Category: Travel

Canada Slim and the Wonders on the Wall

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 21 November 2017 I just had my first viewing of a DVD I had never seen before last evening: The Lady in the Van, starring Dame Maggie Smith as “The Lady in the Van Miss Mary “Margaret ” Theresa Shepherd” and Alex Jennings as “Alan Bennett” upon whose memoirs the story is taken. This is a… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Wonders on the Wall

Canada Slim and the Wild Child of Toggenburg

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 20 November 2017 Last week ago I began to tell a story. (See Canada Slim and the Road to Reformation of this blog.) A story of how a religion and a continent tore itself apart over questions of how to worship a God who cannot be proven to exist. Ah, the folly of man! My… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Wild Child of Toggenburg

Canada Slim and the Holiday Chronicles

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 16 November 2017 I hate November: shorter days (dawn still incomplete after 6 am, dusk already started at 1600), grey clouds ever threatening rain, blocking the sun by day and the stars by night. November with its month flower, the chrysanthemum, a symbol of adversity, grief and death. And I miss seeing the Lake under blue skies… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Holiday Chronicles

Canada Slim and the Outcast

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 13 November 2017 Maybe it´s the endless days of grey skies outside or being restless with being confined indoors by illness that has got me feeling morbid of late. Perhaps my ghastly mood has been affected by the topics I have written about recently: ghosts and corpses on the London Tube (Canada Slim Underground) and the… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Outcast

Canada Slim and the Borders

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 11 November 2017 As one travels around the world a person discovers that there are arbitrary lines drawn across landscapes and charts and maps that define what is Here and what is to be considered There, and there are arbitrary lines drawn between classes and positions in our everyday societies. Mankind has done… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Borders

Canada Slim and the Smarter Woman

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 7 November 2017 I generally have (a) few problems with women. I have had women bosses, some I have disagreed with. But not because they were female, but because of their behaviour towards me was unacceptable regardless of the gender exhibiting the behaviour. Have I, at times, deserved criticism? Absolutely. I am neither saint… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Smarter Woman

Canada Slim and the Sealed Train

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 4 November 2017 Three thoughts come to my mind when associated with the words “sealed train”: Easter Monday, 9 April 1917, when Lenin boarded a sealed train in Zürich bound for Petrograd (today´s St. Petersburg), which Winston Churchill described: “The Germans transported Lenin in a sealed train like a plague bacillus from Switzerland into… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Sealed Train

Canada Slim and the Street Walked Too Often

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 1 November 2017 Within a week, last week, spent in London we crossed Praed Street at least a dozen times, a street “not at any time one of London´s brighter thoroughfares”. (John Rhode, The Murders in Praed Street) Above: Praed Street, Paddington district, London “I´ve walked this street in far too many towns…. Same scraps… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Street Walked Too Often

Canada Slim and the Paddington Arrival

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 30 October 2017 Yesterday evening I returned home after spending an intense week in London with my wife, aka She Who Must Be Obeyed. It is important that my wife is mentioned, for it must be admitted that travelling as a pair is significantly different than travelling by oneself. And if one of… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Paddington Arrival