The Great Mosque in Cordoba in Southern Spain is one of the wonders of the modern world. It is not that new, of course, dating from 756 AD when the Caliph of Damascus set up his court in Cordoba and constructed the mosque on the site of an earlier Roman Temple of Janus which had… Read More: Globalisation »
Set in post apocalyptic America now called Panem, Hunger Games is the first book in a trilogy by Suzanne Collins recently made into a film. The plot is complicated but a synopsis can be found in Wikipedia. For present purposes, Panem consists of Capitol, a rich and powerful city and 12 districts under its firm… Read More: Hunger Games »
My eye was drawn to the recent piece in the Lawyer [Stephenson Harwood uses Facebook to serve court claim, 21st Feb, 2012] noting that the High Court has agreed that a claim may be served on a party via Facebook. If ever there was an indication that social media is now mainstream, this is surely it.… Read More: Going to the wall »
A question of trivia: How many needles did Cleopatra have? The answer, it seems, is four! If you have been reading my recent posts from New York, you will not be surprised to learn that one of the “needles” is in Central Park. Its partner is on the Embankment in London and they came originally… Read More: Holloway’s needle »
It is easy to overlook the fact that London is a very green city. It is a fact! Fly over it and you will see what I mean. Consider Highbury Fields to Victoria Park, from Greenwich to Crystal Palace and Richmond taking in Hyde Park and St James’s Park; there are few cities with more… Read More: Mind the gap! »
There are times when I can be quite as grumpy as the next man. Indeed there are acquaintances (in the circumstances, I cannot call them friends) who think I have perfected the art. All I know is that there are people who wish to tell anyone who is listening what they had for breakfast and… Read More: Banging on »
Lovers of Greek mythology will be familiar with the story of Pandora, whose curiosity ensured that she opened the box given to her by Zeus with instructions that she should on no account open it. When she did, evil escaped around the world and although she tried her best to get the lid back on,… Read More: Pandora’s box »
Worryingly, I have realised that it is almost a lifetime ago that I was last in Munich. Actually that is not quite true because I was there about 5 years ago to watch a performance of Pygmalion in which my daughter was acting, but, fun as that was, my memories of Munich are from the… Read More: Postcard from Munich »
Did you know that India has over 600,000 lawyers? The profession in India is said to be the second largest in the world. No prizes for guessing that the US has the largest number of lawyers at a truly staggering 1,143,358 registered and active lawyers in 2007. I have been unable to find a more… Read More: The moral of the tale »
Not if your garden is in Greece! The latest news suggests that horticulture in that part of the Mediterranean must be very tricky. Drought conditions prevail and the plants are looking a trifle sickly. It is not much better further along the Mediterranean either with Berlusconi withering on the vine, Zapatero running for cover (elections… Read More: Is everything in the garden rosy? »