Gone Away
Dispatches from a life in America
270 posts
The Sound of Cape Town
There is a sound that can mean only Cape Town for me. It was a distinctive bird call that one hears everywhere on the beautiful Cape Peninsula and, in the course of my ten years in that area, it came to be identified…
Sickness and Memory
My thought processes tend to run away unguided when I am alone. It is as if they have been set free from the constraints of society and take the opportunity for a brisk sprint into the fields and a roll in the fresh…
England and Chastleton
One of my favorite sayings is that England is the most beautiful country in the world, when the sun shines. I know, of course, that this is not literally true; I have not seen all the other countries and suspect, from…
Lotteries and Certainties
Over on Craigblog.co.uk , Craig has written about winning a few hundred pounds on the lottery. He goes on to reflect on the fairness or otherwise of the distribution of prizes, including some complex calculations that…
A World Called Travian
I have very little experience of online games. While I was still in England, my sons persuaded me into the online version of Halo , an excellent example of the move-quickly, shoot-to-kill, save-the-earth kind of game…
Ocean Thoughts
In a previous post, The Sea And Me , I wrote of my experience of the sea and how it affected me to spend much of my early years close to it. Since then I have rarely visited it and do not feel that strong pull towards…
How Not to Fish
Some time ago, I wrote about how I attempted to catch a large fish called a barbel in a net after a rainstorm in Zimbabwe. I seem fated with fishing and my few experiences of the sport have been unsuccessful at best and…
Wood and Saltboxes
One of the joys of living in New England has been the look of the houses. They are so different from what I am used to, the brick and pebble dashing that defines the houses in Britain. Here, every house is different…
A Link to F1 Insight
"The time has come," the walrus said... After sorting out a few glitches, the new F1 blog is ready to go live and does so today. There are still some features that won't be implemented until this coming weekend (Mad is…
Street Races in F1
Now that Bernie Ecclestone is bringing back street races, it suddenly seems that opinion has shifted against them. It was not that long ago that the possibility of street races returning looked very unlikely and many…
Watching Formula 1
Formula One is an acquired taste. It takes a while to learn its complexities and a lifetime to understand how things developed to become the beast we know today. As a result, F1-watchers divide into two main camps with…
Anthony Davidson and Super Aguri
An interesting fact emerged in "the other controversy" at Monaco - Davidson's drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags when Massa was running behind him. This sparked a surprising amount of debate amongst F1…
Max and the Manufacturers
Mighty Max Mosley has been talking about the reasons for his proposed changes to F1 . His thoughts are very revealing of the driving force behind his thinking: he wants the car manufacturers to remain involved and fears…
Storms in the F1 Teacup
That Bernie Ecclestone, he's a character isn't he? I love this sentence from his latest pronouncement on the Big Issue of the moment: "One thing is for sure: if there were team orders which relate to the position of the…
As Fickle As F1
I will not go into my thoughts on the FIA bowing to media pressure and starting an investigation into McLaren's alleged use of illegal team orders in Monaco; plenty is being written about the matter elsewhere and I…
Monaco Thoughts
Apparently, some people thought the Grand Prix was boring. That may have been true had you come for the overtaking (there was none) but then we knew that about Monaco anyway. How fair is it to say that it's impossible…
Those Whom The Gods Love
A couple of weeks ago, my good friend Paul, sometimes known as Prying1, sent me the photograph below with the cryptic message, "Now how old do you feel?" It made no sense until I noticed the names under the image: Eddie…
A Forgotten Tale
Occasionally, I read back through these posts in search of ideas for the present and I always include the comments section in that reading. There are gems in there that can spark new thoughts and remind one of matters…
A Farmer and a Dreamer
(This is one of a series of articles I wrote dealing with memories of an African childhood. To read the first of these, click here ) Over a year ago, I posted a piece called That Good, Red Dirt which sparked some…
Agoraphobia
Captain Enderby leaned back in his chair and watched the blue planet roll silently by the viewports yet again. It seemed unfair that, after all this time, these generations of waiting, the prize should be so close but…