60+ born in South Africa; a British Citizen as of 2016; Mother (of one fabulous daughter)
my fabulous daughter
1st born daughter ; eldest of 5 sisters & 2 brothers (1 deceased ) ; Aunt to 9 (5 girls & 4 boys), Great-aunt to 3 (2 boys & 1 girl) ; Cousin (to many) ; Sister-in-law, Mother-in-law and eagerly anticipating becoming a granny….and as of 01.19 I am now a Granny to the cutest little boy….my absolute treasure.
I am passionate about travelling and love planning trips to and exploring new and exciting places, currently working on Project 101. I am an enthusiastic photographer (still learning), adrenaline sports lunatic, personal development ex-junkie, and all round lover of life.
I love reading, writing (3 published books – 1 on London), writing poetry (had a few published), reading poetry and biographies of interesting people e.g. Richard Branson, Nelson Mandela. I thoroughly enjoy swimming, cycling, walking – especially long distance walking, caving, cruises, teaching, blogging, exploring, history, the English language and collecting travel magazines. Currently enjoying the #walk100miles 2020 challenge and completed my 4th long distance walk in September 2020.
I am 98% vegetarian, a daily activist, concerned about the future of our planet, anti-plastic and sign every petition I come across, keen to leave a legacy, and care about children, animals and adults in distress. Oh and I love cats and small, baby creatures.
I am also a domestic abuse survivor.
to keep up with me and my travels visit my ‘other’ blog at :
http://www.calane55.wordpress.com/ (non active right now)
my photos of random stuff, the English Country and my travels at :
https://www.instagram.com/notjustagranny/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/notjustagranny/sets/
p.s. I also have a blog called: http://www.takeonlymemories.wordpress.com
I am no longer active on Twitter
Not Just a Granny 
I have a new article on my blog which I think you’ll like. It is called What is Spirituality? http://bit.ly/ArtBG
Feel free to use it.
Much love
Ton
It’s amazing how our life can fit into a couple of paragraphs, isn’t it, Cindy?
Yours sounds exciting, both in the past and in the future:).
Love your blog idea and adore your banner! Very creative.
Best,
Ana Hoffman/What is YourNetBiz
Hello Ana. thanks for visiting my blog 🙂 So true; I love this medium of communication. thanks for the lovely comments, my daughter designed the banner and we had permission from the artist to use the picture :). My daughter reckons that’s what I’ll be like when I get old…get around with a walking stick and whack people’s ankles!!! hahahah. Have a great day. Regards Cindy
Nice to see you, Cindy! Happy to meet a person with such an active life position and so numerous hobbies. 🙂
Hi Ana, (Cindy)
I am writing a piece for The Times about people who are planning to go up to the Palace for the Royal Wedding. Would you be happy to have a chat with me?
Thank you!
Kaya
————–
Feature Writer
The Times
Hello Kaya,
wow! I would be delighted. I am so excited about the Royal Wedding and am definitely going to be at the Palace on the day! 🙂 I will write to you via my personal email and connect with you there. Thanks so much for the invite!
Hi Cindy,
Congratulations! You have been awarded The Versatile Blogger Award. Stop by Self Expression http://olgaselfexpression.wordpress.com for more details.
ah wow! Olga thank you! I am delighted. I just read the post and am blown away that you thought of me. I know just who I am going to pass the award onto and will attend to the necessary in the morning 🙂 its almost midnight here and I have to go to bed 🙂 thanks again
Hi Cindy,
Congratulation on your Versatile Blogger Award! Thanks to Olga I found your blog and I love it.
Hello Ariana, thanks so much for dropping by, glad you found my blog, I appreciate the compliment. Have a fab day. i shall be visiting your blog shortly and look forward to what I may find 🙂
Regards
Cindy
I was sorry to hear of Alan’s death. He was my father’s best friend, sailing companion and neighbour in Hamble in the 1930s. They had lost touch after Alan’s parents died and he stopped visiting England. I have fond memories of watching Alan’s silent colour films of Africa many years ago. I guess it must have been the mid to late 50s. However I managed to find Alan’s phone number and got them talking again a few years ago. (Thank you Google) Dad also passed away last spring and I have inherited quite a few photos and newspaper clippings of Hamble featuring him and Alan, especially in the sea scouts. If they are of interest, I will scan them and let you have them. It might take a while though.
