Last week a friend asked me if I had taken the mRNA Covid-19 vaccine. My verbal response was “That is personal medical information” to which he replied “Oh so you haven’t taken it!” Before I explain why this conversation is so messed up, let me point out that I am not an “anti-vaxxer”, and [...]
No this is not a post about a Roman general called "Vicarious", though it does sound like one. Vicarious is a word which means "taking the place of" someone or something else. I just finished reading the science fiction novel "Leviathon Wakes" by James S Corey. It is, in part, about the destruction of 1.5 [...]
This year my wife, Manuela, and I walked 350 kilometers along the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. It was an amazing and wonder-full experience. On our return we knew that we should share the stories we witnessed and heard while doing the hike as 'peregrinos'. Since we got back we have written a book together, [...]
I wrote this non fiction book in 2013 with the idea of supporting those people who struggle with self-acceptance, who are religious refugees, or who , like me, just want to have a belief that is consistent with love, science, humanity, ecology and common sense. It has behind it a premise that love is what [...]
“Does the moon exist only when I look at it?” Albert Einstein I live in a city, a large city, and everywhere I go I see concrete and walls, and particularly I see lots of signs and advertisements. When I drive my eyes are trained to flick from one sign to another, you have to, [...]
A diamond is the hardest material in the world. It can easily score steel, glass, ceramics and other hard objects. However it has another characteristic. It is easily shattered. I remember reading a story by Wilbur Smith where a protagonist destroys millions of dollars of diamonds with a simple hammer and anvil. […]
Have you ever spent a day lying on your back in the sunshine, becoming part of the quiet, hearing the sounds of insects, feeling the prickle of grass on your skin? (If not, then, try and select a day from your memory banks that is very similar in terms of resting, not working, and not [...]
I am sitting alone in the house, outside the air is cold, well freezing actually, at -10C. Snow lies an inch thick on the balcony, and it is quiet, the sort of quiet that comes when people are not wanting to be outside. I am peaceful. Sort of. Because paradoxically I long for this quiet, [...]
One of the great things about hostels or similar accomodation is that you get to meet lots of different people. That could not have been better illustrated than last night at the Roma Scout Center, near Bologna subway station. In the common room a number of us got together and started talking about our origins, [...]
How does one capture the romantic spirit of Paris? Having just left the beautiful city, there is a swirl of images creating an aura of the place around my head. Overwhelming artistry inundates every waking moment, from the intimate walkways of Montmartre, the opulence of the Palaces and Cathedrals, the sculptures and paintings of the [...]
