Category: relationships

Daddy dearest

Eskişehir, Türkiye Thursday 9 October 2024 It has been a while since I have written my blog and the reasons are complex. Since my trip to Andalucia – the subject of the past few blogposts – I have changed employers, visited the Princes’ Islands off the coast of Istanbul and have been building a network… Continue reading Daddy dearest

Obituary (1): The little corner gathering

Eskişehir, Türkiye Wednesday 11 September 2024 Writing about death shouldn’t be easy, especially when there is far more happening in the world – pondering the past, dreaming of destiny, existing in the experience of this moment. People die every day. Even when I am not writing about it, people will keep dying. Discussion of death… Continue reading Obituary (1): The little corner gathering

The torment of the Tarasca

Above: The Tarasca, Antequera, España ‘Twas brillig and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe;All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe. “Beware the Jabberwock, my son!The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!Beware the Jubjub bird and shunThe frumious Bandersnatch!” He took his vorpal sword in hand:Long time the manxome foe… Continue reading The torment of the Tarasca

Antequera: In transit

Eskişehir, Türkiye Saturday 10 August 2024 “No young person under 40 is ever to be allowed to travel abroad under any circumstances. Nor is anyone to be allowed to go for private reasons, but only on some public business, as a herald or ambassador or as an observer of one sort or another.“ Plato, The… Continue reading Antequera: In transit

An extraordinary woman

Monday 22 April 2024 Eskişehir, Türkiye The lemon-coloured MG skids across the road and the woman driver brings it to a somewhat uncertain halt. She gets out and finds her left front tire flat. Without wasting a moment she prepares to fix it. She looks towards the passing cars as if expecting someone. Recognizing this… Continue reading An extraordinary woman

Dreams of Fielding

“A comic writer should of all others be the least excused for deviating from nature, since it may not be always so easy for a serious poet to meet with the great and the admirable. But life everywhere furnishes an accurate observer with the ridiculous.“ (Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews) Above: English writer Henry Fielding Eskişehir, Türkiye Monday 21 April 2024 Henry Fielding is one of… Continue reading Dreams of Fielding

The barrister’s books

Eskişehir, Türkiye Sunday 21 April 2024 Above: Caricature of Leo McKern (1920 – 2002) as Horace Rumpole from the episode “Rumpole and the Younger Generation“ “Inspiration is something one possesses by the hard and bitter labour of every day.“ Salvador Dali Above: Spanish artist Salvador Dali (1904 – 1989) All writers need inspiration. Ideas have to come… Continue reading The barrister’s books

Driven

Eskişehir, Türkiye Friday 19 April 2024 “In the morning paper I come across two small events that together seem significant. The black singer Paul Robeson was supposed to give a recital in Peoria. At the last minute, the concert was cancelled on the pretext that Robeson is a Communist. The authorities insist that they didn’t… Continue reading Driven