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Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023

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Archives for December 2020

Book of My Year

December 31, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

Despite the challenges, I consider myself to have been very lucky this year. I have lots of reasons to be cheerful. One of these is that I have reliable sources of book recommendations. So many people have made such excellent book recommendations that have I haven’t yet read them all. And the lockdown is the primary reason I was able to read as many as I did.

New Year’s Eve 2006 The Last Stand (Leinster Rugby beat Ulster).
It was the last game in Landsdowne Road before the stadium was demolished.
Remarkably, Johnny Sexton is still playing top flight rugby.
[Read more…] about Book of My Year

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: ahmet altan, Bill Bryson, booklink, brian greene, colum mccann, david eagleman, encyclopaedia britannica, leinster rugby, peter wohlleben

Gallery: 25 2020 moments

December 30, 2020 by Simon Robinson 1 Comment

I’ve selected twenty five images from among the many that I took this year. And I’ve chosen one as my favourite. I told its story here on Christmas Day and the picture makes me smile every time I see it. And it’s not even a proper photo, four months after the initial idea, it’s a cropped snap from an iPhone. That’s surely reason enough to make it my favourite from the 305 days of this journal.

Picasso (crop) by Liz Brooke Ward after Picasso by I7 after Pablo Picasso.
[Read more…] about Gallery: 25 2020 moments

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: fabhappy, gallery, liz brooke ward, pandemic, photography

Celebrate Minor Mundanity

December 29, 2020 by Simon Robinson 1 Comment

‘What are you, a sorcerer? / Only at home. In company I drink out of the cup.’
– Take it from Here, BBC radio comedy with Frank Muir and Dennis Norden

Kitchen cleaning tools before the calamity.
[Read more…] about Celebrate Minor Mundanity

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: bbc, booklink, fitbit, photography, technology, vet

Yachts, Leaks and Bacteria

December 28, 2020 by Simon Robinson 3 Comments

One night last week, I’d had a bad night’s sleep, broken by rain pounding on the roof. There were also sheets of wind-blown water crashing over the side of the house. I knew I wasn’t on a leg across the roaring forties in a round-the-world yacht race because the bed wasn’t rocking. But I wondered about the strength of water, the power of the ocean while remembering the damage I’d seen on the keels of maxi yachts on a hard stand in Fremantle. And the cataclysmic noise just above my head simultaneously prompted thoughts about the end of time, which for us as individual sailors, would be the same as the end of our lives.

Three maxi yachts and the prow of W60 Yamaha – Whitbread 1993 – recovering in Freemantle
[Read more…] about Yachts, Leaks and Bacteria

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: australia, booklink, brian greene, grant dalton, ken dodd, photo, travel, volvo ocean race, whitbread, yachts

Loose Connections

December 27, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

I read yesterday that George Blake has died. I’m old enough to remember his escape from Wormwood Scrubs jail in 1966 but not old enough to recall his trial with much clarity. I walked past the jail in Hammersmith a few years ago and it was Blake’s name that came to mind. Notoriety is strangely long lived.

Today’s late afternoon winter light in Dun Laoghaire Harbour.
[Read more…] about Loose Connections

Filed Under: Anchoritism, Fake Memoir Tagged With: booklink, donald trump, edward snowden, george blake, george bush, julian assange, photo, robert macfarlane, spies, tony blair, travel, war, war crimes

Winter Book Season

December 26, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

It was wonderful to get a selection of books as presents this holiday. One my new treats is this year’s winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, Explaining Humans by Camilla Pang. However, I have a few to finish before I can begin to enjoy the new haul. One of those unfinished treats is last year’s winner.

Books as treats for the sofa.
[Read more…] about Winter Book Season

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: booklink, camilla pang, caroline criado perez, hans rosling, royal society

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