Was chatting to an old (very old) school mate the other day. He’d been at the Emirates to watch his beloved West Ham (I said he was old, never said he was clever) lose to the Arse. And he was complaining. Ok, all football fans complain, all the frikkin time, its what we do. That’s – Read More-
A group of men wearing white robes and hoods, trawling the streets after dark holding flaming torches. If this was in Tennessee this would be completely normal behaviour; the only questions would be ‘where your cross??’ and ‘who we gonna hang tonight?’ But its not in the Deep South, well not of America. This is – Read More-
BBC4 to the rescue again last night. What a fabulous tv channel that is. They have a back catalogue of 284 million of the best documentaries the world’s ever known and they just rotate them. And loads are about music. We had ten round for dinner last night. To tell the story of the passover. – Read More-
So often as we watch our beloved game, its the big matches that disappoint. They’re either dull and slow and overly-cautious, or one team swamps the other and its 5-0. Which can be amusing, depending who’s on the losing end, but its not ‘a great match’, just a lot of goals. Yesterday’s game between Liverpool – Read More-
The first senior minister from the Church of England has entered into a gay marriage. I’m going to assume he’s gay then. No lesser mortal than the Archbishop of Canterbury has stated that this is in breach of some terms and conditions somewhere, either in the contract of employment or in Leviticus 57, whatever. And – Read More-
My old life ‘luxury’ was always to read the papers in bed on a Saturday morning with a ‘nice cuppa tea’. Then I discovered Tai Chi, or perhaps it discovered me??? (its Chinese, therefore inscrutible, therefore its good to accentuate the mystical) and Saturday morning class is at 8.15 and if you’re late you get – Read More-
The reason football fans survive the almost endless heartache (Spurs fans), anxiety (all fans), depression (Arsenal fans), humiliation (Manchester United fans) and hatred (Chelsea fans) is because of hope. That single, solitary glimmer of what might be; of what could be; of what one day may come to fruition. That one day you might get – Read More-
I love a cabinet reshuffle. Out with the old ministerial garbage, the dead wood, the named and shamed, the worthless, the pointless, the useless and those fallen from grace, either in terms of popularity or morality. Or, in the case of Maria Miller, both. She had to go. Not because ‘her position became untenable’ after – Read More-
I love a bit of art, a nice pik-cher, a paintin’, maybe a skulp-cha, just love it. Yet I managed to avoid all of Vienna’s almost countless galleries until our 11th ‘hour’, immediately prior to take-off, before giving in and actually entering an art museum. The one in the picture. Aptly named: The Museum for – Read More-
I think Ultravox got it spot on when they wrote the words: “all Viennese are bastards” in their classic song. Possibly their only song of any merit. Ahhhhhhh, Vienna. Vienna is an exceptionally beautiful city. Amazing buildings, truly wonderful, incredible churches, more sculptures than… than… than somewhere else that has shit-loads of sculptures… maybe Florence… – Read More-