Strangely Perfect

Always worth a visit! Especially on a cold, foggy morning! Winter’s Gibbet, Elsdon, Northumberland, England, Uk in England And here is a picture from several years ago on one of my visits.

Healthcare Woes Lying sick in bed this morning listening to a Radio 5 phone-in about the “state” of our Accident & Emergency (A&E) healthcare system here in the UK, I was struck by the failure of the radio show’s producers to engender the expected flurry of tales of woe and poor service. Happy and Immaculate [...]

Golden Syrup Years ago, when I was a lad, my mum used to make us all porridge for breakfast in winter.  On the top, I’d spiral a big dollop of Lyle’s Golden Syrup and then, while eating the porridge, I’d read the tin. Yes!  There was a different flapjack recipe every time! But also, as [...]

MP Expenses and Privileges Scandal Let’s make one thing absolutely clear: Apart from 635 MPs and the somewhat fewer UK MEPs, NOT ONE PERSON IN BRITAIN THINKS ANY DIFFERENTLY FROM ME! *** We all think that they’re all a bunch of spivving crooks who’ve let everyone down.  To compound the felony, they will even get paid [...]

Books by Clark Ashton Smith It’s important to realise the impact that this funny, eclectic, multi-talented, poor, skinny man has had on the world.  The whole genre of science fiction and fantasy and whole industries that hang off the backs of people like Tolkien, are also standing on the shoulders of people like H.P. Lovecraft. [...]

Not being a frequent foreign traveller, my recent stop in Eisenstadt, Austria, at a 5 star hotel open my eyes a bit.  A peculiar quirk, for me, was the toilet, with a shelf, in the room’s en-suite bathroom.  I’ve since found that it’s called a “shelf toilet”, a German invention to ease the inspection of [...]

Who Needs Friends like Rosenbaum? During my recent visit to Austria I picked up a little tit-bit from “The Rough Guide to Austria” about the composer Haydn who ‘lived‘ in the town of Eisenstadt where I was staying, for some years.  My sarcastic emphasis is because by all accounts, Haydn’s opinion of Eisenstadt and it’s [...]

There is a saying of the Buddhist monk Nichiren Daishonin, that Winter Always Turns to Spring Those who believe in the Lotus Sutra are as if in winter, but winter always turns to spring. Never, from ancient times on, has anyone heard or seen of winter turning back to autumn. Nor have we ever heard [...]

Chinese Censorship: As part of the BBCs “take” on the international views on the new, 44th President of the United States, their China correspondent Michael Bristow has reported that his inauguration speech was censored in China. Apparently, the English version on the Xinghua News site is okay, but the Chinese version for the locals has [...]

As the recent cold weather came to a close, I was fortunate to get a few unique pictures on my trusty Fuji F30 before the peculiar atmospheric conditions returned to normal!

Following on from Ukraine getting it’s gas shut off  (which I mentioned in passing as BBC and Weird Pravda Report on Gas), I thought I’d pedantically point out a small error in a statement from Ukraine. It’s meaningless as a point, but does emphasise the tit-for-tat nature of the current impasse with Russia (GazProm).  Specifically, [...]

A rare moment of clear, low sun in winter. The sun is probably at this angle for only 10 minutes a day, for maybe six days a year. Usually it’s cloudy…enjoy!

Truly this car is the pits. -and here’s how.. The engineers seem to have responded with the most short-term planning possible to a demand from the BMW marketing department to make the company look green now that sales of their monster cars are down 40%.  Some “ad” bloke has said “clean electricity, that’s the way [...]