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Of trade, empires and pygmy hippos
Did you know that Cyprus once had pygmy hippos?
Sleeping dogs
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Hungry for answers in a Budapest hotel
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Hungry for answers in a Budapest hotel
Budapest. I last came here in the 1980s when Hungary was still ostensibly communist, part of the Warsaw Pact and under the grim governing eye of the Russians.
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Avoid the bus to hellfire and damnation
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Avoid the bus to hellfire and damnation
St Olav Gate in Oslo, and a sleek red bus draws up beside me.
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Arrivederci to the IFP’s rescue canine
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Arrivederci to the IFP’s rescue canine
The human mind is a restless thing.
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Tree won’t win any poplar’arity contests
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Tree won’t win any poplar’arity contests
Poplar. It’s not much of a name for a tree. It sounds cheap and insubstantial - poplar music, poplar taste.
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Musings by someone not known as Joe
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Musings by someone not known as Joe
Word of the week — mononymous.
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Being swept away into some ‘time torn off’
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Being swept away into some ‘time torn off’
I am waiting for a man to sweep my chimney.
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To think that I saw it on Canterbury St
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To think that I saw it on Canterbury St
At dusk I set off for a walk.
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The next papacy is not going to the dogs
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The next papacy is not going to the dogs
Since I started writing newspaper columns, three popes have died.
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Little choice in a barrel of rotten apples
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Little choice in a barrel of rotten apples
A see-saw consists of opposing halves, one up, one down.
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The driving imperative of basic courtesy
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The driving imperative of basic courtesy
You are driving.
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Dire warnings about reaching 80 years
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Dire warnings about reaching 80 years
The only advice I’ve received about ageing came from my mother.
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Progress is driving me to Jesus this hour
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Progress is driving me to Jesus this hour
"That's an hour of my life I won’t get back," I thought.
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A visceral encounter with a local attercop
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A visceral encounter with a local attercop
What did spiders ever do to us?
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Powered into action as dreaded outage looms
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Powered into action as dreaded outage looms
Please read this quickly because that’s how I’m writing it, as the electricity is about to be cut off.
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The blues, the reds, the shoes and dogs
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The blues, the reds, the shoes and dogs
When I tell them I was Elvis’ nutritionist, some people refuse to believe me.
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War is over, happy apple season to all
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War is over, happy apple season to all
Writhe in envy, for I have apples.
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Posting about Pegasus and the dodo
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Posting about Pegasus and the dodo
"Well, if you really want to know — though I'm not sure it will lead to a productive conversation — I was posting a letter.
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Hooked by a moody waterfront photo
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Hooked by a moody waterfront photo
Poignant is the word, deriving from the Old French poindre, meaning to prick or stab.
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Paying the price for poetical demands
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Paying the price for poetical demands
Like you, I look forward to the arrival of every rates bill.