Malta Diary A history of plagues and epidemics over many decades – restrictions are endemic in the DNA of the people of the Maltese Islands
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: Yep, Christmas is coming and we should be hearing the tinkling of bells and the rustling of holly and ivy –...
The Ailing Tradition of Christmas Cards- Blessing or Loss
It’s not really news that the art of sending Christmas cards is an ailing one. I still like to send Christmas cards, indeed to me it is part of...
Taxi Noir: A Handful of Great British Pubs
Great Britain is full of terrific pubs, and I’ve listed a mere five quintessentially British pubs that I hope to get to visit when the war is over. The...
The Incredible Gardens at Cliveden
Photos: Rob Tysall, Tysall’s Photography If you are travelling to Buckinghamshire Ann Evans suggests you take time to visit Cliveden Gardens. There’s so much to say about...
Enjoy the Costa del Sol at its best at “Ikos Andalusia”- World Meanderings (n°104)
By Annick Dournes & Frédéric de Poligny Although we all have to grin and bear a sad and depressing autumn nothing says we can’t dream of our next...
Malta Diary Which country has the largest concentration of windmills in the world?
“Granite jaws that look down on fields of grain and devour them!” ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: In his poem ‘The Windmill’, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote: “Behold! a giant am I!...
SHELLY BEACH SNIPPETS No 128, NOVEMBER, 2020.
Patricia Newell-Dunkley – Photographs Reginald J. Dunkley www: Greetings from down under with glorious sunshine and summer fast approaching. Travel is rather tricky at the moment with...
Honouring Our Canine Military Heroes
Photos courtesy of NMWDM (UK) and Rob Tysall As we honour and remember all those brave men and women who have served in the Armed Services, lets also...
Britain’s Horrific Treatment of Chinese Labourers During World War 1.
How the Chinese helped the British and French to win the War, but were treated like Slaves. A hundred years ago the Great War ended and Memorial ceremonies have...
Two Middle-Aged Ladies in Andalusia
Nine years ago – I find that hard to believe but my Andalucia Explorer blog tells me so, I wrote ´It´s fifty years since Penelope Chetwode, wife of John Betjeman,...
Harry’s Ramblings My Shame
by Harry Pope Have you ever done something that years later you say to yourself ‘wish I’d never done that?’ Well, there’s not much regret in my life, but...
Mumbai Memoir ~ All for a pot of curd!
The 21st century Mumbai buzzes with all the activities that a modern world city possesses. But besides it modern appeal, its ancient roots still reflects when the city celebrates...
Travel to Santa Helena Island with a cup of coffee – World Meanderings (n°103)
By Annick Dournes & Frédéric de Poligny St. Helena Island is world famous for being Napoleon’s last residence and death place. But this tiny island lost in...
Malta Diary Venice in Malta? A Grand Canal Scheme that went awry – and left its unpleasant aftermath
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: How shattering when a grand scheme based on noble aims goes askew and leaves a bitter aftermath that continued to...
The Changing Face of Supermarkets: the death of the deli counter
Over the years I have often lamented about the death of the high street and have written nostalgically about the loss of the corner shop, but today I find...
Coventry Remembers – 80 Years on
Ann Evans’ home city of Coventry commemorates a very important – yet terrible time in the City’s history, 14th November 1940 – The Coventry Blitz. It has been...
Karl’s Chronicles. Article 52 Le Jardin Majorelle – A Painters Triumph.
The fashionable came to see and be seen, almost as worthy as the official pieces of art that lay bold but simultaneously unassuming around them. Chic supercilious women strolling...
Harry’s Ramblings Love Me Tender
by Harry Pope My wife thinks I can’t sing. She is right, but just sometimes I can hold a note sufficiently long to be able to entertain others as...
Malta Diary Touches of sanity in today’s eyesore concrete jungle -archaeological sites and buildings now Scheduled and cannot be destroyed or altered in any way
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: I have written it before and repeat, if my great grandparents and grandparents were to be resurrected today and placed anywhere in...
Taxi Noir: Halloween Horror
Halloween was a pretty low-key event in the 1970s. Until recently, I hadn’t made a ghostly “Woooo!” noise on October 31st since about 1972. When Halloween became more commercialised...
