Author: Christopher-Dorset

Highcliffe beach is pretty. It was also 15 minutes from my Christchurch B&B. Luck was with me because there were few people around. I wasn’t completely alone, of course, but it was pleasantly quiet and remote. To the east was London, to the west, Cornwall. To the south, Frogland. I walked out to a stone jetty and began shouting in Chinese. Poseidon had none of it and I promptly slipped on the slick, sea moss-covered rocks. My pride being the only thing wounded, I slowly made my way to wash off the grime after picking up Chinese take-away. I also organised a taxi. One really couldn’t be asked to drag luggage a mile to Hinton Admiral. Continue reading “The Celtic Fringe”

The UK voted and, as of late evening Pacific Time, Cameron is set to be returned as Prime Minister with an increased number of seats. Clegg is at risk of being made eligible for a return to the EU, I mean, lose his seat. It could have been much, much worse although I think that many Scots are in desperate need of psychiatric help. (Sheona, ColinB and John Mackie exempted from this)

Departing Luxembourg improved my mood immediately. After the abject disaster of the past 9 months, getting on with it was a relief. Strangely, the skies over London agreed with me. My flight actually landed at the scheduled time and I crossed the UK border smoothly. I also didn’t manage to get lost once travelling to Bayswater. My hotel in London was adequate, if Spartan. I stayed at the Latvian Guesthouse on Queensborough Terrace. The room was tiny but clean and the service was competent, if inconsistently polite. The younger Latvian staff were courteous and helpful almost to a fault. The manager, in her fifties, betrayed a Soviet upbringing in her demeanour. Their breakfast was also adequate. A kindly older Latvian woman prepared full English breakfasts at no additional cost.
Continue reading “There Will Always Be an England.”

I arrived in good order today in London. As promised, I will now announce the results of the poetry competition. Thank you Janus, Araminta, James and FEEG for your contributions. But, there can only be one victor. After much thought, I will take the role of Queen Gertrude and hand the chalice to our own Hamlet, JHLeck.

Dear Charioteers,
as March draws to its close I’d like to take the chance
to remind all of you that on the evening of 8 April I will, from London,
announce the winner of the poetry contest.

This is just a friendly note to remind everyone that I will be in the United Kingdom next month, including wild and woolly Wales. From 8-10 in London, 10-13 in Christchurch and 13-15 in Cardiff, paying homage to Dame Shirley Bassey, parenthetically before going off to Ireland — the Republic and Ulster — for a week.

Today I received a second series of immunisations – two injections, one on each arm. My new GP, a no-nonsense German woman of some academic distinction, instructed me to return twice more before I fly off to the UK next month. My former GP has refused to forward my immunisations record to her. For the sake of keeping all records together and ensuring that I am prepared for the world’s nastiest diseases, I am to receive all regular immunisations again. I am, as a result, a human pincushion with more holes in his skin than a Glasgow junkie on the Sunday morning after his dole cheque was cashed.

Continue reading “March Poetry Competition”

I have just booked aeroplane tickets to Edinburgh for 25 June of this year. Rest assured that the inability to receive a refund for cancelled tickets will ensure my visit.

The thirteen years between 1932 and 1945 were not Germany’s finest. We all know what happened and there is no need to go into a detailed discussion about that. Part of the injustices done during this time include the forced purchases of priceless artwork for pittances by the Nazi State. Since 1948, the Federal Republic has done everything in its power to try to rectify these injustices. This includes making legal exemptions for the rightful owners and their heirs in terms of furnishing evidence that said treasures were taken using illegitimate means as there isn’t always much evidence left even in the most egregious of instances. Compare this to the Swiss who used their banking secrecy as a double-edged blade. Those who could furnish all other evidence that bank accounts were rightfully theirs, including records of death of the original holders, still could not access their inheritances because they did not have the right numbers. Continue reading “Rectification of a past injustice or an effort to make a fortune?”

Another shooting attack — a Swedish cartoonist was targeted at a speaking engagement in Copenhagen. Soon after, a synagogue in the Danish capital was also targeted. The attacker was a Muslim of Arab ethnicity born-and-raised in Denmark.  Bibi has officially encouraged European Jewry to emigrate to Israel. Considering their declining security in Europe and the increase in official tolerance for anti-Semitism, he isn’t entirely incorrect in assessing that the climate in Europe is growing increasingly hostile. After all, a German magistrate ruled recently that fire-bombing a synagogue is an act of protest, not anti-Semitism and an Austrian magistrate ruled that chanting “death to Jews” is a form of legitimate protest against Israeli policies.

Recently I have thought of this frequently. In Trier there is a small alley adjacent to the main market square — “Judengasse”. All buildings are from the 17th century. Slightly seedy these days, it was once the entrance for the city’s formerly prominent Jewish Quarter. Five minutes from it is a car park where a building once stood — the processing centre for Trier’s Jews in the 1940s. Of the over 300 processed, virtually all died. Ten minutes from that is the former Trier Gestapo headquarters. Yet, the attitudes that should have been consigned to the past have been brought back — largely imported, bolstered by indigenous bigots. If this is any indication for the future, then the past half-century of peace, prosperity and relative civility will soon be but a memory.