Some years ago, I was in Poland on a business trip. Like most of my trips, it was one of those short in-and-out visists, and it would probably have been filed away as utterly unmemorable if it hadn’t been for an incident at the airport. Now those of you that travel frequently, know that one […]
Today’s post is about love. Seems sort of apt, given the date…I have a thing about love – in all its forms and guises. Not that I believe myself to be unique in this; most people I know have a thing about love. Love hurts, they say. I guess most of us would agree, having
…or so, at least, Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar must have reasoned when she decided to leave her feminine self behind and instead become a man. And not any old man, either, no Ulrika Eleonora decided to go all in and become a soldier. Okay, so none of the above is truly remarkable in this day and
There are princesses and princesses. In a previous post, we have touched upon the frail, ethereal princesses that develop bruises from sleeping on a pea. I’m not so sure there are all that many of those… Neither, I can confidently state, are there all that many princesses like Cecilia, Swedish princess, apple of her father’s
From sinful princess to pirate – meet Cecilia Vasa Read More »
Us modern people have little exposure to death. Gone are the days when people lived cheek to jowl with their grannies and great.grannies, and so the first exposure most of us get to death is when our parents die. A sort of “wake up and smell the coffee” moment, as it brings home the inevitable
When I was a child, we had an eighteen tome encyclopedia in the bookshelf. On days when I had nothing else to read, I’d pull out one of the tomes, open it randomly and read about something I had (probably) never heard of before. Encyclopedias invite that kind of behaviour, the un-organised browsing that has
Saving lives with papers – a man who made a difference Read More »
There was not much sun. That would, one assumes, be a major disappointment when the purpose of our little trip was to lie flat on our backs and absorb sunlight, now and then making the effort to go splashing in the surf instead. Duh! Of course it was a disappointment! However, there are some things
Hands up all those who make New Year Resolutions and never live up to them. No? Am I the only person who promises roundly and delivers nada? Well, dear readers, I don’t believe you. Plus I know for a fact that I live surrounded by people who make resolutions every New Year’s Eve and rarely
Making them and breaking them – of New Year Resolutions Read More »
Today is a good day. Since the longest night of the year (Sunday to Monday), the day has increased with two minutes. Now why do i hear some of you laughing out loud? Two minutes is two minutes – enough to read your horoscope in, to solve three crossword clues or finalise the Sudoku –
Most of us initiate our conversations with a chirpy “hi, how are you?” The expectation is that the person in question will say, “I’m fine” or potentially downgrade that to an “I’m okay”. After all, we’re not really interested in the health of the person we’ve just encountered, we’re merely following the unwritten codes that