Karl’s Chronicles Article 51 The Wicked Burning
‘Remember, Remember, the fifth of November, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot!’ Well, there is still plot in the nights terrifying logistics, plenty of gunpowder rammed into those exploding rockets, and...
Harry’s Ramblings; Eastbourne Bombing in WW2
by Harry Pope 11,475 houses in Eastbourne during WW2 had some kind of damage from German bombing. This is from a town that had a population in 1939 of...
Malta Diary Memories of boyhood fishing days – another pleasure lost to today’s young generation?
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: The sea is never far away in Malta and Gozo and is very much part of the DNA of its...
Karl’s Chronicles. Article 50 Marrakesh – The Maze of Shadows
Pummelled and bruised like a failed fighter, the glum wasp-yellow taxi coughed its way down Rue Mohamed V. The broad artery named after the first King at Independence from...
Malta Diary Intricate, precious and a labour of love – but very sadly dying out The art and skill of hand-woven Malta and Gozo cotton lace
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: In Maltese, the word “bizilla” primarily means an intricate handmade lace weave in a significant pattern. However, the word...
A Visit to Allesley Park, Coventry
Ann Evans continues to explore Coventry’s parks. This week we visit Allesley Park. While many of us are not venturing much further than our own doorsteps at the...
Harry’s Ramblings Seafront Refreshment
by Harry Pope Eastbourne’s seafront is unique in the whole of the UK. Why? Because no commercial outlets are allowed on the seafront, due to it being owned since...
A sunny autumn city-break in Athens – World Meanderings (n°100)
By Annick Dournes & Frederic de Poligny Being just back from a three weeks tour in Greece we can assure you that Greece is one of the...
Malta Diary Valletta’s St John’s Co-Cathedral – one of the most renowned and beautiful in the world
Baroque art and history at its best ALBERT FENECH e/mail: salina46af@gmail,com Facebook: There were two aspects to the Knight Hospitaliers of the Order of St John of Jerusalem;...
Explore Coventry’s War Memorial Park
Ann Evans continues to explore Coventry’s parks, join her at the War Memorial Park. Coventry’s War Memorial Park has been a popular place to walk, relax, exercise...
Karl’s Chronicles; Hailsham – A Town Less Ordinary
Take a walk through any small town with its row of retail, a cluster of banks, net-curtained tea rooms, an austere parish church, and perhaps like a disorganised uncle,...
Harry’s Ramblings Fleeting Celebrities
by Harry Pope Mary Berry smiled at me. Just the once, mind you, but it was memorable. At the time I had no idea who she was, it was...
Malta Diary When Malta turned RED – not politically but in bricks, stone and mortar!
Sadly most of these buildings are no longer with us ALBERT FENECH e/mail: salina46af@gmail,com Facebook: Perhaps not many people are aware of the effect of different colours...
Caludon Castle Park
Photos by Rob Tysall and Ann Evans Ann Evans discovers the local parks in Coventry; this week it’s Caludon Castle Park. If nothing else, the restrictions imposed...
SHELLY BEACH SNIPPETS No. 126 September, 2020.
Greetings from down under where a few State borders are being opened, South Australia and Queensland. Victoria is gradually recovering, and New South Wales is on track. The good...
Beautiful Botanical Kew
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a fascinating collection of living plants, trees and shrubs, either ‘growing out’ in the vast parklands or in the historic glasshouses and nurseries....
Harry’s Ramblings Cricket disaster
by Harry Pope When I was a lad in the 1950s, Sir Harry Secombe lived, like me, in Cheam. This is a suburb of Sutton on the northern border...
Mumbai Memoir 136 – Mumbai in Picture Postcards!
‘Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder’- This popular quote actually means its ‘perception’ that matters. The city of Mumbai has its own good, bad and ugly side...
Back to Greece: Zakynthos Island could boast being Greece paradise island
Back to Greece. Zakynthos Island could boast being Greece paradise island By Annick Dournes & Frédéric de Poligny Even if you won’t find any ancient Greek monument on...
Malta Diary The Royal Naval Bighi Hospital – one of the best in Europe during its era Now an interactive Esplora science and technology museum and a major attraction
ALBERT FENECH e/mail: salina46af@gmail,com Facebook: Villa Bighi is one of the most iconic buildings on the inner rim of the majestic Valletta Grand Harbour. The central original villa...