Balderdash! – Busting 5 Myths About England

MikeachimEngland39 Comments

Ah, England!

The mist-shrouded Arthurian ruins, the rolling green hills dotted with sleepy hamlets, nuns on bikes free-wheeling over cattle grids, tankards of warm beer, castles and orchards, jodhpurs and shooting-sticks, where monocles legally replace spectacles and more than two people will automatically form a queue, where everything is quaint and quintessential and steeped and…

On and on.

Planning a first-time trip to England soon? It’s possibly you’ve been told things about the place. Silly things. Things that will mislead and ultimately disillusion you. And that’s no fun at all. So in the interests of having an exciting and fascinating holiday in a truly exciting and fascinating country, let’s burst a few bubbles here.Read More

Racing The Light In Chania

MikeachimThe Everyday24 Comments

Chania harbour, Crete, 2007 - Mike Sowden

I’m running along the harbour wall, and I’m not going to make it.

Yet another heart-rendingly beautiful Crete sunset is turning the sea copper, pulling the distant coastline into shadow. Presumably I’ll get bored of these at some point. Nice sunset. Meh. I’m trying to prepare myself for the disappointment of wasting this one. Of not making it in time.

Because there’s just no way.Read More

Dumbing Down Is Not A New Thing

MikeachimThe Everyday12 Comments

During our travels we have consorted with several kings, as different in their manners and their opinions as are the different geographical situations of their countries, yet little by little we have found among them the same accord in recognizing that all traces of science have vanished and that its splendour is spent; learning has become too general and has lost its depth; and one no longer sees any but people filled with vanity and ignorance, imperfect scholars who are content with superficial ideas and do not recognise the truth…

Masʿūdī (896-956 AD, historian, traveller, geographer and naturalist: “the Herodotus of the Arabs”).

“From The Meadows Of Gold”, Penguin Great Journeys No. 2 (2007).

Read the 1841 translation here.

Image: h.koppdelaney