Wow you are a very active and passionate person! It is nice to meet you!
Hi Lynz, thanks, and likewise. I have been off my blog for a while so am only just replying to comments. thanks for dropping by, I shall head over and have a peek at your blog too. Enjoy your evening. Cindy
Hello,
Loving your post on the Portuguese Camino. They are very helpful as I plan my walk for the Fall of 2018. I only wish I could print them all as I study and learn – your photos are great.
Thank you,
JBB
Hi Jeannie, thanks ever so much for your comment. I’m delighted you’ve found the posts useful and enjoyed the photos. It’s a fantastic route and one I’d love to do again one day. Meanwhile, Bom Caminho for your walk, I’d love to follow your journey. I’ll be walking the Camino Ingles in September so maybe we’ll cross paths.. Santiago is fab albeit wet a lot. Apparently the botafumeiro is always swung on a Friday evening, but it’s a hit and miss affair on any other day. Good luck. If you need any further information do drop me a line. Regards Cindy
I just found your blog by chance and the name itself is so catchy 🙂
Even before exploring your posts, I landed here and I can see, you are not just a granny 🙂
My name is Sreejith and I am from Kerala, a small state at the Southern tip of India.
I share a similar passion with you, that, I hate plastic … also trying to help people lead a sustainable life through my organization.
Hope to read many more interesting stories here…
Have a great weekend 🙂
Hello there. Thanks ever so much for connecting. Yes, plastic. So pernicious and so entrenched in our lives. I went on a blitz some years ago and did my best to avoid buying anything in plastic, favouring cardboard containers…my purchases were minimal 😂😂 But when I discovered that cardboard also contains plastic I just despaired. Its going to take more people than can be bothered, to make a big enough difference. I applaud your determination to help people live a more sustainable life. Thanks for dropping by. I look forward to reading more about what you do. Regards Cindy
Thank you so much, Cindy for sharing your thoughts and I am hopeful that we will be able to overcome this over dependency on plastic soon.
There are many individuals and organizations working towards sustainable goals and I am sure that we will be able to reverse the negative impacts on nature…
So good to get connected here 🙂
Oh gosh I really hope so. The children of now and the future deserve to inherit a clean planet
I am super excited to read about your Portuguese Camino – we’ve done ours in 2018 and your stories brings back so many memories … loving it! I find your blog very interesting (maybe because there is a connection between us … being born in South Africa 😊). Keep safe 👣👣
Ohhhh cool 🇿🇦 ☺☺ that’s awesome. I’m delighted you have enjoyed my blog, I tend to post random stuff amongst the travels, not always to everyone’s taste. I’m so excited to learn you’ve walked the Portuguese Camino too 👏👏 I had such a fantastic walk in 2017 that I’m going to repeat it with my younger sister is 2022 or 2023…Covid and finances depending. I’m really looking forward to visiting Portugal again. K just loved it.
I just loved it….not K 😉
You too. Strange times we’re living through…
Hello there Cindy.
Like your Alexa in the most recent post, I am beginning to worry that my computer knows far too much about me. WordPress “suggested” your blog on a page that I had tagged with Broadstairs which is understandable I suppose. I spend a bit of time there, have many friends in the town and write quite a lot about it.
I have played many Folk Weeks and shall be back again this year although I am not sure what it will be like, it just depends on the rules at the time. Do you ever go to Folk Week or are you one of the locals that “gets out of Dodge” when it is on?
How the computer guessed that I had walked the Thames Path (in sections) some years ago and loved it is s a little harder to explain or may just be coincidence. I even re-walked a portion of it more recently whilst walking the Jubilee Greenway and I am loving your writings about it.
