Showing 1 - 10 of 37
Hedgehoppers in search of good news
Roger Crutchley, Published on 01/02/2026
» Being the very first day of February it would have been nice if there was some good news worth celebrating, but unfortunately nothing immediately springs to mind. Cheerful news is an increasingly rare commodity these days. It all seems to be gloom and doom and hardly portends a joyful 2026. It can get a bit wearying grappling with news reports featuring contradictions, cover-ups and cock-ups, often accompanied by half-truths, prevarications and porky pies. But this is the world we now live in.
Let's hope 2026 is not too amazing
Roger Crutchley, Published on 04/01/2026
» Well here we are on the fourth day of a brand new year. I trust everyone is holding up well after the festivities because it can be quite gruelling pretending to behave in a jovial fashion if you are not feeling jovial at all.
Not even the penguins were spared
Roger Crutchley, Published on 28/12/2025
» Well, we've just about slithered our way through the Year of the Snake. Suffice to say, 2025 wasn't much fun. At least the previous year we had the "Happy Hippo" which kept us vaguely amused in a daft sort of way.
On top of the world in Kathmandu
Roger Crutchley, Published on 14/09/2025
» I was sorry to read about the unrest in Kathmandu this week. As a kid in the UK during the 1950s I used to daydream about far away places with strange-sounding names. One of those places was Kathmandu.
It's a bit on the warm side in the UK
Roger Crutchley, Published on 06/07/2025
» It seems a trifle strange to be sitting in Bangkok and reading about a heatwave in London, but at times last week it's been hotter in Britain than Thailand, while the rest of Europe has also been sizzling. You know something is wrong when at Wimbledon the umbrellas have been going up not for the rain but to protect spectators from the sun.
The art of choosing the right words
Roger Crutchley, Published on 09/03/2025
» The word "diplomacy" has been making frequent appearances on newspaper pages in recent days and unless you have been in hibernation there is no need to explain why.
Playing cat and mouse at Downing Street
Roger Crutchley, Published on 06/10/2024
» Important news from London. Larry the Cat has a new housemate at Downing Street. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced the arrival of a white Siberian kitten called Prince. This breed of cat is apparently "good at problem solving" so considering the state of the UK at the moment it should be kept very busy in the PM's office. It is unclear if it will attend Cabinet meetings as being a Russian breed it may face security issues.
Thai casinos are looming, you can bet on it
Roger Crutchley, Published on 08/09/2024
» It seems the Thai authorities are determined to open casinos as part of a large entertainment complex. The casino debate has been going on for decades during which an estimated 100 committees have been set up to mull, ponder, reflect, ruminate and even excogitate the pros and cons only to decide not to come to a decision.
You can look, but please don't touch
Roger Crutchley, Published on 01/09/2024
» When we were kids, most of us heard the words "don't touch that!" from our parents if we were in the presence of something breakable and possibly valuable. That's probably what a father wishes he had said when he took his four-year-old son to a museum in the Israeli city of Haifa last week.
Those acronyms can be bit of a pain
Roger Crutchley, Published on 19/05/2024
» One of my pet peeves with newspapers around the globe has always been the proliferation of acronyms, especially in headlines. Apart from the fact that no one really has the faintest idea what they stand for there's something about them that's just plain ugly.