPY THIS WEEK

I couldn’t resist using this slot to share another video of the incredible miniature world attraction featured in THIS WEEK’S BLOG, where, as you’ll discover in the blog, I spent rather more, very happy, time than I intended. Fancy a bit of the carnival in Rio de Janeiro? Your wish is my command.

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WORDS OF WISDOM

Former US President Jimmy Carter died at the very end of 2024. Widely respected for his deeply held principles and beliefs, he was arguably the only American President to have been more successful when he left the White House than he was in it. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 just over two decades after after his term of office.

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That’s it for this first newsletter of 2025. For the first time in a long while, I hardly have any special events or adventures lined up for the coming year (a dear friend of mine brilliantly calls them lighthouses), so I’m looking forward to planning some of the latter and hoping for a smattering of the former over the coming 12 months. What are you looking forward to this year?

It’d be lovely to start the year with a little flurry of likes if you’ve enjoyed this and feel inclined to click on the heart.

Thank you and see you next time