Monthly Archives: February 2005

Well, I’m not very surprised to find that those of you who like poached eggs that don’t taste of vinegar outnumber the vinegar-lovers by almost two to one (9 to 5). But I am surprised that the total number of … Continue reading →

It’s my colleague’s birthday today. She is from Kazakhstan. I happened to have a spare copy of Ken MacLeod’s The Stone Canal which as you all know is partly set in Kazakhstan. So I’ve given it to her as a … Continue reading →

Authors I own ten books by: Brian Aldiss Iain (M) Banks Lois McMaster Bujold Arthur C. Clarke Neil Gaiman Terry Pratchett Sherri S Tepper Roger Zelazny Other authors I’ve read ten books by (I think): Piers Anthony Enid Blyton Agatha … Continue reading →

9) Manna from Heaven, by Roger Zelazny I confess to being a little underwhelmed by this collection. Zelazny was one of my favourite authors, but all the good stories here were ones I had read before. (And what is the … Continue reading →

Sitting in the Hotel Moskva breakfast room, watching the snow gradually drift down over Terazije, I realised there was an unfamiliar taste about my poached eggs – vinegar. And then I thought, maybe I’m the one that’s weird here; maybe … Continue reading →

8) Cyprus: The Search for a Solution, by David Hannay I’ve just been given responsibility for Cyprus at work, so this book recounting the experiences of the chief British negotiator on the Cyprus problem between 1996 and 2003 seemed a … Continue reading →

Thanks to : The truth about Belgium.

bold if you’ve read it allunderline if you’ve read partitalicize if you own#1 The Bible#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes#4 The Koran#5 Arabian Nights#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain#7 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift#8 … Continue reading →

The original plan was to spend all day today in our Belgrade office working on a draft report. But I have some kind of immobilising tummy bug and have spent the day so far in my Hotel Moskva bed reading … Continue reading →

Heavy heavy morning of Serious Political Discussions. Followed by afternoon of eating, email, and an interview with a passing Montenegrin film crew. The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee finally published its report on the Balkans (pdf). It quotes me, … Continue reading →

Nick Whyte, president of the Huron County Federation of Agriculture, said during a phone interview that the move to delay municipal farm taxes until fall should be helpful to Huron East farmers. “It is a very helpful move, and thoughtful … Continue reading →

My nice quick connection via Munich has been cancelled. Luckily there’s another via Zurich, two hours later… Edite to add it later turned out that this was all to protect President Bush.

From : Go to your info page and find the seventh name listed on your friends list. Go to their info page and find the seventh name on their mutual friends list (or friends list if no mutual friends list). … Continue reading →

Get your alphabets here!

http://www.vreme.com.mk/vest.aspx?id=21128&vid=321 За Македонија е подобро Косово да стане независно ЦВЕТИН ЧИЛИМАНОВ – Во својот последен извештај за „Косово – кон финалниот статус“, пишувате дека работата е сега или никогаш. Но, Косово е уште далеку од исполнувањето на стандардите на Обединетите … Continue reading →

Bye-bye, Queen Of Wands. I don’t know why this story of three flatmates and their not especially complex relationships absorbed me, but it did. Anyway it’s going to run again from Monday, being reposted on a 7-days-a-week basis, so those … Continue reading →

Reproduced without comment from Novosti: 2005-02-22 20:36 PUTIN CONCERNED ABOUT DEVELOPMENTS IN SOME CIS COUNTRIES MOSCOW, February 22 (RIA Novosti) – In his interview with Radio Slovensko and STV company (Slovenia) Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted Russia’s interests in certain … Continue reading →

I’ve never seen William Shakespeare’s play Pericles, Prince of Tyre, and now that I’ve read this summary I don’t think I need to. From the summary of Act 4 Scene 5: A SKEEVY MAN: Can you believe it? A prostitute … Continue reading →

A few weeks, maybe even a few months ago, I found a link to this essay on the American Civil War (quite possibly via or ), and printed it out. I am of course fascinated by the Civil War, even … Continue reading →

Off to Geneva now. Back tomorrow. Then Belgrade on Thursday. Oof.

‘He was a crook’  (Rolling Stone, Jun 16, 1994) MEMO FROM THE NATIONAL AFFAIRS DESK DATE: MAY 1, 1994 FROM: DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON SUBJECT: THE DEATH OF RICHARD NIXON: NOTES ON THE PASSING OF AN AMERICAN MONSTER….HE WAS A … Continue reading →

Sad news. As well as F&LiLV, I particularly liked his accounts of the 1972 and 1992 presidential elections.

Yesterday at PicoCon, Jon Courtenay Grimwood was saying that he reckoned all good British sf was now being written by people from the left side of the political spectrum, and someone, either he or Brian Stableford, went on to argue … Continue reading →

Hmm. I think this extract, supposedly from the popular 1970s British kids’ programme Rainbow, is too good to be true. Sounds to me as if some people with a sense of humour have done some good dubbing over original film…

Ten things I have done that you may not have: Won a postal game of Rather Silly Diplomacy version 2.5, unless knows different – I was playing the Mastermind Administered a book prize which was won by my father posthumously … Continue reading →

I’ve been using livejournal for the guts of two years now, but only just bothered downloading Semagic as a client. Wow, what a nice smooth interface comapred to either the standard web-based LJ update window or indeed its RTF version! And … Continue reading →

What a lovely film – and the little girl is very reminiscent of my own two-year-old!

Well, I much enjoyed PicoCon – full marks to the organisers for thinking to chalk directions to the event on the pavements near the academic wasteland that is Imperial College on a Saturday, and for the fascinating presentations by Gwyneth … Continue reading →

7) Theft of A Nation: Romania since Communism, by Tom Gallagher. Romania is a puzzling place. I first went there on a family holiday when I was eight, and not paying a lot of attention; I recently discovered the roots … Continue reading →

See the 12 February issue of the Tablet, an ultra-Catholic British weekly magazine, for a fascinating article about the Christian sub-texts of Buffy. Good for them in publishing something that will make many of their traditional readership sit up in … Continue reading →