Author Archives: dgm

I love travelling by train – I havn’t travelled on an overnight sleeper train in the UK since the mid-eighties, but they’re still running … The overnight train to London isn’t perfect but it’s still magical | Herald Scotland.

Following on from my previous post on withdrawing from social media, this popped up about twenty minutes later Email after hours? It’s overtime by law for some. And for those of us without fixed hours what it means is that … Continue reading →

Recently there’s been a trickle of articles about people who don’t engage with social media – about not using facebook, about the need disconnect from the twitterverse, and how smartphone use stimulates obsessive compulsive behaviour. The subtext is of course … Continue reading →

Elsewhere I’ve written that the US is a meat eater’s paradise – this article in the NYT kind of confirms it … A Vegetarian’s Struggle for Sustenance in the Midwest – NYTimes.com. Broccoli anyone ?

Over the past twelve or so months my obsessions have changed, it used to be classical and early modern history as can be seen in the Sighelm obsession, but more recently I’ve returned to an earlier interest, that of the … Continue reading →

Following on from my post six months ago about getting around Bangkok come news that  there’s now a plan to have integrated ticketing in Bangkok by 2015 Bangkok Post : Get a ticket to ride everywhere. If it all goes to … Continue reading →

The last few years we’ve hosted a Christmas party for friends and relations on Christmas Eve and then gone to some other family gathering for Christmas lunch. This year was different, with Christmas falling on a Sunday and also being … Continue reading →

It’s nearly Christmas, and I can’t resist being a grump, put it down to my calvinist upbringing which has left me thinking that Cromwell was a dangerous liberal when it came to Christmas festivities. There’s a meme out there that … Continue reading →

Russian is a beautifully constructed language, with simple near phonetic spelling and a logical grammar – yes there are exceptions and a whole swag of rules, but it’s simple – six cases, three genders, three tenses, the past and future … Continue reading →

Last month I was at a meeting in the University of Maryland Library, and for some reason, the meeting room was absolutely freezing, so during a coffee break I took a walk round the shelves to try and warm up. … Continue reading →