Destination .. St. Petersburg........RUSSIA, that is!!

It all began when my lovely bride suggested that we visit St. Petersburg and then it all came

back to me. It was in the mid-'60s and I was visiting the Soviet Union with the group from the NASSP( National Association of Secondary School Principals). We were invited by

Premier Krushchev to inspect their school system which was considered top rate by most

countries. During that visit, which involved a number of large city schools, I was fascinated

by Leningrad, formerly St. Petersburg and thought it would be nice to visit again when I

wasn't followed so closely by the Russian Secret Police. So it came to pass in December 2011

that I reactivated Despicable Tours to plan a return trip to St. Petersburg. As you know from

previous journeys with this exalted company, whose motto is known worldwide, "We Take

You to Places You Don't Want to Go", they pursued the commission with their usual vigor

and dispatch. In fact, they have gone to extreme and booked us on the Queen Mary 2 to

England, the mother country for some fish and chips as well as a look at the Olympic venue

in 2012. In this, the fateful year when the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world. From England we sail on the Baltic, stopping at various Baltic ports until we arrive at the port of St. Petersburg(formerly Leningrad).

Alas, when I broke the news to my spouse about the latest journey planned

by this most glorious Tour Agency, she cried out in disbelief, "My sire! I meant St. Petersburg

Florida, the estate of my eldest son and his dear wife Debbie, Duchess of Pelham".

I gasped, and contacted Despicable but to my regret, the journey was already booked and

to cancel now would mean a certain trip to the scaffold. So it is, we will be on our way to

St. Petersburg cometh July 2012 in the year of our Lord.

In sadness, when I reported this error on my part to Barri, my youngest, she replied, "fret not, my liege, our family; Sir John Edwin, Prince Walter Henry and the Lady Aubrey Jade will join you on

this pilgrimage while at the same time I can revisit my former school in Birkamstead and perhaps see Duncan McEwen and his offspring who were so kind to me in my youth too many years ago.

Therefore, I am initiating this blog today to confess the error of my ways and let you know

what will come to pass in the year ahead.

Henry LV, Lord of Condo 360