Showing 1 - 9 of 9
Last Frontier unlike any other place
Roger Crutchley, Published on 17/08/2025
» Alaska has been thrust into the news this weekend for reasons that require no explanation. It's a suitably symbolic venue for the Trump-Putin summit considering it was once part of the Russian Empire. It is certainly an extraordinary part of the world that is much appreciated by those who love the wilderness.
A 10-day journey across snowy Iran
Roger Crutchley, Published on 22/06/2025
» Watching events unfold in the Middle East last week sparked memories of the brief time I spent in Iran a long time ago in more peaceful times. In February 1969 I travelled across the northern part of the nation during an overland trip from London to New Delhi. The country was still run by the Shah who was overthrown 10 years later in the Iranian Revolution.
Please don't blame it on the penguins
Roger Crutchley, Published on 13/04/2025
» There has been quite a fallout from Mr Trump's Tariffs, from which even penguins and seals were not spared. So much for Happy Feet. As one American commentator observed with tongue firmly in cheek "the penguins have been ripping us off for years."
Celluloid sleuths more fun in the old days
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 05/03/2023
» I was watching a US cops and robbers film the other day in which the police were using those large portable phones that were around just at the start of the cellphone revolution. Nothing dates a film more than the type of phones they are using. Those unwieldy early portable phones look quite comical these days and seem more cumbersome than convenient.
Tasty UK 'masterpiece' takes the biscuit
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 06/03/2022
» Despite last week's cautionary column about special supermarket offers which are often not so special, it will come as no surprise that a couple of days ago I succumbed to a "special offer".
August can be a very wicked month
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 02/08/2020
» My goodness, we are already into August, but with the coronavirus it feels like the year has hardly got started. Six months seem to have simply disappeared and worse, I've got a year older with nothing to show for it but a few more wrinkles. I also have an uncomfortable feeling I will still be wearing a face mask next August.
Brits can go back to their hot-water bottles
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 02/02/2020
» When Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, a Newsweek columnist likened it to "a bored nation sticking its fingers into a tempting-looking electrical socket just to see what happens". What happened was far from electrifying, but more than three years of mind-numbing debate and verbal jousting that left most people fed up with the whole thing.
A long flight for the paper plane pilot
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 14/10/2018
» It was pleasing to see that Mong Thongdee's dream of becoming a Thai citizen appears to have finally come true. Nine years ago Mr Mong made the headlines as a 12-year-old when he won the Thailand paper plane championships. However, he was devastated after being told he could not represent the kingdom at the international tournament in Japan because he was stateless, his parents being immigrants from Myanmar.
Bodyguards keep in step in Singapore
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 17/06/2018
» Unless you have been in hibernation, it was impossible not to avoid some exposure to the Big Event in Singapore last week. There has been enough analysis to fill the Grand Canyon, so we'll skip that stuff. Suffice to say it was certainly historic and quite gripping in a theatrical sort of way.