This time last year II

This time last year
our bags were packed
and excitement it was growing
as we both knew
what we would do
and where we both were going

To somewhere hot
across the sea
four hours or so by plane
with nought to lose
to join a cruise
Croatia again

This time last year
the sunshine found
when autumn chill was here
First thing we did
with nothing hid
was drinking ice-cold beer

In somewhere hot
across the sea
escaping for a week
remembering
as our hearts sing
these memories to keep

©Jemverse

Photo – Dubrovnik old town, Croatia – Jempics

Twenty hours

I’m on a train to Yorkshire
in bright sunshine for the day
Left when dawn was breaking
as it’s many miles away
Just shy of twenty hours
this working day for me
From the South Coast and then back again
by midnight hopefully

Some may question if my sanity
is all there and quite intact
as the day will be a long one
there is no doubt of that
But the purpose is resourceful
and the outcome will be great
despite the early start
and the getting home so late

©Jemverse

Photo – Kings Cross station, London, UK – Jempics

Really really big

Three thousand people
In Brighton last week
met Brian to talk about space
Not a seat there was free
it was thrilling to see
with excitement right there in the place

The screen on the stage
was the biggest I’d seen
and when filled with the cosmos out there
It filled one with awe
with the things that you saw
and the wonders that he had to share

There was Einstein and theory
and other deep things
and we all lost the plot several times
But the man on the stage
was a seer and sage
and he kept us all feeling just fine

There were quantums and quarks
and black holes and stars
thousands of light years away
Talk of time travel
and other strange things
to mess with your head some would say

But despite all the vastness
and really big stuff
It was good to remember that we
have a life for the now
which we all somehow
need to capture quite wholeheartedly

Astrophysics aside
the professor complied
that really when all’s said and done
reminding the crowd
as we all clapped loud
that the journey had been lots of fun

©Jemverse

Photo – Professor Brian Cox at ‘The Brighton Centre’ – live – Sussex – February 2019 – Jempics

Dubrovnik

1 of 16 in the Jemverse ‘Venetian Vistas’ series

Flew into Dubrovnik
Walked round the city wall
It really was quite beautiful
with plenty to enthral

The views of Adriatic
seas with islands in the bay
was really quite breathtaking
and spectacular I’d say

Games of Thrones was filmed here
Kings Landing by the sea
And it gave a special way to start
the cruise for Sal and me

©Jemverse

Photo – Old Town city walls, Dubrovnik, Croatia – looking to the Adriatic sea – Jempics

‘Dubrovnik’ starts the 16 part Jemverse ‘Venetian Vistas’ series, charting a Marella cruise of the same name in August 2018

Born to the sun revisited

I’ve seen fifty-nine summers
and have loved every one
For back in the fifties
I was born to the sun

A child of a Thursday
I had far to go
But I’d hardly have guessed
what I now have to show

For I’ve memories a-plenty
and a lot more to come
For this child of the summer
who was born to the sun

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

Homeward Bound

As stations go, the Lime Street one
here in Liverpool
is rather nice and will I’m sure
make some people drool
Architects and engineers and
railway history buffs
Will, weak of knee, pontificate
about minutiae stuff

But for most its hallowed arches
and Victorian splendour will
be lost within the purpose
that its innards do fulfil
As, like me on this cold morning
a train inside is found
with the sole and special purpose
to take me homeward bound

©Jemverse

 

Chania

Part 11 of 20 in ‘The Aegean Shores’ series

Past a little wooded island
down a Cretian estuary
To the Venetian port of Chania
sheltered from the sea

The Pilot was a Master
A joy to watch his craft
as he turned us on a sixpence
with thrusters fore and aft

©Jemverse

I didn’t get a picture, but the dock at Chania was only just big enough to accommodate the Thomson Dream. Watching the pilot manoeuvre the ship using just the thrusters though, was quite something.

[This is part 11 of a 20-part series charting a seven-day cruise with Tui from 11-18 August 2017, travelling from London to Corfu, then Kalamata (Greece), Santorini, Rhodes, Crete, Piraeus (Greece), Kefalonia, Corfu and London, some 3,870 nautical miles]

Kalamata Heat

‘Kalamata Heat’ – 3 of 20 in ‘The Aegean Shores’ series

I found a spot of sunshine
with no-one else around
Overlooking Grecian waters
with just the ocean sound

It was very hot – some forty plus
but pleasant in the breeze
as we sailed to Kalamata
through Mediterranean seas

©Jemverse

[This is part 3 of a 20-part series charting a seven-day cruise with Tui from 11-15 August 2017, travelling from London to Corfu, then Kalamata (Greece), Santorini, Rhodes, Crete, Piraeus (Greece), Kefalonia, Corfu and London, some 3,870 nautical miles]

At Sea

‘At Sea’ – 2 of 20 in ‘The Aegean Shores’ series

Slumber with the engine’s thrum
through decks one to five
Come morning though, the sunshine
makes us come alive

Streaming through our window
across a deep blue sea
This borders on perfection
for my soulmate, Sal, and me

©Jemverse

[This is part 2 of a 20-part series charting a seven-day cruise with Tui from 11-15 August 2017, travelling from London to Corfu, then Kalamata (Greece), Santorini, Rhodes, Crete, Piraeus (Greece), Kefalonia, Corfu and London, some 3,870 nautical miles]

Leaving Blighty

Part 1 of 20 in ‘The Aegean Shores’ series

It’s getting quite exciting
watching big planes come and go
Sitting in Departures
and going with the flow
It’s quite warm here but warmer still
in Corfu where we’ll be
Waiting for our flight to board
My wife here (Sal) and me

Leaving Blighty for a week
for a cruise the Grecian way
Island hopping in the sun
on our summer holiday

©Jemverse

[Today marks the start of a 20-part series charting a seven-day cruise with Tui travelling from London to Corfu, then Kalamata (Greece), Santorini, Rhodes, Crete, Piraeus (Greece), Kefalonia, Corfu and London]