Do miracles happen ? Last September was a rather exciting time for me for I was going to fly out to Canada to visit a friend whom I had met on the internet. I had "chatted" on the internet with Tom for over two and a half years and we got to know each other so well. I knew all about his family and his friends, his likes and his dislikes. We used to e mail photographs to each other, and even send moving slide shows via e mail. However I thought it was about time that I met Tom and his family, so I booked a flight from Glasgow with Zoom airways to fly me from Glasgow to Calgary. Then I had to book another flight via the internet that would take me from Calgary to the city of Lethbridge, which is in the state of Alberta. I managed to book a flight with Central mountain air through Air Canada. Well, the big day had arrived it was now the 17th September 2005 and I was filled with an excitement and anticipation. However things did not go to plan at first and it was a rather stressful and worrying experience for me at first. At Glasgow airport, once on board the Zoom airplane and settled in waiting for take off, waiting for that big blue mechanical bird to zoom me up heavenward into the sky and fly me off to Canada. Well not a lot was happening ! The pilot could not get the plane to start ! He tried several times, but nothing happened, just a lot of noises and nothing else ! However the pilot had to call in for the technicians and engineers to come to our aid. One hour later we finally managed to take off and were soon up there in the clouds. I did not feel all that comfortable at the thought of the plane having had some engine problems, least little unusual noise coming from the plane and my ears were pricking up "What the hell is that ?" I would think to myself ! Well after some time I started to relax, but was always checking my watch, now I was starting to get a bit worried. I had a connection flight to catch at Calgary, but by the looks of things I was not going to catch that flight. The pilot did announce that he would try to make up for lost time, but we never really caught up with any lost time. I was a very worried man . I am not a very religious person, but in my mind I was having a conversation with "God" ! "Oh God please help me to catch my connection flight, please do not make this holiday of mines be a disaster, please make some miracle happen so that I will catch my flight okay." ! All this was going through my mind. I was really worried, it spoiled the enjoyment of my flight. The Zoom airplane touched down at Calgary at around 14.35. My connection flight with Central mountain air from Calgary to Lethbridge was due for take off at 15.05. I was never going to make it. They would never allow me on the plane at this time. I had to go through customs, I had to reclaim my baggage. How on earth was I going to manage to do all this on time ? Well the first "miracle" happened ! I managed to get off the plane pretty quickly. The second "miracle" was that I had no hassle at all with the customs. I managed to get my baggage from the carousel fairly quickly. Now I had to rush to the Air Canada desk. I was so out of breath I could hardly talk to the young man who was at the desk. I tried to explain to him, and then said "I don't know what I am going to do if I miss this flight ?" The young Canadian guy was very nice about everything, he told me to calm down, and he would make sure that my baggage was booked onto the Central mountain air flight. he told me to hurry to the gate where the people were boarding. This was at around 14.45 and the flight was due to leave at 15.05 ! Heart pounding madly, and very much out of breath, I arrived at the proper gate. I was thankfully allowed on the plane. I started to relax and enjoy the 35 minute flight. I looked out of the window of the small plane, looked at all the plateau, and then the mountainous area below me. Then I looked at the fluffy white clouds in the sky and did not forget to thank him : "Thanks God...thanks for making it all possible for me." Cheers, Alex Kerr

In January 2002 I decided to have another trip out to Australia to visit my sister Betty and her husband Davy who live over there. I had been to Australia on two previous occassions in the summer of 1981, and in the summer of 1985. On this occassion I did not relish the rather long haul of a journey that seems to be never ending. On my first journey over to Australia in 1981 the plane only stopped for an hour at Bahrain and for an hour at Singapore. It was the same in 1985 I only had two stops. So all this flying and hanging about airports mounts up to around 24 hours ! It is a rather long and tedious journey. It is not to bad if you are one of those people who can take a nap on the plane, but sleep seems to evade me when i am flying ! I usually end up at my destination feeling rather worn out and feeling the effects of the jet lag. However this time I had a little more money to play around with so I decided to fly westward and have three day's stopover at Los Angeles. ( read my article about Hollywood ) I had also arranged that I would have a three day stopover at San Francisco on my way home from Australia. ( read my article about San Francisco ) It was wonderful when I arrived at my destination at Sydney airport. It was great to see my sister Betty and her husband Davy again, even although I had seen them quite recently when they were home in Scotland the previous year. I spent a lot of my time lying sunbathing on the local beach in Thirroul. I have never seen beaches so clean as the beaches that I seen in Australia ! There is not any rubbish lying around, you never see an old used soft drinks can lying in the sand ! It was spotless. My sister Betty lives in a quaint little town known as Thirroul in N.S.W. She is quite lucky really as she is right on the costline, and the local Thirroul beach is but a stones throw away from where she lives. I spent a lot of my time going into the city of Wollongong, and also into the city of Sydney. I used to board a train at Thirroul railway station to travel into Sydney. The journey took around 90 minutes as there were quite a number of railway stations that the train had to stop at. However I loved strolling around Sydney, there is so much to see and do in Sydney, it is a wonderful city. I loved going to the famous Sydney opera house, and went there to visit on several occassions. I think it is a marvelous piece of architecture, it is so modern and so "space age", however I used to like going there to visit. Oneday I may return to visit Australia, hopefully in the not-too-distant-future, who knows ? Will have to wait and see how the financial situation goes. Cheers Alex

