It is a geographical fact that no one in the UK is more than seventy miles away from the sea. As a man who feels happiest with the sea breeze on his face, I was surprised to discover this to be the precise distance from my house to the nearest coastal town, which if nothing [...]
Archive for January, 2007
Whitby, Dracula and Cupid
January 31, 2007
Manchester… don’t you love it?
January 26, 2007
I am on the M62 crossing the Pennines for the umpteenth time towards the Red Rose of Lancashire. On Radio Four, a special marmalade with a bitter £3,000 price tang is being discussed and I am in good spirits as I wonder what a three-thousand-quid marmalade would taste like.
Traffic in both directions reverentially circumnavigates the [...]
Camera Shy
January 24, 2007
Since my career as a freelance translator is still a sporadic event, some might even say an imaginary one, I have been prostituting my suspected talents by driving around the country in a white van setting up cameras at road junctions for the purpose of traffic surveys. As may be inferred even from such an [...]
An Agnostic’s Prayer for 2007
January 5, 2007
Whether I’m having a brilliant time or not, entering a new year always seems to have a maudlin, melancholy feel to it. As a rule, I don’t make resolutions in order to avoid, when looking back a year later with the advantage of hindsight, appearing naïve and misguided. It’s best not to tempt fate. Each [...]