In yet another coincidence I see that Corna and Berto (wetanddustyroads) have discovered your blog and commented upon it. Corna and I regularly “chat” here on WordPress. Either this computer really is spying on me (and remember, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you!) or it is just another one of the odd things that so often happen to me both whilst travelling and writing about it.
I am off now for another good rummage in your blog, it looks fascinating.
Speak soon,
Fergy.
Hello Fergy. How lovely to hear from you. As you can see I started at the end, and worked my way to the front…😁😁
Ahh yes, Alexa, and the internet. Its the algorithms that are out to get us…the downside of free, albeit occasionally useful. I’ve found some terrific blogs and connected with lovely people, like Corna. We too often chat via wordpress and I’m hoping to meet them when I travel to SA in 2023.
However I do believe that all our electronic devices spy on us, so occasionally I say things just to mess with their heads 😂😂
Oh yes, we attend Folk Week for sure, its brilliant fun and in fact we took my grandson last year and he especially loved the Morris Dancers…one of my favourites too.
We’ll likely go again this year (if I’m not working), so lets say hello.
Do you play in the pubs as well, or outdoors?
Thanks again ever so much for stopping by and rummaging through my blog…I love writing and sharing my travel experiences.
Have a brilliant day.
Regards Cindy
I like your thinking about screwing the computers. Just input totally random concepts and see what it does to them. I reckon that cutting and pasting, or reciting in Alexa’s case, one of my blogs should induce meltdown as they are so random and idiotic.
Oh dear oh dear, you like Morris men? I should preface this by saying that I have literally dozens of friends who are Morris men and a mate of mine who I played with at Broadstairs the first time I was there (1988) is in the Guinness Book of Records.
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-distance-morris-danced-in-seven-days
Ben and I played in a band called Muddy Feet with Sam Hall on fiddle, Rick Campion on lead guitar (he went on to record with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and is now a musical lecturer), Micky Coe on bass and Brian “Max” Proudfoot on drums. Max now works for the Australian government in your home country having completd a posting to Kabul last December. We were some band!
Morris dancing, whilst a great opportunity for drinking is just wrong. To paraphrase someone from a long time ago, “everyone should experience everything in life except incest and country (Morris) dancing!
I have played for Morris sides and was invited to join several but I have the original two left feet so it didn’t happen.
I always play the pubs at Folk Week and usually run “wingman” for Paul Lucas at the daily playarounds in the George and other random gigs, mostly in the 39 Steps or up in St. Peter’s. but I have no idea what will be allowed this year.
At times we have had 30 musicians in there, never mind the audience and I don’t think that is going to happen this year.
A dear friend / ex-girlfriend of mine is on the Committee and we spoke a couple of days ago and even she doesn’t know what is going on. The regulations and projections change daily. All I know is that I shall be there with my guitar, staying in the Wrotham (already sorted with Jackie the landlady) and whatever happens happens. If it means us all sitting in Pierremont Park or the pier or the beach and all sitting X feet apart then so be it.
What I can tell you without fear of contradiction is that we will do whatever it takes and whatever the dubious laws allow to make music. You know how much the Festival means to the town.
Yes, we have to meet up. I have no clue where I’ll be playing as I withdrew myself from the official list a few years ago because I never knew where I was travelling and it will undoubtedly not be finalised until the last minute but we’ll be doing something and it would be lovely to meet you.
I shall look forward to it. I won’t be in the programme but just ask round where there is a session and, under the limited circumstances, the chances are that I will be in the middle of it.
Alternatively, just leave a message in the Wrotham and I’ll get it.
OMG Jethro Tull. Only one of my all time favourite bands. Saw them in concert in SA many years ago. Locomotive Breath…oh yes.
As for Morris Dancing…its awesome 😁😁😁
I’ve travelled all over London just to watch different troupes…😂😂😂
Yeah I can imagine that trying to organise anything atm is a nightmare. I’ll keep your info in mind and I try connect…hopefully I’m not scheduled to work.
Tull, what a band.
I saw them in the incarnation when the late Maart (yes, there are two a’s in the name Allcock from Fairport was playing keys with them.