In the month of February 2002 I flew out from Sydney, Australia for a 3 nights stopover in San Francisco. I had always wanted to see San Francisco, and I remember as I was sitting in the United Airways plane that was flying me out to San Francisco all of the songs that had been written about that place : "I left my heart in San Francisco" "If your going to San Francisco" "Lets go to San Francisco" and "San Francisco" (from the movie of the same name starring Clark Gable.) What was so special about this place ? Well I was going to find out. All I really knew about San Francisco was about the 1906 earthquake, where they had to rebuild the whole city. However, when I finally got to my destination, I was a little bit disappointed with my hotel that was situated in Sutter street. It looks rather fancy in the travel brochures, but in actual fact it was an over pricey rather antiquated dump ! God you should have seen the view I had from my bedroom window - rooftops and an old brownstone building that looked like something from a ghetto ! However saying that, the room was spotless, it was very clean and that was the main thing, and I was only going to be there for three nights anyway so the view from my bedroom window was not really all that important. I spent quite a lot of time exploring the local Chinatown, it was rather fun going there as they were celebrating the Chinese New year, so it was quite a colouful event, and I enjoyed all the hustle and bustle of Chinatown. I also booked a trip that would show me all the sights of San Francisco, that was fun. I managed to see quite a lot of landmarks and even got to go across the famous Golden Gate bridge in the luxuary travel bus. I also managed to see the most crooked street in the world : Lombard street. I never managed to get across to visit Alcatraz as I did not have the time, but I did see the island from a distance. I could actually see it when I was at Fishermans Wharf and also when I was crossing the Golden gate bridge. Would I ever return to San Francisco ? Yes I would. I did not have enough time to see everything, a lot of San Francisco is indeed quite beautiful, but like any other city it can have it's bad spots as well. I plan to put some photographs of San Francisco onto this site in the very near future. Cheers, Alex

In January 2002 I flew out to Los Angeles for three nights stopover en route to Australia. This was to be my third visit to Australia, but I did not want that long haul of a journey, so I thought I would fly westward and stop for a few nights in Los Angeles. I had always wanted to visit Los Angeles, and especially to see Hollywood. Well I got my wish but it was not really what I had expected. I can remember thinking to myself as I was walking down Hollywood Boulevard "here I am, an ordinary working man and I am actually in Hollywood and walking down the boulevard !" Well I soon changed my tune ! I was soon thinking "This is not much different from walking along Princes Street in Edinburgh ! And honestly folks it is really no different ! However the highlight was actually being there and seeing the famous Graumans chinese theatre where all those movie premiers used to be held at. Inside the forcourt were all the cement slabs with the handprints and footprints and autographs of all those famous movie stars many of them long gone now. I spent ages walking around slowly looking at all those cement slabs, often stopping to take a few pictures. Well I have those photographs in my Photo album on this site, if you have the time have a look at them and you will get a real glimpse of Hollywood. Mind you there are some rather fancy spots in the Hollywood area for example Rodeo drive, of course I never bought anything up there, everything is far too expensive ! But at least I have been there, and it was a great experience for me. Who knows perhaps oneday if my financial situation improves I may make it back to Los Angeles and visit Hollywood again. It is not impossible. It is within the realms of possibility. In future Blogs and albums I shall give you a glimpse of other places I have visited. You will be able to take a ride with me on a cable car in San Francisco'! Or take a walk with me around Sydney Opera House in Australia! Hope you enjoy looking at the photographs of Hollywood that I have posted on my website. Cheers, Alex

Last September I flew over to Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, to meet a friend whom I had met on the internet. The friend in question was Mr John Thomas Gilchrist. Tom and I had chatted on the internet for over two and a half years, our main interest was in computers. However we got to know each other so well and were soon sending each other birthday cards and Christmas cards and photographs of family and friends. Meeting Tom and his family for the first time did not feel strange at all as it really felt as if I had known them all for years ! It was a wonderful experience when my plane touched down at Lethbridge airport and Tom was there to meet me with his sister Cathy and their friend Sandy. They were all so kind to me when I was over on holiday and went out of their way to make my holiday as pleasant as possible, driving me for miles and miles to show me some of the wonderful sceanery, Cathy and Sandy cooking me some wonderful mouthwatering meals. Yes they were all so nice. I met Toms brother Alistair who was a really nice guy with a wonderful cheery disposition, he had this wonderful sense of humour. I also met Alistairs wife Mary who was nice and friendly. A friend of Tom's known as Vern took Tom and I on a rather long car trip to Banff, we drove for miles and miles to get there. but it was worth it really as the sights there were really awesome. We even went into the famous Banff Springs hotel and had a few drinks in there. Now that particular hotel is indeed the lap of luxuary. A bit too grand for me mind you, but it was indeed an experience to be there. I intend to fly out to Canada again this year in August 2006 for a two week holiday. It will be so nice to meet up with Tom and all his family and friends again. So this page is dedicated to all you wonderful people over there in Canada, hope to see you all again real soon. Cheers, Alex