Fair play?

I suppose the concept of fair play is one of those old-fashioned virtues (often associated with the Brits I believe) that we have to do without in this commercial age. After all the fuss in Ireland about Thierry Henry’s hand touching the ball that went into the net and cost Ireland the qualification for the [...]

Cats

Well, we’re home again, and the cat has survived our three week’s absence. She was fed by the neighbour’s lads, but they put any leftovers outside for her to finish and I’m sure the magpies get more of it than she does. Maybe it’s the cooler weather that makes her seek my company on the [...]

Day 1

Today was the first day of this science of happiness experiment. I even got an e-mail from Mr Wiseman himself personally, gosh, thanking me for joining and reminding me of my duties, so thoughtful and considerate of him, perhaps he’s a candidate in his own experiment.
I’m supposed to perform a small act of kindness each [...]

Happiness experiment

If you remember, we did extracts from Quirkology, by Richard Wiseman in class a few months ago (about lying), and we’ve also talked about happiness often enough. I see that Mr. Wiseman is conducting a huge experiment on the science of happiness, and would like as many people as possible to join in. Please click [...]

Back to the monsoon

I’m back to the sticky monsoon season on the Lower Rhine. The renewed downfalls have one great advantage: we now know where the water is getting in (yes, there’s been more, but now I know where the Strategic Bucket needs to go). Next step is to get the huge laurel bush in the front garden [...]

Postcard from Scotland

I’m staying with my Mum and Dad in Scotland at the moment, just having a quiet time: talking, eating, reading, sleeping. But yesterday my Dad and I did take a blustery walk along the cliffs at Aberdour, part of the Fife Coastal Path, and down into the harbour.
It was a typical Scottish summer day. The [...]

Wet, wet, wet

6pm last Friday, the road crossing just behind our house.
No, this isn’t a post about the Scottish pop group of the Eighties, but the wonderful weather we’ve been ‘enjoying’ recently. It’s the reason why I’ve not had the energy to post much here recently: I spent the last three days moving furniture, clothes, some 600 [...]

Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be

Some of us are going to see an all-male production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (true to the customs of Shakespeare’s time, when women’s parts were played by young men whose voices had not yet broken) at the Neuss Globe’s Shakespeare Festival. This is the play on love and marriage,  it is often proposed that [...]

Feeling much better

The leg-ache has gone: the stiffness in my right calf caused by severe cramping during my last tennis match has now dissipated. The resulting bruise is still there, rather like my sense of guilt over how, once the opposing team got me back on my feet after I’d been rolling round on the ground screaming [...]

Little known facts about Regensburg

Oscar Schindler lived there after the war until he emigrated to Argentina in 1948
Meetings of the Prince Electors, or the Imperial diet (Reichstag) or the town council all took place at a green table, because green was the symbolic colour of a speedy and good decision. The expression in German ‘am grünen Tisch entschieden’  now [...]