Across The Pond (Canada - September 1996)
My perceived readiness to cross the pond coincided with a friend's trip to the Canadian Rockies. Dispassionately committed, pre-trip pressure of work ultimately blocked any anxiety until departure day. Then our airport chauffeur and inept agents bore the brunt of my over-reaction as we arrived at the wrong terminal without pre-booked seats.  Air Canada took capable charge and allocated us an ideal spot.

Initially nervous rather than anxious somewhere over the Atlantic en route home, a veteran of four flights in three weeks, I realised I was bored, not scared.  Unfortunately organisational glitches outside our control tainted some of the trip. My friend managed to lay aside her anger until appropriate complaints could be made much more effectively than I did. Lack of control linked to unmet expectations and the need to accommodate someone else's approach to travel played a significant role in raising my anxiety levels.

On a more positive note if you like square mile upon square mile of conifers, enjoy isolation which makes Knoydart seem like a Sunday afternoon picnic and are immune to mosquitoes which draw blood through your clothes, then Canada is the ideal place! Actually Canada offers boundless opportunities for all sorts of sightseeing and other activities.  I learned to drive competently on the wrong side of the road, confidently slipped into a western saddle without any prior experience and braved a drive through a car wash for the first time in my life. 

In high humidity and a heat wave I walked with few fears through a vast often alien environment populated by two types of bear, ferocious forest fires, elk, moose and mosquitoes, the most anti-social inhabitants of an otherwise exceptionally friendly country.  Other guests at the hot springs kept their distance from pockmarked legs which left me looking like the victim of some deadly tropic disease.

Marvellous Malta (April 1997)
According to tourist information sources Malta offers 7000 years of living history set against a backcloth of near year round sunshine, striking scenery and the deep Mediterranean blue sea.  I have met other travellers who marvelled at Malta but I left with the impression that perhaps the island was better suited as a refuge to St Paul or a base from which the Knights of St John defended Christendom.

I hold up my hands and admit I'm not a history buff and only the most impressive sights hold any sway.  On Malta these seemed confined to the ancient walled city of Mdina & bustling streets of Valetta.  We never found any striking scenery.  The "spectacular" cliff at the end of one particular walk would have crumbled into insignificance alongside many British coastal locations.  Gozo, Malta's charming sister island, was an altogether more colourful and attractive destination especially at the end of a relaxing boat trip.  Amid towering cliffs, lush farmland and budding spring blooms life did indeed appear to move at a more leisurely pace as the brochures would have us believe.