I retired in 2009, played golf for a couple of years and then decided what to do for the rest of my life. Linda had told me 'you can't play golf for the rest of your life', so what should I do?

I'd never been to University and I'd always wanted to write a book. The Open University beckoned, and I found a  suitable course in 'How to write fiction', which only lasted three months, so I thought I'd give it a go. I .found I was quite good, and passed with a score of 85%. The university suggested I should do a three year degree course in Creative Writing. But I'd already decided that Linda and I would go travelling, which would encroach on my degree course. The Open University put me in touch with the Writers Village Academy, which was run by Dr John Yeoman, who had an  MA in English Literature (Oxon) and was a published author. He founded Writers Village in 2009 as an academy to teach potential writers and to run writing contests. Unfortunately, John Yeoman died in July 2016. He is sorely missed.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with travel. Linda and I started travelling in 1984. On our honeymoon, we went to Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand, which we thought was a holiday of a lifetime time. Since then, we have been to Bali, Singapore (again), California, Florida, Las Vegas and Hawaii.

After I retired, we did our first Round the World trip, travelling to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Auckland, Sydney, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Dubai and home. In Las Vegas, we stayed at Caesar's Palace, where we saw Bet Midler. In Los Angeles, there was a storm so violent the hotel advised us to leave. From Auckland, we toured the North Island of New Zealand, driving north to the Bay of Islands. We tried Coromandel, but it rained so hard the tourist office        advised us to leave. We went to Rotorua, which was marvellous, then on to Napier and Martinborough. We drove down to the southern tip of North Island, where no tourist office will advise you to go, where we saw a brown seal colony, in the wild, as well as a Māori golf course. We went to the top of South Island to visit my niece, Debbie, and her husband, Mark, in Blenheim, part of the Marlborough wine region. We went back across the Cook Strait to Wellington then returned to Auckland by train.

After New Zealand, we flew in to Sydney and then drove along the coast to Melbourne, a better drive than the more famous Ocean Drive, to Adelaide, which we also experienced. From Adelaide we took the train back to Sydney. On the train we met a group of Australians who welcomed us as part of their family. Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide are wonderful cities, but we didn't have enough time to enjoy.

We flew on to Bangkok, where unexpectedly I experienced homesickness. I'd never been away this long before. But a return to Hong Kong, visiting Happy Valley race course and Macao, followed by a few days in Dubai helped me recover. Then we were home again, wishing we could do it all again.

We would, but not for another 10 years.