One of the many excellent aspects of redundancy is the chance to dig out my favourite quotation. Popularised by JFK, its origin is unclear. Google research has everyone falling over themselves to attribute Better to light a candle than curse the darkness to that sagacious Chinese guy who seemed to do little but generate minimalistic wisdom in memorable one-liners. One site even reproduces it in Chinese characters, as if this makes the attribution unarguable.… READ MORE.... …
Month: March 2010
The Dubliners were part of the soundtrack to my childhood, and I hated them. It was the music of my parents, and I couldn’t relate to it. Much better were the other musical strands: the ones that came from my older brother and sisters. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were cool; traditional Irish folk music wasn’t. I’ve had a strange relationship with Ireland.… READ MORE.... …
Nottingham. I wouldn’t normally stay in a Premier Inn for work, but opted to do so this time, as there’s a Virgin Active gym next door, which opens its doors to hotel residents. But once I’d checked in, and discovered that I could watch the Arsenal-Porto Champions League game only in the bar, my plans began crumbling. Instead of two hours of noble sweat and saintliness, it was two hours of beer and pizza and televised football.… READ MORE.... …
The green shoots of recovery may have been sighted at last. It’s not the economy, stupid. It’s me. In my runiverse, nothing much has gone right this year. Just eleven hours into 2010, during the Hyde Park 10K, my injury troubles began, and they’ve not let up. Four weeks later came a failed Almeria half marathon, and since then, another desolate month has passed. … READ MORE.... …