The grumpy older man

The annual movie awards season kicks off with the Golden Globes tonight, and interestingly for the first time it’s Netflix movies which lead the way this year, rather than the traditional film studios. The Irishman by Martin Scorsese with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, one of the contenders for awards tonight. With a budget […]

Coins‘ association with luck have a long tradition: from throwing coins into the Trevi fountain in Rome, to the Irish keeping loose pennies in their pockets for luck to some Americans believing that silver dollars bring luck because they are rarer and worth more than other coins. In Chinese culture, a lucky coin is held […]

I never thought I would use the words ‚vaccination‘ and ‚bribe‘ in the same sentence — let alone in the context of a country such as Switzerland. But here we go: each year Switzerland like most of Western Europe gets hit by a seasonal flu epidemic, with the Swiss federal health authority reporting, that last […]

Here an update as far as yesterday‘s blog entry is concerned: the employment tribunal in Norwich has ruled that ethical veganism is a philosophical belief and therefore protected by law. http://news.sky.com/story/ethical-veganism-is-a-philosophical-belief-tribunal-says-11900304

You probably haven’t heard of Jordi Casamitjana before, and neither have I, however, his name popped up in the news this morning, since a panel in Norwich will decide if the practice of abstaining from using animal products can be protected under the Equality Act 2010. For those not in the know, the British Equality […]

Happy New Year to all of you! Now let’s face it, by the time I post and you read this blog entry, your new year’s resolutions may already have gone out of the window.. as might mine by the way… Researchers say 60% of the population make new year’s resolutions, but only 8% are successful […]

I hope your year was enjoyable and successful, despite the customary ups and downs. So no blog today but from me, just heartfelt wishes for health, happiness and success for the coming 12 months!

Now you may remember my post on Boxing Day about the sales: I got it quite wrong, I presume, since my wife, my son and I hit the Boxing Day Sales in Central London and the crowds were just unbelievable , not to mention the queues at the tills. And obviously it was I who […]

Of course it’s difficult – or nigh to impossible – to always hit the right note with Christmas presents, but if you know a person well and give some serious thought to what he or she would like, then you will probably get it right. Now ever since eBay etc, there has been a market […]

Sincere congratulations to most of the people included in last night’s New Year’s Honours list! But then there’s the nomination of Alison Saunders, a former Director of Public Prosecution who oversaw a string of collapsed rape trials when it turned out that the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) had not shared some evidence with defence lawyers. […]