Albatross133

A journey into another country’s culture and cultural heritage is always an enlightening experience – mind-expanding, even – at least it’s meant to be, were it not for the risk of globalised cultural uniformity. “bloodline“ Margit Füreder Whether it’s to learn more about a culture that’s closer to one’s own yet different, in my case any one of a number of Western European cultures, or one that is…

A sedentary sibling of mine, who has spent the better part fifty years in the same quaint English village and who dreads any thought of ever moving again, thinks I’m a nomad. To be fair, I’ve given them every reason to think that, particularly when I told them about another house move during the Christmas holiday season. Despite all the administrative difficulties that come with relocating, made…

Sifting through the myriad of posts protesting, positing, sharing or simply hawking things on social media can be mind-numbing, but every now and then, a post piques my curiosity enough to merit a closer look. This happened recently on Instagram. An American-based account — I’m guessing, but you can never be sure — shared a “Did You Know” post on their feed affirming that there are more castles…

Royal salamander crest of François 01st Another day, another news article about the impact of mass tourism on certain European cities and communities and the reactions of understandably angry local residents to the increasing number of short-term holiday rentals. What’s often cited as the source of ire among locals in tourist hotspots, along with noisy suitcase wheels, is the abundance of…

Somewhere, in a box, beneath a pile of books and CDs, I’ve a collection of postcards from all over the world. Postcards I’ve bought for myself, postcards that friends and relatives sent me, and then there are postcards my mother used to send me from locations all over the world—how my mother came to be in some of the locations is a tale for another day. Wish you were here The fact that this…

Johannes Gutenberg, 14th century German printer depicted here using AI. As part of a long-term project, I’m enrolled in a French Language for Foreigners (FLE) course, level B1/B2, to be precise, with the French education service, DELF. One assignment I was given recently was to 1) listen to a podcast from France Culture, “And if writing were to disappear”, which posited that the future of…

Lost in the mists of time. From A Page Tiring of Internet, I recently found a story I’d written on a website I’d created in the early 2000s. It was a story of my time at Endsleigh House, a former country residence/salmon-fishing lodge, once belonging to the Duchy of Bedford. The content was riddled with typos and grammatically all over the place, but I liked the story, so I set about rewriting…

“One for sorrow, two for joy…” Minwha (Korean Folk art). Two magpies and a tiger I’m sitting on my patio, idly watching a pair of chattering magpies as they go about their business, raucously hopping between trees across the way from me. I’m hoping the magpies’ noisy activity might help me find something to write about, perhaps a post that helps me better understand current affairs the media has…

In normal times, when you retire, people assume that you step away from the daily routine, the hustle and bustle of a 9 to 5, and spend your time on pet projects, day time TV, and scrolling through reels of Asian food recipes on Instagram. 1989 Cover art of Isaac Asimov’s ‘Robot Visions’ by Ralph McQuarrie Well, that may be true. Why preoccupy yourself with distant matters when there are more…

It’s January, and, having recently retired, my time is, in theory, my own. So instead of staring out the window watching the birds pecking at the nuts and seeds my wife puts out for them while they shelter from the blustery January weather, I decided to finish writing a piece I started last September but put aside for more pressing matters. Bordeaux December 2024 – River Garonne January One year…