GiftED – paper sculptures on the road
If you troll about the literary world, you may have heard of Edinburgh’s mysterious sculptures, their delicate carvings found anonymously gifted to libraries and museums. (I briefly mused on the escapades at the time) The beauties were found stashed around cultural venues last year, leaving the city and the literatti abuzz with speculation. Who could … Continue reading
Pride & Conceit
Gryffindor. District 12. Team Jacob. Miranda. Carrie. Charlotte. People identify with pretend. They just do. And while I am as guilty as anyone of obsessive online quizzes, daydreamy adventures, and entirely delusional fantasies involving crossbows and laser sights while shopping for tinned beans, mine are, more often than not, a little old school. The world … Continue reading
like Marbles, but better
Night falls quickly in the mountains. There is a brief lull between after dinner tea and the blinding darkness. A darkness that comes so thick and fast it makes brushing teeth in the far-away, bug-ridden, and pitch-black outhouse seem highly optional. But in this in-between moment where the day ends and night hasn’t yet started … Continue reading
The Other Olympics
I have a confession. I was always one of those people who thought of the Paralympics as a ultra-PC also-ran: a really, nice, encouraging thing, ultimately defined by disability and limitation and therefore not as interesting as real sports. I have another confession. I was an idiot. Saying the Paralympics are just the Olympics with … Continue reading
Light Travels in August
I am currently in Kyrgyzstan – midway through my three-legged August. First, we went to an island in the English Channel for some Shakespeare. It’s a National Trust property, and an excellently English summer evening. Adorable. By the time you are reading this, I am probably camping with sheep some 4,000 miles above sea-level. Google … Continue reading
In the arena, I’m still young at heart
Between the ages of 9 and 14 I spent an inordinate amount of time following the American Women’s Gymnastics team. I would buy magazines with babysitting money, purely because they featured some “day-in-the-life” story of one of the Olympic hopefuls of my youth. I quietly obsessed about those girls the way other kids knew famous … Continue reading
All the (Olympic) Bells
The Olympics are coming! Sure. You are skeptical of my enthusiasm. I get it. There has been much criticism, confusion and downright buffoonery in the lead up the games. I mean, a rights monopoly on all potato-based sticks in the area is a very odd battle ground no matter where you live. And drivers getting … Continue reading
The Virgin Money Lounge
I sometimes wonder if Richard Branson is the UK’s very own Donald Trump, admittedly with a savvy, edgier, Baby Boomer vibe. The red lacquered signage has splashed its way into almost every major industry. It is an Empire. Of records, and books, and phones, and cable tv – including the long-awaited UK launch of TiVo. … Continue reading
Things I Love
It’s raining cats and dogs. Again. They say it’s the worst summer on record (and the Queen’s Garden Party was definitely a damp squib). The wet weather has drowned a large portion of puffin hatchlings, wiped out the breeding season for the already struggling butterfly population, and hit farmers hard. The season of bounty this … Continue reading
The Art of Choosing
Sheena Iyengar’s study, The Art of Choosing, is a thought-provoking work. Taking in theories of economics, sociology, philosophy, psychology, and even politics, it asks in no uncertain terms ‘What is Choice, and why does it matter?’. Choice, she argues, is a tool and a langauge. Choice is an act, not an outcome, and thus an … Continue reading
Que Sera Sara? 