The Boy and The Coconut Tree

This is my rant about the horrible events in Paris this weekend I love Paris, always have, since my first visit when I was 11 to my multiple visits since. I think I've been to Paris over 15 times including 3 times for work and it never fails to impress me and now my French has improved from the school learnt "Je voudrais un kilo de pommes" I am comfortable going there alone and not needing to speak  English.  Paris is huge but feels less crowded than London, Parisians are reputed to be rude yet I've never experienced the level of rudeness I experience in London on a daily basis.  Stereotypes abound but taken on face value Paris is wonderful and I hope to return to her soon, I've promised that my first weekend abroad in 2016 will be Paris to revisit my favourites and hopefully discover something new. Musee D'Orsay So I turn to the bullying, the terrorists, bullies, hate filled and armed.  That is what they are, yes they are angry but do I r

I'm trying to find a definition of 'middle-age' that best suits me.   According to wikipedia it is a noun meaning ' the period after early adulthood and before old age, about 45 to 65' So as I am 24 hours away from being 46 I definitely fall into the meaning of the noun, if not the spirit, but I refuse to admit it! As I enjoy my last day being 45 I will be doing two things, staying in a nice 4 star hotel as my birthday gift to myself, that is very middle-aged of me and I will be going out in Soho with a group of friends in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s ( and this article seems very relevant today) A badge from a birthday card received last year from my friend Roger I love being contrary and as a middle-aged man I am allowed to be. And I've chose this song as my theme song for the weekend, a song released in 2009 by one of my favourite groups, The Pet Shop Boys , a group I've liked since I was 15 after my best friend, Allison, introduced me to their

The clocks changed last night, it happened whilst I was out, drinking with an Australian friend. I've yet to understand why we do it and I am sure I read it has something to do with a war or something, WW1 perhaps, usually these weird unexplained rules and procedures have something to do with a politician's decision in war-time and it stuck.  I also learnt, whilst living in Spain, that Franco changed the time in Spain so Madrid would be in the same time-zone as his hero, Hitler, so politicians do weird things and when they make silly changes someone forgets to undo those changes and we are stuck with it, and the consequence of last night's clock change was an extra hour bed, or that is what should have happened but as I was out drinking and dancing until 3am and woke up at my normal time, the extra hour was wasted, I had 6 hours sleep and feel rough today as a consequence. I am using the "extra" hour that isn't to contemplate and digest my thoughts

I tried to introduce English poetry to some of my more advanced students in Spain during 2013/2014 and these are the poems we chose! English Poems There is another Sky,  by Emily Dickinson There is another sky, Ever serene and fair, And there is another sunshine, Though it be darkness there; Never mind faded forests, Austin, Never mind silent fields - Here is a little forest, Whose leaf is ever green; Here is a brighter garden, Where not a frost has been; In its unfading flowers I hear the bright bee hum: Prithee, my brother, Into my garden come! A dream within a dream,  by Edgar Allan Poe Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now, Thus much let me avow-- You are not wrong, who deem That my days have been a dream; Yet if hope has flown away In a night, or in a day, In a vision, or in none, Is it therefore the less gone? All that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream. I stand amid the roar Of a surf-tormented shore, And I hold within my

I thought I would post a review of this as it has certainly split opinions.   I wrote this as soon as I'd watched the movie as I sat on the Tube going home. Interesting movie. Great idea and looks good (if that is what Mars looks like). Great cast! Very flag waving yee hah Americana at times with nods to friendliness with the Chinese (probably for the potential box office takings there). I enjoyed it and knew it was a blockbuster, looks good and feel good. Not for everyone but I enjoyed it. And I prefer Jessica Chastain to Matt Damon! Scientists and film critics etc will pull it apart.  7/10.

I don't keep a diary, I have never kept a diary apart from a travel journal from when I lived in Australia and wrote down my observations and experiences.  I still have it and after 15 years it makes me smile and feel sad, I miss the place a lot and hope to afford another trip there soon, 2016 maybe!? A few weeks ago I was enjoying myself in sunny Stockholm and twee Tallinn and now I'm back in londony* London and think this is the last weekend of nice summer weather we will have, autumn is creeping in.  Work has provided me with the most entertainment since that trip. I was out of the office for 4 days and changes were made without my input and it happened again last week.  It is like working in the shaking house at a funfair, the ground keeps moving below me and I am not sure what I can do to stop it. Maybe I'll just focus on my up-coming weekends away, home to see my parents, then to Barcelona in December (my first visit there since I left in August 2014). I

I don't apologize for my travel preferences, I do spend a lot of my travels sitting in cafes, drinking coffee  Coffee and delicious muffin in Stockholm and watching the locals get on with their daily lives. It fascinates me and yes I also love to travel on ships, this trip on the Baltic has not put me off, I may not travel Tallink again but I will travel on the Baltic, the sea and the cities around it are too interesting and beautiful to avoid. A day in Tallinn is probably all you need. The city has two distinct areas, the lovely old quarter which is well preserved, cobbled streets and pretty (but be warned, cobbles are dangerous when wet). The old quarter is easy to navigate if you have a map, I asked directions from a few locals and they all shrugged. I found my way around eventually and explored. The new part of the city is strange, lots of modern buildings, shopping centres and new hotels but not many people around and not a lot of character. The shopping centre

