Walking Commentary
Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023
12 March 2020 – 07:11 GMT – 3°C Mostly Sunny – Co. Dublin, Ireland
I found a travel book on the beside table in a friend’s house. We were visiting Offaly where another guest had left it behind, judging from the stamped but unsent postcard bookmark. I read the first chapter and was hooked. How could you not become fascinated by the rescue of a gay leper? Or want to know more about an immortal Yogi? And my architectural hero Lutyens features in the story when in Delhi.
One of the few disappointments in relocating to Dublin is the lack of decent vegetarian restaurants. That’s possibly because living in London has spoiled me. In London, it seems that vegetarians and vegans cook for vegetarians and vegans. In Dublin, there are just a couple of such places, Cornucopia the best known. Let’s not name many names but once you get out into the suburbs, the vegetarian still needs to select several vegetable dishes in order to eat with their carnivorous friends.
[Read more…] about VegetarianismThe legacy of Ken Loach at the BBC is well demonstrated in ‘Sorry We Missed You’. ‘Up The Junction’ and ‘Cathy Come Home’ changed politics, bringing the gender issues of unwanted pregnancies and homelessness into every home in the UK. Can ‘Sorry We Missed You’ do it again for modern zero-hours contract slavery?
A family is ripped apart by cruel employment abuses, both in the private sector delivery business and also in the government’s carer business. A woman leaving the cinema commented that we should be grateful for our lives. And yet, I thought, we still want someone (else) to deliver packages on demand and someone (else) to remove the soiled clothes of the elderly. The gig economy is based on exploitation, easily sold to people who aspire to controlling their own destiny: perhaps suitable in the short term, there are longer term consequences that start with mental health issues and get worse from there.
[Read more…] about Sorry We Missed You9 March 2020 – 16:28 GMT – 10°C Light Rain – Co. Dublin, Ireland
the sound of the bat
flying in the thicket
is dark
A haiku I really like by Masaoka Shiki who in a short TB-curtailed life is credited with rescuing the poetry form of haiku. He urged poets to seek inspiration from the beauty of nature. He advised that we ‘encounter beautiful scenes and copy them realistically.’
In the bright room where I like to read, not just poetry, the rain is gently tapping the window glass.
[Read more…] about Haiku Way8 Mar 2020 – noon GMT – 7°C Mostly Cloudy – Co. Longford, Ireland
Ireland had a general election recently. Moribund policies in discussion that brought about the election include housing, healthcare and pensions. The twelve-year economic recovery is not perceived as benefiting the majority of society that are working so hard to sustain it. And now an electorate desperate for change has voted into a position of strength a group that we suspected are run by an army council of shadow players.
However to focus on these issues is to miss a point. These issues may not be as important as one fundamental problem.
[Read more…] about Inequality7 Mar 2020 – 9:23 GMT – 9°C Light Drizzle – Co. Longford, Ireland
That last night in Agadir, the concierge booked us into The Admiral restaurant, a recommendation I got from the guidebook in my hotel room. We drove over at 1930. It was closed. Very closed. Very, very closed. Think American ghost towns with tangleweed drift. Peeling paint. Corrosion. Our Moroccan driver suggested another place. Great fish, though really just a roadside bistro. No alcohol for my guests. Thin cats stalking among the street side tables, hoping for morsels we were never going to share. Beggars looking from across the street but not begging. Reminded me strangely of lepers in Burma.
[Read more…] about Memories