Monthly Archives: August 2013

After last week’s arty excursion to Goulburn, we thought we’d go to the Turner exhibition at the NGA. It’s billed as the ‘making of a master’ and it’s exactly that – a collection of paintings that trace the development of … Continue reading →

I’ve been reading a biography of Henry Rawlinson, one of these larger than life nineteenth century characters who was one of the first to translate Cuneiform script, as well as incidentally being one of the people responsible for fomenting the … Continue reading →

As I tweeted earlier today, I suddenly realised that it’s around 40 years since I wrote my first code – as part of a maths option in high school. The programming language was Algol68 and the code was a hello … Continue reading →

I’ve previously written about Alexander Burnes and his Scottish connections. Burnes was of course a participant in the ‘Great Game’, the jousting for power in Asia between Britain, through its Indian Empire, and Russia with it’s expansion East. There is a tendency to focus on … Continue reading →

In the course of reading about nineteenth century travellers in Central Asia, I came across Alexander Burnes. His story is well known, and I won’t repeat it here but the thing that piqued my interest is that he originally came … Continue reading →

Travel is quite often not about the big in your face experiences but about those quiet discoveries. Tomato sauce with Chilli There’s nothing quite like the moment you discover that taste of a rich ketchup with a little bite of … Continue reading →