So the nerdy geek inside of me is a bit of a ship/ferry enthusiast. The girls in the office mock me about on a daily basis. I love being on a big ship out at sea, especially if it is a bit choppy/rough. I booked on to one of the 2 big Baltic ferry companies, TallinkSilja ,  the other (and possibly the better) is Viking Line .  Now Silja once had a reputation for having amazing ships and amazing service but this reputation has taken a blow since its takeover by Tallink, it still has the big ships but most of the fleet is now Tallink and their ships may be big etc but are not as stylish. Publicity shot of MS Victoria 1 So BA and my miles got me a round trip to Stockholm and I was booked on the MS Victoria for a round trip to Tallinn, my ideal cruise would have been a round trip to Helsinki on this beauty but the prices for 1 person travelling alone were too high. So my ship was the smaller but newer MS Victoria 1 . She isn't an ugly ship and is large but my gut ins

It is August and it is raining and reminds me of Winter and this is the English summer in action. Yesterday was 32c and sunny and I have the farmers tan to prove it. My arms and lower legs are reddish brown and my upper arms and chest are as white as they day I arrived on earth (that makes me sound like some alien visitor when I should have just said "born") As I sit here waiting for one of my Spanish students, Davinia, I am reading her account of a Spanish novel, El Tiempo Entre Costuras,  and it makes me want to travel so much.  I was feeling all sentimental today. I arrived back in England 1 year ago this week and that first week was an interesting week of good and bad.  My dad's brother, uncle John died after a long battle with lung cancer but I was lucky enough to see him a few days before he died and have the usual, uncle taking the piss out of a nephew, conversations. That week I also spent some quality time with my parents, my sisters and my nieces and ne

The school holidays have now started here in the UK and it shows.  The crowds in central London today are far bigger.  Parliament  Square and Whitehall were a scrum of people with selfie sticks and maps.  I am not quite sure of the logic of using a selfie-stick for every photo, maybe its an age thing. I was recently in Amsterdam and watched, aghast, as 4 American girls took their photo, grinning outside Anne Frank's house. No doubt their tour of Europe included grinning selfies at Belsen or topless shots on the D Day beaches. Some people are idiots.  So summer is in full flow though it feels like Summer arrived in late May, fell flat, got up again in late June and has stopped and started since then. For me, summer is still the 6 weeks school holiday, especially as my nieces and nephews are now on holiday, my sisters and my parents will be stressed out and my teacher friends will be happy and less stressed.   Here is my song of the summer (Song of July) so far: I'

Today is the 60th anniversary of the Eurovision  Song Contest , a show I've watched most years since 1973 or so. I remember being curled up on my Nana's sofa on a Saturday night with her singing "Save All Your Kisses For Me" to me as I fell asleep, a lovely memory. Now Eurovision has become intertwined with the gay movement and gay society; I love it, we love it. A friend of mine asked me yesterday if I had not grown out of it at 45? I said "bloody hell, no" the day I stop enjoying fun and silliness is the day I lay down in a coffin. In some of the newer entrant countries, it is less of a gay thing and more of a cultural showcase for their popular music.  Most years I either host or attend a Eurovision party, usually a mix of friends from various countries my 2009 party had people from Germany, Norway, China, Spain and Australia, gay and straight, it was fun and today I will be watching it with Americans and Germans, an intriguing mix. Today is Euro

Hello blog fans, it has been quite some time since I wrote anything. The reason? Nothing more than being distracted by work and life in general. In the past month I've bought a camera that I am struggling to use properly, I've met up with my half-brother who I've not seen since 1996 and I've worked so much overtime that my next holiday is already paid for.  It is raining outside yet sunny, the weather giveth and taketh at the same time. March 1st isn't the first day of spring despite what people think and it doesn't feel very springlike today and I am missing the Mediterranean sunshine This weekend has been full of nice surprises, blasts from my past ranging from my first boyfriend in London who I met 20 years ago to my landlord and friend from Leeds who I first met 22 years ago. It was nice spending time with people who have known me for so long that I don't have to try, there is no need to make an impression and waste energy on that "hope the

Happy Sunday!

I entered 2015 in the very same place I entered 1995, dancing in Camden with friends; different friends but the friends from 1995 were people I just met in my early days in London, like the friends you make at University in the first term and try to escape in the 2nd. This new year's eve was spent with friends I have known many years and thankfully we didn't sing "auld langs eyne" (or maybe we did and the Prosecco/Vodka haze confused me). I think on January 1 1995 I slept on a mattress in a friend’s living room, this year I was in my own bed, warm and cozy  and no head spin. And this is the random song of the evening (they played it twice): 2015 is only 3 days old and so much of it is already mapped out and familiar. In 2 weeks I start working in my old office in an almost identikit version of my last job, same people, same boss and same hours and part of me is excited and part of me is stressing about it. Are moves backward positive? Most people think not