Monthly Archives: July 2015

My last blog was (I admit) a little bit heavy. And now for something completely different… Ha! Anyone older than 50 will immediately recollect Monty Python’s Flying Circus which used this phrase throughout its sketches. Up there in my brain … Continue reading →

There’s a well-known joke about a tourist in Ireland who asks one of the locals for directions to Dublin. The Irishman replies: ‘Well sir, if I were you, I wouldn’t start from here’. Ever since I heard this for the … Continue reading →

I had always thought that “Cucumber Time” was a uniquely Dutch expression but apparently it is international. It is also called the “Silly Season” although (and quite rightly) nowadays this has more to do with the Christmas holidays. The Cucumber … Continue reading →

At school, I was introduced to Charles Dickens and much of what he wrote over the years. Rich in characters and imagery, the stories were riveting (at the time) and have stayed with me since. Great Expectations is perhaps (for … Continue reading →

Cleanliness is apparently next to godliness; Google has a lot of articles about where this expression comes from. Google also leads you to articles on showering habits around the world. As a boy, a shower was what you had after … Continue reading →

Some time back, I wrote in my blogs how I first met Vladimir Minkin, a Professor at the Institute of Physical and Organic Chemistry (IPOC) in Rostov-on-Don. That was 1991 and, 20 years later, I returned to celebrate with my … Continue reading →

ESA’s Rosetta mission soft-landed its Philae probe on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in November 2014 after travelling 4 million miles in 10 years. It’s not a big comet (2.5 miles wide) so all the more brilliant to get there … Continue reading →

This one is about Them and then about Us. I left the UK 36 years ago, not necessarily because of Them, and I now live in The Netherlands which has its own Royal Family. They live in the Palace Huis … Continue reading →

My brain is cluttered with stuff absorbed when I was a small boy growing up in sleepy villages. Every now and then, some of these iconic images make their way to the surface but they never go away. They have … Continue reading →

No, not that sort – this is about people not abstract energy concepts. Every year, about this time when it gets warm, I have had the same thoughts; the attractive girls get even more attractive, while the not so attractive … Continue reading →