Reflections on my 53rd birthday 1. Don’t calculate how far through your life you are. Too late. I am taking an online “life-expectancy calculator” and ploughing through a plethora of questions. I am wondering why my marital status, level of education or frequency of flossing will affect the length of my remaining life. Or why…
Burning Issues – Geo-politics and Small Fires
With the inexorable rise of the internet, maybe the final resting place for the newspaper is in the kitchen. The morning after the presidential election, the Guardian’s updated political map of the USA lay casually across the kitchen table, like a multi-coloured tablecloth. Each state was a mosaic of reds and blues depending on their…
By the Seat of my Pants
Life has a mischievous habit of tossing us a surprise or two when we least expect it. We never know when we wake in the morning what the day will bring. The day stretches before us like a tablecloth on a long banqueting table. Who knows what delights will laid out and be served up?…
Secrets of Successful Shopkeepers
They say that the customer is always right. I guess whoever first said that was a customer. So they must be right. I have worked in retailing for the best part of 30 years. Rather inevitably I guess as I come from a line of retailers. Although in those days they were called shopkeepers.
OUTRAGE
Outrage shouts at us with mock indignation from the pages of our newspapers. ~OUTRAGE AS THAI WOMAN PAINTS WITH HER BOOBS ON TV ~OUTRAGE OVER EMMANUEL FRIMPONG TWEET ~TIME MAGAZINE COVER SHOWING MOTHER BREASTFEEDING SON, 3, SPARKS OUTRAGE ~NORTH KOREA FIRE SPARKS OUTRAGE ~SYRIA MASSACRE OUTRAGE ~THE SUN’S NAKED HARRY PHOTO DECISION DRAWS OUTRAGE ~OUTRAGE…
A Train ride through Transylvania (abridged)
The overnight train from Bucharest is swaggering through the foreboding mountains of Transylvania. Jerry has demanded silence whilst he proves that he can complete a killer Sudoku in less than 45 minutes. So I gaze out of the window and contemplate the journey so far.
Originally posted on Unwrapping The World:
Yesterday I went out to explore Texas. Well Texas was too big, so I thought I would explore Houston, or maybe the bit down by the Gulf Coast. Then I downsized a lil more and headed for the Moon. A few hours later I was touching it. Well I…
The Walls of Dubrovnik
The walls of Dubrovnik, once impregnable, are now penetrated daily by thousands of invaders from around the planet. They come armed, not with their guns but with their Gucci. Not with their cannon but with their cameras. Plundering the city for pleasure and secretly stealing a billion digital images.
Time, memory and a sense of the present
Time moves on and on, and the past sinks deeper into our murky pool of memories. We simply can’t encapsulate a moment or an experience so fully that it can be retrieved and relived with any of the colour or depth of the original. Memory is thin and fragile; lacking in colour and detail, devoid…
An examination of Montenegro
Today was the hottest day of the year. 36 degrees. The day we decided to check out Montenegro. It was quite a test for all of us. I knew nothing about this little country. I certainly never expected it to be some sort of super-heated tourist town. But apparently it is. The south coast is…
Unwrapping The World 