Author Archives: dgm

Ella Maillart, about whom I’ve written in the past was one the giants of pre world war two travel, travelling across Xianjaing with Peter Fleming and driving with Annemarie Schwarzenbach from Switzerland to Afghanistan on the eve of world war … Continue reading →

I’ve previously written about Aboriginal contacts with what is now Indonesia and the Kilwa coins problem as well as about African contacts with Sri Lanka – the two are related – essentially we can show that there were East African … Continue reading →

Came across this Bradford University undergraduate thesis that looked at the archaeological evidence for cats being present on Viking settlement sites in the North Atlantic settlement area centred around Orkney and Shetland. Unfortunately, the thesis doesn’t add much to my … Continue reading →

Way back in April I wrote about calorie restriction, and the Michael Mosely feast and fast diet. Well I didn’t do it, well not the way suggested. But I got a result – losing 6kg in six months. At 77kg … Continue reading →

I’ve been quiet recently. Not quite true, there’s posts and updates elsewhere, but it’s true to say that I’ve not been writing a lot. In part it’s because we’re just recovering from two long weekends in a row and a … Continue reading →

Following on from my post on Vikings and cats I remembered a post of mine from 2008 about a genetic analysis of mice in the UK which showed that mice from Scotland Ireland and Wales have a more Scandanavian genome … Continue reading →

About three weeks ago, my watch strap broke. It was a fairly expensive watch, and I caught it in time so there was no need for any wailing. The only problem is that being a moderately upmarket watch I probably … Continue reading →

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 →