London riots

I am having a very busy time in the UK, attending seminars and other genealogy events, doing some research, and visiting relatives and friends. Right now I am staying with a friend in Charlton, London. We expected our area to be safe, but on Monday night we had a police helicopter overhead until about 2am, spotlighting rioters and looters at our local shopping centre (four blocks away). We could smell burning rubber and hear shouting in the main road that runs parallel to our street.

Overall, though, it is much safer here than in many other areas. Last night there were no helicopters here, but police cars with sirens blaring were zooming past on the main road at about one minute intervals from 8pm until I fell asleep around 10:30pm. (Postscript: see Monday 8th August in Timeline of the 2011 England Riots.)

Personal news (cruise, Robyn etc)

As you can see from the description above, this page will be used for personal news and personal genealogy. One of my goals for the coming year is to spend more time researching (and writing about) my own family. I will be visiting Yorkshire and London later this year, so I will start by writing about ancestors from those areas (Webster and Hudson).

On March 19th, when P & O's Pacific Dawn sailed out of Brisbane on a 7-night cruise to Noumea, Lifou and Vanuatu, I was one of the 2,000 passengers. This was my first cruise, and I loved it. A description of the experience is on Genealogy Leftovers (with a few photos).

Robyn is busily packing up and preparing to leave her flat and move up north to the new house. I will be visiting her there for a week in June. I've seen the block of land, but not the house.

It's time to cook dinner, so that's all for now, folks!