“I have the greatest respect for Oxford University and its 800 years of tireless intellectual toil, but I must confess that I’m not entirely clear what it’s for… See all these dons and scholars striding past, absorbed in deep discussions about the Leibniz-Clarke controversy or post-Kantian aesthetics and you think: Most impressive, but perhaps a… Continue reading The price of progress (Oxford and Gatwick)
Category: Literature
Life among the Oxonians
Back in the south of England after some time spent up in Oxford, a place I once called home for a number of months over two decades ago, a place that still has a hold upon my heart, and happily a place where I still have friends. It was and remains one of the fastest… Continue reading Life among the Oxonians
Canada Slim and the Dickensian Moment
Two days ago my hosts in England and I did a very English thing… We visited the Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum, at 393 Old Commercial Road, in Portsmouth. “He created some of the world’s best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His work enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Dickensian Moment
The Memory Music Project
“I spent a large part of one of the evenings I was in Uganda thinking about what precisely the memory of a person is. What do I want people to remember about me? What would I prefer to have suppressed? Do I have a number of secrets that I shall take with me to the… Continue reading The Memory Music Project
Work and other four-letter words
All around me, wherever I go, throughout the entirety of most of my life, people talk and obsess about work. We spend 80% of our adult lives working and more than 50% of us hate our jobs. We are classified and judged less by who we are than by the job we do. Despite protests that… Continue reading Work and other four-letter words
Walking with Anahareo
Another day, another walk, this time along the Beaver Trail of the World Wildwife (umm sorry, Wildlife) Federation of Bodensee-Thurgau with She Who Must Be Obeyed. The Trail is a 5 km/3-hour walk, through forest and field, beside river and stream, near the town of Pfyn (pronounced “foon”), close to the city of Weinfelden, and… Continue reading Walking with Anahareo
Along the Fable Trail
On the Swiss shore of the Untersee arm of the Lake of Constance, between Schaffhausen and Kreuzlingen, is the town of Steckborn, population nearly 4,000. Steckborn marks the start of a 2 1/2-hour walk, east to the town of Ermatigen, called the Fable Trail. Like many of the trails to be found in Thurgau Canton, the… Continue reading Along the Fable Trail
Learned ignorance
Finally I have reached the last tale I wish to tell about our Mosel weekend of 14 – 17 May 2015. (Which is good, because my trip to Geneva yesterday… So much to tell!) Our (my wife and I) last stop on our Mosel mini-adventure was the town of Bernkastel-Kues. The twin town of Bernkastel-Kues… Continue reading Learned ignorance