With Ellen by his side, JL was an avid traveller, visiting every corner of the planet together… though none were as exotic as Swindon! One of JL’s favourite things to do on holiday was to find the perfect spot for a silly photo that in more recent years he would post on Instagram. Giant vegetables in New Zealand, holding hands with a bear Mountie in Canada, pretending to surf Wave Rock in Australia, being a cosmonaut in Moscow or fake serious posing in Tokyo. His absolute favourite was the one of him stood in the field of lupins, Can you find him?
Scroll down to see some selected seasonal holiday photos. Click the icon to see more of JL's travel posts, including the full series of him in NZ with giant veg:
Power-posing in Iceland
The museum was shut but that didn’t stop us taking pics of the giant potato
Not funny, but a nice one by an amazing waterfall in Canada
It’s a bear mounty. Why WOULDN’T you hold his hand?
This is a tanuki, they’re outside every shop and restaurant in Japan and they have giant testicles for good luck
JL pointing at the Monastery, Petra, Jordan
A treetop walk in Australia
He was faking being scared of the alligators…I think
Surfing Wave Rock, Western Australia
One of the famed NZ veg pics
He’s in there if you look closely - he was so proud of this one
Another classic, the sad cosmonaut
Happy Russia selfie
Digital art selfie, Tokyo
Catalogue model pose, Tokyo again
One of the smallest baths on our first Japan trip
Eating a deep-fried Oreo in Las Vegas
This one’s not funny either, just a really nice one of him in NZ
Another classic pointing shot
So happy on Ramsay Street!
Just another nice one, this time in Greece in 2018
Christmas day in the camper in New Zealand
Comments
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We were hugely fortunate to have had some incredible holidays. John-Luke just loved to be in the forest, or hiking, and he would always tell me how happy he was to be away with me. Japan was his favourite country, the last place we went before the pandemic and the first place we said we would go once we could travel again. John-Luke loved thinking about travel, we’ve got travel books for places we hadn’t even been yet, and a huge collection of stuff cut out from magazines about different potential trips. We both loved to take photos on our holidays, and John-Luke had bought me a brilliant camera years ago before our first road trip to America. We have some of our favourite pictures up on the wall in our hallway. John-Luke would always make me retake his silly pose photos again and again until he had the expressions perfect, and doing it always made him giggle! We have had so many hilarious experiences on our trips. In the blue mountains in Australia we rode an ex-coal mining car down a mountain, and didn’t realise there were different settings for the angle you’d be at going down, so we accidentally had ours on ‘daredevil’. We shot down at 90 degrees while the music from Indiana Jones played. Another hilarious time was when John-Luke got very concerned about theft when we travelled to Naples, and emerged from the airport toilet wearing a ‘secret’ money belt that he’d filled with all our valuables. It was completely visible under his clothes because he’d made it so full, and I have never laughed so hard. Our house is just full of little souvenirs and items that hold so many memories from all over the world.
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Selfishly, I was annoyed when John-Luke told me he was leaving Historic England and you guys were going travelling in the US. But I know how much you guys love travel, so I was pleased for you, nonetheless. Just as I had got used to the idea, then covid hit. I then became annoyed that your mega trip was postponed indefinitely.
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We shared a love of travel with John-Luke and Ellen, so much so that sitting through hours of each-others’ completely unedited holiday snaps became a shared joke. The edited version was for people who didn’t appreciate quite why it was necessary to take five pictures of the back of the campervan in the rain, or find such amusement in John-Luke’s characteristic deadpan pointing. Japan#1 (JL pointing at strange food) and Canada (JL pointing at mountains) stand out as particular epics on their side; they tried to steal the New Zealand crown back from us after their trip but despite JL’s protestations about not being interested in hobbits I think we still nailed it.
Travel Photo Archive
Like Google memories, this section will be updated to highlight a trip we had at that time of year.
JAPAN
November 2019
This was our second trip to Japan, and we wanted to have a totally different experience from the first time. In Tokyo, we sought out new places like the digital art museum (where JL did his silly poses). We visited several famous gardens, now we were gardeners and could fully appreciate them! We’d also not been able to attend a sumo tournament before, so we planned that specially and were really glad we did - it was so much fun and such a slice of the culture. We spent most of our time on the Western island of Kyushu - less populated and more rural, with active volcanoes and ancient forests. There was so much gorgeous scenery it almost didn’t feel real. At one point we rode a little pink train out onto a high bridge where they set off a bubble machine, which was magical and just typical Japan. During our trip the new Emperor was touring the country, and we kept accidentally running across spots he’d been appearing - although too late to actually see him. Then in Kyoto on our way home there were people waiting on the street and it turned out the Emperor was about to pass that way. So we waited with them to wave at the cars as they drove by. John-Luke just charmed people while we stood there, playing with dogs and chatting. There’s a video on his instagram of the moment they pass, and you can just hear John-Luke’s excited ‘there they are!’. Although he loved everywhere we travelled, I think Japan was John-Luke’s favourite country of all, and we fully intended to keep going back.
