If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Well, yes, it is kind of late. I’ve spent all night trying to work out a route for a journey to take next month. What is it with southern European railways? You’d think they were run by the Brits. […]

It’s always good to read around a subject, rather than just dive in, blinker-style, and ignore the periphery. So, I picked up a copy of The Life of Zamenhof at abebooks.
It’s a slim book - 123 pages in total - and couched in slightly outdated terms. Originally written in Esperanto by Edmond Privat, it was […]

England beat Trinidad and Tobago in the World Cup tonight. We didn’t win the whole thing, but we did win a match, which I presume means we get another go in a few days’ time. I don’t know how close we are to the end (or the beginning), but in an effort to show willing […]

It’s an iPod dock and loo roll dispenser in one handy unit. Charge and play your iPod through its integrated speakers while polishing and wiping from behind. Includes a line-in port for your hifi but requires external power.
And I have the only one in Europe sitting on my desk. How special do I feel?

Nesting season is over, so it was time to clear out the bird boxes this morning. The largest of the lot, bolted to the side of the house, was home to a pair of blue tits, which we watched through the last few months as they ferried first nest-building material and then food in through […]

I don’t think I’ve been stung by nettles since I was 10. I’d forgotten that they actually hurt as soon as you touch them, almost like a little shock; I had some crazed, incorrect recollection that they only stung a few hours later when the bumps came up, but it turns out that’s not right.
Anyhow, […]

Lunch at the dim sum restaurant today. They always give you fortune cookies with the bill, and much have known we were tech hacks:

A party at The Clink last night. It’s an old gaol on the south bank, which is now a rather macabre tourist attraction. We were shown around by a rather fat and very camp guide, who made the whole process of explaining the various nasty implements in there rather surreal.
Many of the founding fathers who […]

The George was burning down at lunchtime in a most unspectacular manner. It just sat there, billowing smoke from its windows like an old man with a pipe. Then it started to come out through the windows on the next floor up, and then one floor up from that, and eventually the roof.
But no-one seemed […]

As today is the 6th day of the 6th month of the 6th year of the present century, here’s an entry from Wikipedia:
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is a fear found in the Western Christian world, which originates in the belief that the Biblical verse, Revelation 13:18, indicates that the number 666 is linked to Satan or the Anti-Christ. […]