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Continue reading →: The mysterious smile
My brother recently posted a family photograph of a much younger me and my mother. As it was my brother who took the photo, it’s my guess that he made mum laugh. She’s trying to keep the laugh in. Like me, mum did more smiling than laughing for different reasons.…
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Continue reading →: Scones
I woke early this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, so, as I have done countless times before, I got up and did some baking. It was scones using Delia Smith’s recipe from her Complete Illustrated Cookery Course book. It is a recipe I have used many times with…
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Continue reading →: Blinkers
Donald Trump must be wearing blinkers. His party has lost control of Congress. Does he take any personal responsibility for the historically bad results? Of course not. Instead, he bragged that if he had been standing for election, he would have won. Two more years of Trump’s presidency with executive…
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Continue reading →: Christmas is just for puppies and young children
Maybe it’s the grinch in me, but I get fed up with supermarket shelves filling up with Christmas produce in October. Today I succumbed to retail pressure and bought LED lights just because they were cheap. I managed to vandalise the first set of lights (gingerbread men) by not reading…
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Continue reading →: The cult of the personality
Some political movements thrive on figureheads to give them a sense of identity. Those who have survived the struggle for power sometimes relish the adoration of their followers. When I worked in the former Yugoslavia for a travel company, Tito, the partisan hero and president, was worshipped like a saint…
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Continue reading →: Freedom of speech
There is a worrying trend in state control of communications and laws that forbid critical comments of a country’s leader. There are laws in the UK that restrict what can be said if the words used incite racial hatred or encourage the illegal overthrow of the government or monarchy. But…
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Continue reading →: Celebrity Traitors
Celebrity Traitors is addictive television viewing. Claudia Winkleman hosts this game of deception in which Faithfuls are pitted against anonymous Traitors and vote to banish those they think are Traitors. The finale saw one remaining Traitor, Kenny, who had managed to stay under the radar until the final vote to…
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Continue reading →: Hanging up washing
I have blogged about a diverse range of topics, so it should come as no surprise that I am writing about the mundane task of trying to get clothes dry. The climate in Belfast is shaped by the proximity of mountains and the sea, that gives us plenty of rainy…
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Continue reading →: Autocratic leaders
Donald Trump is often seen to favour autocratic leaders such as China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. Making deals, starting wars, and setting tariffs has been Trump’s foreign policy strategy. His deal with Putin to lift sanctions and get diesel supplies in return won’t solve the…
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