It was at the Hammersmith Odeon as it was still called then and they were unbelievable. As an aside but very relevant to your home and the area which we both love, I have played Locomotive Breath live in front of about 3,000 drunk and unhappy Norwegians at the Porsgrunn Festival many years ago.
It is a long story why they were unhappy but we stopped the organiser being lynched by crazed Vikings but that is another story.
Believe me, I am full of them and the scariest thing is that they are all true. We played for the Russian Mafia two days afterwards!
OMG 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I have to hear more about that!!!
It was an interesting experience to say the least. I’ll be sure to pack my Aqualung T-shirt and wear it whatever day you are around town, I usually pack it anyway, it is one of my favourites.
Awesome!! I really must get my CDs out of storage…
I just checked the dates of folk week and I may just be there for one of the days…depending on work dates, it will be towards the end of the period…and just before I leave on my 6 week walk/s in Northumberland…
I cannot believe you are so organised. I generally just wake up of a morning and think, “I fancy a trip”, go to a mainline station and get a train somewhere. I once went for a supposed day-trip to Portsmouth to see HMS Victory and ended up on the Isles of Wight for four days! My then girlfriend was not amused.
I do not know if you have been to Northumberland before but it is stunning. After Folk week 2019 where I was again playing with my dear mate Paul who lives in Newcastle, he invited me to dep in his band over Hallowe’en as his usual guitarist was on holiday in Bulgaria.
It was brilliant and you can read about it here.
https://fergysrambles.org/2019/10/29/london-newcastle-train/
It actually follows on from the Broadstairs trip nicely. I am guessing you will be doing the coast, which is stunning, and you simply must visit Bamburgh Castle if it is open with the virus paranoia.
I would also suggest a day or two in Newcastle if you can, it is a wonderful place but my best tip would be Berwick-upon-Tweed, a town that doesn’t quite know if it is Scottish or English, and it has been both over the years.
Berwick is well off the tourist map but has a wealth of things to see and, if you follow my link to Newcastle, you’ll get there eventually.
I simply can’t wait to see what you make of a much under-rated part of the country. I love it there and, having had a bit of an insight into your travel mindset, I think it will be tailor-made for you.
Ohhh 😃😃😃 I’m heading that way for sure with the 3 walks I’ve planned, two of which follow the coast from Holy Island to Berwick (a place I’ve wanted to visit for years). From there I’ll be bussing back to Holy Island and then walking to Newcastle along the coast. I’ve planned for 3 nights and 2 days in Newcastle before I set off along Hadrian’s Wall for 10 days. Bamburgh castle is high on my list especially because its part of my Project 101. 😁😁
After researching Northumberland, I may just not come back 😂😂
As for being organised, I have to be coz I have to plan my work bookings very carefully around my trips, personal engagements and my grandson’s schedule, and make sure I work often enough to enjoy my trips. I’d love to just have the opportunity to up and go on a whim, although I have been known to do that too…which is how I ended up becoming a British citizen 😀😀
Meanwhile I’ve got a spreadsheet of walks and trips planned as far in advance as 2025. Kumano Kodo, New Zealand, Australia and Tasmania. I’ve already started saving…🤑🤑
I can understand how you have to be organised as juggling work and travelling cannot be easy, not to mention the added factor of the “wee lad” which is obviously no chore.
It is about 35 years since I was on Holy Island and visited Bamburgh but I remember both fondly, expecially the mead they make there, an interesting brew. I suppose now I’ll have to pack my Lindisfarne T-shirt as well as my Aqualung one!
😁😁 indeed yes.
I’m really looking forward to the trip. I just hope Bozo doesn’t put us into lockdown again just before I’m due to leave…! I will be unimpressed.
I know people accuse me of being a doomsayer etc. but I have not been too far wrong about this damned virus yet and, believe me, it gives me no pleasure to say that. I don’t think it is nearly over yet, it will just mutate and the whole appalling cycle will start all over again.
Sadly I think the same. Its not going away. Ultimately we will have to take the bit in our teeth and live with it. I often comment on the fact that we are the architects of our own destruction. If its not this virus, its going to be another.