Monthly Archives: December 2005

We’ve had a lot of guests this year, which has been great. Almost all family, with the exception of and who dropped over on Thursday for the afternoon. But we had Anne’s sister here from the Thursday before Christmas, her … Continue reading →

The word ჩანახი should look rather like this: It tastes delicious.

I have been cooking ჩანახი. I put it in the oven after lunch, and then had to come into work for the afternoon. Now I am going home to eat it. Mmmm.

Some kind person has posted these as a comment to an earlier entry: Father Ted repeatedly makes what claim about the missing money that was the cause of him being sent to Craggy Island? It was resting in his account. … Continue reading →

by limitedbythesky nhw’s LJ New Year Party (Now At Least 8% Politically Correct!) Started : 01st January 2006 12:29:11 AM Ended : 01st January 2006 03:17:47 PM Alco Money! : $ 667 Guests of Honour nrivkis is a powerless Buddhist. … Continue reading →

We’ve just been to the about-to-close American bookshop in Leuven and spent vast amounts of money, as my Library Thing catalogue bears witness. This brings me to my resolutions for reading books in 2006. I made two posts this time … Continue reading →

My great-grandfather’s 1858 pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

SF (79) Cultural Breaks (Aldiss coll) Saliva Tree (Aldiss coll) Foundation’s Edge (Asimov) Darkness That Comes Before (Bakker) Algebraist (Banks) Moving Mars (Bear) No Enemy But Time (Bishop) Numbers Don’t Lie (Bisson) Cities in Flight (Blish)* Keepers of the Peace … Continue reading →

I don’t believe it. The American Book Centre in Leuven is closing – on Saturday. For good. That’s the second of my favourite bookshops to close this year. (And I understand there have been a couple of prominent casualties in … Continue reading →

11) The Georgian Feast: The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia, by Darra Goldstein I don’t usually blog books until I’ve finished reading them, but this has to be an exception, as I will take several … Continue reading →

Tree with presents before everyone else woke up U with new doll F with Thunderbirds sticker book B happily raiding the kitchen I got some nice things: God’s Clockmaker: Richard of Wallingford and the Invention of Time, by John North … Continue reading →

My holiday project is to transcribe my great-grandfather’s diary of his Easter pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1858. On 29th March, the Monday before Easter, he visited Bethlehem: Arrival in time to join the procession to our Saviour’s crib, … Continue reading →

I popped across the road to borrow matches from the neighbours last night for Ursula’s cake. The parents were out, but the two boys (aged 14 and 11) were in, along with a friend of the older one; they hurriedly … Continue reading →

U has turned three. Birthday cake (with aunt H visible behind F) Birthday present in use Big brother blowing bubbles for her.

10) Boulevard of Broken Dreams, by Kim Deitch with Simon Deitch Another one of Time‘s Must-Read 25. To be honest, after I’d read the first quarter, I thought I was probably going to have to write this up as a … Continue reading →

9) Numbers Don’t Lie, by Terry Bisson Read for a review to be published elsewhere. But in short, I liked it.

News items (and blog entries about news items) tend to be pretty depressing. One cheerful piece of information that has not had much publicity (though my boss has been mentioning it) is that the University of British Columbia’s Human Security … Continue reading →

A few weeks ago we published a report on the EU visa regime for the Balkans, arguing that it needs to be liberalised and that the EU’s policies are deeply counter-productive. It’s had a number of very positive spin-offs, including … Continue reading →

Play it here. Dates back to 2003!

Happy birthday, ! Happy birthday, !

palaeographyAmExcar radio

A different way of looking at it: these were the 31 posts of the last twelve months that gathered 15 or more comments. Not always the ones of which I am proudest… Autobiography: 19 December ’04:  Student politics – 20 … Continue reading →

This has often been a time of year when job prospects mature. Well, twice; I got my job with NDI in Bosnia on Christmas Eve 1996, which really started me on this whole international politics thing, and then just over … Continue reading →

8) Triplanetary, by E.E. “Doc” Smith Over the last week or so, when I got tired of concentrating on downloaded Doctor Who novels on my PDA screen, I’ve been turning for variety to this classic novel, the first in Smith’s … Continue reading →

7) [Doctor Who] Lungbarrow, by Marc Platt Well, this is supposed to be the book in which all is revealed about the Doctor’s true family background, in line with the master plan of Andrew Cartmel in the final three seasons … Continue reading →

Just been re-watching Dopplegängland, surely one of the greatest Buffy episodes. Giles: She was truly the finest of all of us. Xander: Way better than me. Giles: (nods decisively) Much, much better. Buffy: Giles, planning on jumping in with an … Continue reading →

Season’s Greetings from Belgium! Our biggest news item this year is not especially wonderful. Ursula, who will be three just before Christmas, has not yet begun to talk and was diagnosed in the spring with an autistic spectrum disorder; quite … Continue reading →

Snow has fallen overnight. Not much, and I don’t think it will last, but it feels Christmassy…

1. What did you do in 2005 that you’d never done before? Went to Worldcon. Visited Albania and Ukraine. 2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Most of them, though I … Continue reading →

Doug Muir’s Kosovo posts: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.