Don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters...
Saved on
03/07/2008
I returned last night (five hours late due to the hopeless inefficiency of Atlas Blue airlines) and wearily worked my way through the small mountain of post that had built up. Including, oh what excitement, the Labour Party NEC elections. There was a time when I was delusional enough to think that these...
Don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters...
Osama, me and a mobile phone
Saved on
30/06/2008
Heading back to Marrakesh tomorrow, so just a couple of reflections on Essaouira and its festival.
Firstly, the positive. The standard of the acts appearing at this years festival was astounding. Toumani Diabate, alongside his son, playing a sort of version of duelling banjos, but on the Kora, was...
Osama, me and a mobile phone
Another kid on the block - well, almost!
Saved on
28/06/2008
I am indebted to Jess for pointing me in the direction of another Sandwell Labour blogger, although slightly off the beaten track. There is definitely something happening between Sandwell and Wales, but I haven't figured out what it is yet.
Another kid on the block - well, almost!
Sloppy journalism
Saved on
28/06/2008
John Rentoul at Open House has started a list of political cliches he would like to see banished... The Banned List. I would go along with his first two, and add... "I am reluctant to intrude on someone else's grief" which is usually a prelude to giving another Party a good kicking when they're down.
Sloppy journalism
RIP Motty - the more peaceful the better
Saved on
28/06/2008
One thing I will most certainly not miss tomorrow is the BBC commentary on Spain v Germany. The game has some promise, but even if I find live TV coverage of the game in Essaouira, it will thankfully be without the bloody awful commentary of John Motson and the other comedian, Mark Lawrenson. Or Motty...
RIP Motty - the more peaceful the better
Feeling the heat
Saved on
27/06/2008
I was grumbling last December that Paris was the coldest place I had ever been in my life. Well, as we got off the plane at 6.30pm on Wednesday it felt like Marrakesh was definitely one of the hottest. It was 44 degrees and stepping on to the tarmac at Marrakesh airport felt like walking in to a giant...
Feeling the heat
Rollin' and Tumblin'
Saved on
25/06/2008
Blogging will be spasmodic over the next week.
We're off to Morocco for a week to the Gnaoua Music Festival in the small fishing town of Essaouira on the Atlantic coast. This year's festival promises to be the best ever with a host of African and International artists booked, including the world famous...
Rollin' and Tumblin'
It's the rich what gets the pleasure, it's the poor what gets the pain
Saved on
24/06/2008
Pete, over at the Fat Man in the Bathtub has hit the nail spot on the head: The greater the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest, the greater the chance of profound social disharmony. ... and the video is worth a play or two!
It's the rich what gets the pleasure, it's the poor what gets the pain
Sad....
Saved on
24/06/2008
From the deserted Chippwa Lake amusement park. More here.
Hat tip to Plep.
Sad....
Its getting lonely in Haltemprice and Howden
Saved on
24/06/2008
As David Davis resignation stunt continues to stutter he seems to have turned in to one of those drunks who sways in front of city centre statues in the early hours of the morning shouting, "Come down here and fight, you cowards". He is opening up the big debate, inviting everyone from Tony Benn to David...
Its getting lonely in Haltemprice and Howden