Jan Ford's World

Monday, 12th February: After breakfast, we pass through the Lemaire Channel. This is 7 miles long and less than a mile wide at its narrowe...

Saturday, 10th February: At 5.00am we still seem to be in open water. By 6.00am the outline of the South Shetlands is visible on the star...

On Wednesday, 7-Feb-2007, I board the 'Antarctic Dream for my 11-day trip to the Antarctic Peninsula in Ushuaia, Argentina. Bit of a sc...

Tuesday, 6-Feb-2007: I took my travel agent's advice on a hotel in Ushuaia, so we have about 5 miles to go out of town to get to the T...

Tuesday, 6-Feb-2007: I'm sitting in the dining room of the Tolkeyen Hotel, a few miles outside Ushuaia. It's getting dusk and I...

6-Feb-2007: After an all-to-brief stay, I'm leaving Buenos Aires. Things followed a familiar pattern: On arrival, the place seemed alm...

I choose the Marriott Plaza as a landmark hotel, designed in 1907 (by a German). I like exploring these hotels with a bit of history. Well,...

The American Airlines 777 has seating 2-3-2 in business class. The flight is very full. The seat adjustments fooled me for a bit, cos it...

Up early and decided to walk to the East River to look at the United Nations buildings. The gardens and buildings are closed up at the week...

There's a very decent museum covering the history and building of the New York subways and bus system, situated in Brooklyn. On Saturda...

Got up about 05:45, buffet breakfast, purchase a Day Ticket for the Subway and go downtown one stop to Grand Central. This is another place...

I'm staying at the Waldorf Astoria in Park Lane. This is another of the famous Art Deco style hotels which I tend to look at. The publi...

We board via gate 10 but instead of the usual airbridge, we walk down a long ramp and stairs to travel on a fleet of buses to an outside st...

Greetings from Heathrow Terminal 4! A new adventure starts! Well, I've got as far as the British Airways Lounge, having checked in on t...

In the 1960s, we'd been designing digital selective call equipment for use in Private Mobile Radio equipment. Our client, Gerry Gardner,...

The 'Lion' supporters group, the Old Locomotive Committee (or, more simply, OLCO), holds a competition for live-steam models of ...

Larger version of diagram Deepfields was one of the Stour Valley signal boxes I worked unofficially in the 1960s. Bloomfield Junction ...

Larger version of diagram Bloomfield Junction is another of the boxes I worked regularly under supervision in the 1960s. It was on the S...

Larger version of diagram In the late 1950s, I was a frequent vistor at Watery Lane signal box on the Stour Valley Line from Birmingham t...

When I was establishing my firm, some of my friends had jobs where they always seemed to be jetting off around the world and, I admit, I wa...