Golf makes dull viewing
The Open golf championship is under way at the home of golf – St Andrews. And this being Britain, it does of course mean that the British even is the best in the world. Jingoistic commentators in every media pronounce this as though it is a matter of fact. But they seem [...]
July 12, 2010Diving in for vintage champagne
A group of divers exploring a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea have found bottles containing what is thought to be the oldest drinkable champagne in the world, made in the late 18th century. “I picked up one champagne bottle just so we could find the age of the wreck, because we didn’t find any name [...]
June 18, 2010Bloody sunday makes me see red
The Bloody Sunday killings were unjustified and unjustifiable, the Prime Minster has said.
Thirteen marchers were shot dead on 30 January 1972 in Londonderry when British paratroopers opened fire on crowds at a civil rights demonstration.
Fourteen others were wounded, one later died. The Saville Report is heavily critical of the Army and found that soldiers fired [...]
In praise of the Philippines
Like virtually everybody else in the UK outside the nursing profession, I knew next to nothing about the Philippines. Then I went on a diving holiday in the Philippines - a chain of around 7,000 beautiful islands and the Republic is the only predominantly Christian country in Asia. I had landed in paradise - [...]
April 13, 2010Ashes to Ashes
Well I haven’t attempted to fly anywhere just recently, which is probably just as well – because despite the gloriously sunny days, we are led to believe a huge plume of icelandic volcanic ash was lurking p there in the jet stream.
Maybe there was an ash cloud – maybe there wasn’t. It seems that [...]
Second helpings of irony
Only in TV land would they deem it a good idea for a chef who gave hundreds of people food poisoning has been lined up to improve hospital food. Hospital food designed to appeal to the taste buds of the elderly has been launched by TV chef Heston Blumenthal and a team of scientists.
The [...]
Kyrgyzstan sounds a nice place
A pair of snow leopards and two bear cubs were among the exotic animals found in the private zoo of ousted Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. This rather exotic-sounding (if slightly unpronounceable) place sprung to global attention, either because of a bloody uprising or some minor BBC hack was being held
A golden eagle, two falcons, [...]
Now Falkland Islanders think it’s oil over
At last we know why Britain went to war with Argentina over the Malvinas. It seemed at the time that a few thousand sheep and a couple of wind-swept, treeless islands in Argentina’s back yard were not really worth fighting for.- but all is now a little clearer. The Falklands are sitting [...]
January 12, 2010The End of the World
There is bad news in the Times today everybody. The end is nigh – apparently. And whilst it may not be the Armageddon forecast by mad religious cults, it does indeed sound catastrophic. It appears that Simon Cowell is leaving American Idol.
I have to admit that my heart did indeed leap just a [...]
Blunt Advice
I was flicking channels over the weekend when I came across the very first episode of Sharpe. This proved to be a bit of a find on a number of counts. Not only had I never seen it before, so it filled in two hours of another snow-bound day rather well – but [...]