Author Archives: spikekalashnikov

I can’t remember if I have gone on about this before but I increasingly think that just visiting a country in fact  tends to  reinforce pre-established judgements. You see what you expect to see and go home with stronger conviction. … Continue reading →

Yesterday I got my annual car tax bill.  This is what it looks like.

It is Sunday. The weather is perfect. I get up early and go diving with the neighbors. It is perfect. I go to buy bread at the amazing bakery next to my flat. I go for a walk down a … Continue reading →

The famous legend of the King Robert the Bruce of Scotland depicts a spider as a symbol for hope. Historians are unsure of the legend’s truth and agree that it is probably apocryphal, but in the legend Bruce, when fighting the English, … Continue reading →

So after 2 weeks of pretty intensive traveling, tight schedules, house selling, tax negotiations, Web stuff, conference committees, receptions with, you know, important people, visits to first division journalistic players, seeing my mummy who is 89, seeing my brother and … Continue reading →

Bonnie was a very brave and faithful little dog who had a tragic end to her life. She is buried in a beautiful place, which I visited on my recent trip to France. God bless you Bonnie.

I remember a film  called The Longest Day about the D Day landings. I recently experienced the The Shortest Night with landings in Paris, Osaka and Naha. I first fly from Lyon to Paris across the Kodachrome yellow of French … Continue reading →

Oh, to be in England Now that April ‘s there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on … Continue reading →

So I spend a perfect Sunday in the home of the McGillivrays. They have a chateau called Sothonod. The mighty St Dude Arthaud was born here in 1101. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthaud_de_Belley It is a wonderful house packed with curios. We eat like … Continue reading →

During the conference I stayed at a fancy hotel. For some reason I thought that we did not get breakfast with the room and as the breakfast cost 1,00000,000, Euros I did not partake but grabbed a croissant on the … Continue reading →