A PLACE FOR SIDEWAYS TRAINS OF THOUGHT
A city where nothing is ever at the same angle I love Naples and the Neapolitan language. Walking around Naples in May 2017, I came across this street where nothing appeared to be at the same angle. It seemed to me to depict, not just physically, one of the characteristics of Naples which make it... Continue Reading →
Some time ago I heard a theorist called Aubrey de Grey predict that starting within the next twenty years it would be possible to begin a process to extend people's lives to the epic figure of 900 years or so. Apart from the obvious issue of where all these people are going to fit if... Continue Reading →
Listen to the poem here On my last day in Mexico, Mexico City bade farewell to me before I had had time to pack my bags. I looked for water late at night and every road performed a drum-roll down each side— shop-shutters closing, clanging, just for me— Goodbye, good luck and most of all... Continue Reading →
In the age when the world was as yet new when early humans lacked experience, without the shrewdness of the present day, beneath a lofty mountain, with a peak that seemed to touch the sky, a people, whose name I do not know, lived on the valley floor who... Continue Reading →
I earn my living as a conference interpreter, which means that I spend a lot of my time having words enter my ears through earphones and words in another language coming out of my mouth, in the constant hope that there will be some relationship between the two flows. Often, while engaged in this activity,... Continue Reading →
(Listen to the poem here) The bottle collectors, the metal detectors, the boarding pass checks, the ID inspection. Past the scanners, the guards, through the frisker-bush hedges The trackers, the scopers, the seven-armed gropers. Then the dumbstunner pistols which make all your electronics electroffics for the duration of your flight. The tattoo inferencer, the Rorschach... Continue Reading →
(Listen to the poem here) The day comes every day. It brightly knocks upon your door Sometimes you answer and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you leave a message to say that you’re not in for life right now. The night comes every night. It sits upon the ground and everywhere it plays its silent... Continue Reading →
In his book on Australia, Down Under, (entitled In a Sunburned Country in the USA and Canada), there is a moment when Bill Bryson is trying to find something to listen to on the radio while driving towards, if I recall properly, Adelaide. Nothing seems to be on the air. But, eventually, he comes across... Continue Reading →
Twice in my life, I have been at a meeting where a French person has stood up and said very seriously that it is obvious that French should be the global form of communication since French is the most logical of all languages. To this, I have a number of replies, but one will suffice:... Continue Reading →
In the 1990’s, when the grandfather of the current Kim was North Korea’s Great Leader, I spent a week in Pyongyang working as an interpreter for the Italian delegation at a huge conference which was attended by most of the world’s nations. I have decided to note down what I remember now, before the place... Continue Reading →