Cyfarchion o dde Cymru, Milly Molly Mandy is alive and well. She has grown up and is working behind the bar at the Garskell Arms Hotel in Much Wenlock , Shropshire. Much Wenlock is your quintessential English village; quaint and evocative of a time long gone. We ambled through the …Read More
Hej fra Söder Sverige, You may find it difficult to swallow, but in Stockholm there is a museum dedicated to the Abba phenomenon. I believe the museum’s catchphrase is: “Become the fifth member”. We have resisted temptation to go there but its existence has rekindled a recurring wonderment of mine ie. …Read More
Hej fra Lappland, We have travelled deep into Sweden, to the far north, to Lappland. Linda took the wheel of the hire car to try her hand at right-hand drive. Hmmmm . . . We hurtled through the countryside on her leg of the long drive. Afterwards, I was in dire need of some …Read More
Hej fra Oslo, We often hear of Oslo and Melbourne topping the livability indices. (The same measures which have Dhaka at the bottom of the list!) What does Oslo have that others don’t? What criteria are included? And what are the relative weightings for the highly-subjective factors which allow them to arrive at such a list? …Read More
Halsninger fra Sverige, We have said farewell to Sweden, and in the process added yet another place to Linda’s Must-Go-Back-To list. That’s a growing list, but Sweden has a lot to offer. The Swedish Tourist Association – an influential body – has a long-standing slogan: Känn Ditt Land (know your country). It’s …Read More
Hej far Kobenhavn, Too many cars in peak hour? Too much pollution in the city? Too many fat people getting fatter with the sedentary lifestyle of city work? The Danes have an answer. The solution is to encourage more and more to ride bicycles to and from work and whenever they need to …Read More
Hej, The definition of pretty, as in a pretty woman, has to be that she is pretty from all angles, in all seasons, in any light. The same goes for pretty cities, if one is going to apply such an adjective to a man-made complex. pretty from all angles Stockholm is pretty from all angles …Read More
An excerpt from Sarah Macdonald’s entertaining book “Holy Cow”, about her two years in India: “I can’t get a word in to tell the Raja of Red Tape that . . . . . As he speaks, four men watch, drinking in the glory of their Goebbels. They prostate before him, vigorously nod and fall …Read More
Shuvo shokal from Dhaka, Ever since Neil Young recorded “A Man Needs a Maid”, I’ve tried to work out what he means. To give a love, you gotta live a love. To live a love, you gotta be “part of”. What’s he on about? Arriving here on the sub-continent ten months ago, there was some …Read More
Shuvo shokal from Dhaka, It’s one of the enduring mysteries of capitalism that so many consumers appear to be unaware of the connection between cheap labour and cheap goods. So many make a beeline for the latter, rejoice ostentatiously in the acquisition and conveniently ignore the reasons for the cheapness. One doesn’t need to undertake …Read More