Last night, my boyfriend and I acted on impulse and went to see some fringe theatre in Marylebone. We saw The Cure at Troy by Seamus Heaney (a Nobel prize winner), based on Sophocles’ Philoctetes. It was meant to be one of the star shows of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival but the main reason we [...]

Sur le pont d’Avignon, l’ony danse, l’ony danseSur le pont d’Avigno, l’ony danse, tout en rond (On the bridge of Avignon, all are dancing, all are dancingOn the bridge of Avignon, all are dancing, round and round) Le Pont d’Avignon.  Avignon is perhaps best known for the song, which is remarkable given that it is [...]

Back in London after a lovely, long weekend in romantic Avignon. Words and pictures coming soon… Tweet

So Australia has lost the Ashes. What is it, the first time in 18 years? Certainly the first time that I can really remember. It’s galling, particularly as the Brits are not going to let me forget it (they are still gloating about the Rugby World Cup even though it was a) two years ago [...]

The front page of The Independent yesterday carried this article about a new treaty to save the great apes. It involves 23 states that are home to the four speices of great apes – gorillas, chimpanezees, orangutans and bonobos – and also donor nations such as the UK that will help fund the programmes. The [...]

Here’s a bizarre decision from the UK media regulator. In the lead up to the G8 summit and the Live 8 concerts, there were a series of ads on TV showing celebrities clicking their fingers to show that a child dies from poverty every three seconds. The ads were about raising awareness and increasing the [...]

Thunder and rain outside … the cricket gods are clearly against us. If it rains much more, the match will be a draw, Australia will lose the series and England will win the Ashes. Oh well, at least it will make cricket more interesting if Australia loses once in a while. Tweet

After weeks of talking about it, I finally went ahead and bought a bike. I found one secondhand, in my size, a hybrid (between a mountain bike and a road bike) and for a reasonable price. So far I have only ridden it twice – once to work and once home again – but I [...]

I arrived back from Scotland on Sunday. I was on a training course on Monday and back to work on Tuesday. However, I have now come down with a slightly unpleasant flu-type bug and I am at home sick. It’s a beautiful day outside and I’d much rather be out in the sun. The compensation [...]

The Edinburgh TV Festival went well. Since then, I’ve been having a few days R&R. I caught up with my cousin Elianor and also my cousin-once-removed Andrew in Glasgow and now I’m down in Inverary, on Loch Fyne, with my uncle Jeff and his family. Today I climbed Dun Na Cuaiche, the hill behind Inverary [...]