Category: General

When Australian politics makes international headlines, you know it will be farcical. Apparently our cherished Antipodean mates are having issues keeping senators and MPs in parliament. The reason? Quite a few apparently hold multiple citizenships which Australia bans. This is rare, if not unique. What’s even rarer is the stringency with which this rule is enforced. Barnaby Joyce and Jacqui Lambie, for example, weren’t even aware that they ever held a citizenship other than Australia’s. Continue reading “An Australian Conundrum”

Judging by the photos and videos doing the rounds on social media, we may be experiencing a military coup. There are pictures of tanks and armoured vehicles heading into Harare. This follows the last week’s firing of Vice President Mnangagwa and a statement yesterday by General Chiwenga, the head of the armed forces which support Mnangagwa as opposed to Grace Mugabe wife of the President and his clear to choice to succeed. See below.

http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-national-byo-121844.html

 

It may be too early to draw conclusions, but we are fulfilling the Chinese curse.

I thought that I had lost this superb piece of writing by Nokamis when the good ship MyT sank. I’m relieved that I was able to find it again. It still says it all for me at this time of year. 

‘It’s cold here, colder than on the tube coming up, colder than the short walk from the station.  At least, it seems so. A capricious wind is whipping the downed leaves in golden whirlwinds round my feet. I’m feeling the cold particularly badly because I’m not wearing a coat. My funereal black mohair overcoat is gracing a hook in Florida, and I’m not sporting my natty bright red goose-down lined parka, just didn’t seem right. Continue reading “‘One of our Memories is Missing’ – Nokamis”

My train from Dorchester to Waterloo arrived late and I was sent in the wrong direction at Waterloo. I arrived at Heathrow, thanks to a slight Tube delay, mere minutes after the deadline for dropping off luggage passed. I had to spend an additional £300 to fly to Copenhagen on the next flight.The gate agent looked and acted like she just won the Ilse Koch impersonator competition for the 20th year running. Due to the airline’s reluctance to squander time allowing passengers to store their luggage, I had to check over £1000 in German bone china. The reincarnation of the Witch of Buchenwald cost me over £350 in damaged property. Continue reading “Random Thoughts”

Courtesy of Evening Standard

I am a dedicated anthropogenic climate change sceptic. I’m more than happy to clean up the planet we all have to live on – and I would suggest that we stop trying to produce more and more of us to live in a limited space …

However, as far as I’m concerned, the world’s climate has been changing since its birth + 1. As a historian I am well aware that the climate has changed in the small geographical area and limited time-scale that I have studied.
Continue reading “Sometimes even the Daily Mail makes me laugh!”

The date of the German federal election is quickly approaching. Continue reading “Tedium Descends Upon Europe”

As I understand it, our Dearly Beloved Neighbour, Kim Jong-Un of North Korea, launched a missile over the Sovereign State of Japan.

Is this not an Act of Aggression? No weasel words please – surely the air-space over any country should be treated as totally and utterly inviolable?
Continue reading “What am I missing?”