I’ve been living in Rome for just three weeks now, and only in our flat for two weeks or so. Suffice to say, that whole time I’ve been suffering significant culture shock – and climate shock. The transition from 18C English “summer” to 35C Roman autumn hasn’t been easy. There are some elements of continuity, [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Main thread'
Moto city
September 7th, 2011 · No Comments · Main thread, Rome
Found a little bike shop in Rome today, near the Campo de’ Fioro, selling various hipster bikes (fixies, old-fashioned town bikes etc) and Bromptons. I’m not convinced they can be doing a roaring trade though, as Rome is very much a city of roaring motor traffic. The only places I’ve seen cyclists pootling about is [...]
Tags:bikes·cars·cycling·moto·pedestrians·rome·scooters·traffic
Revisiting the Krynoids
September 6th, 2011 · No Comments · Digressions on fiction and whatnot, Main thread
Of all the Doctor Who storylines I watched as a child, one that imprinted abiding images on my mind was The Seeds of Doom. Even though for many years I muddled its title with The Seeds of Death. The Seeds of Doom was from January to March 1976, the prime of the Tom Baker era. [...]
Tags:Alien·Doctor Who·Krynoid·Krynoids·Seeds of Doom·The Thing·Triffid·Who Goes There?
Cats and Keats
August 30th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Main thread, Rome
Rome is, arguably, one of the most handsome cities in the world. Not that I’ve been to every city in the world, of course, but that’s its reputation. But it’s also a city that’s in many ways defined by its debris, its dereliction, its waste. The glory of ancient Rome over the centuries became the [...]
Lewes to Rome in seven stages
August 30th, 2011 · 13 Comments · Main thread, Rome
After three or so years of deliberating, my wife Fran and I decided to move out of London to Lewes, in sunny East Sussex. Then, would you Adam & Eve it, Fran was offered a job – a dream job – in Italy. As Fran had always said she wanted to live and work in [...]
Tags:artesia·roma·rome·sleeper train
Flour
February 4th, 2010 · No Comments · Main thread
Quick inventory of the flour I’ve got: Strong white flour Strong wholemeal flour of an organic persuasion Stromg wholemeal flour ground at the watermill at Otterton in Devon Four grained malted flour from Swaffham Mill in Cambridge Self-raising white flour Plain white flour Tipo ’00′ flour Chickpea flour Rice flour Rye flour Barley flour White [...]
Tags:
Battle of the movie nice guys
October 2nd, 2009 · No Comments · Main thread
I recently caught Adventureland, the romantic comedy directed by Greg Mottola. It stars Jesse Eisenberg as a high school grad who has to get a job in a lame theme park when his family can’t afford to support his academic progress. He’s not just any high school grad though – he’s that US high school [...]
Tags:"jesse eisenberg"·"michael cera"·"nice guy"·"sensitive guy"·guy·movie·sensitive
Free fruit, and class questions
August 18th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Main thread
It’s late summer already. Sheesh. Still, got to love this time of year for all the free fruit. Spent Sunday gathering elderberries, blackberries and wild plums and making stuff. Also loads of rowan berries around, but I’ve not experimented with them (you can make wine, and a jelly which is presumably like rosehip jelly). Elder [...]
Tags:
Sod's law strikes again
August 3rd, 2009 · 1 Comment · Main thread
Friday – hot, dry and even summery. Sunday – warm and dry. Monday – warm and, so far, dry. Saturday: (Thanks to Ceri Thomas for the photo – and for holding the brolly while I flipped burgers…) Still, at least we had plenty of cake:
Tags:
Blog spellchecker
July 22nd, 2009 · 2 Comments · Main thread
Oh the irony – the spellchecker on my blog doesn’t recognise the word “blog”.
Tags: