After a mixed career as an aircraft technician, London fringe theatre playwright, Franciscan friar, and secondary school teacher, I find myself looking after the needs of four donkeys in a remote location in the mountains in the Costa Blanca. I like to listen to BBC Radio 4 and the wind in the pine trees. My favourite film of all time is "Jean de Florette" as it details the concerns of country people and quietly shows how evil enters our lives through mundane and petty matters. Now retired, I have lost the need to fight past battles and recognize that my various contributions to life - both ecclesiastical and secular - have been enjoyable, sometimes flawed, occasionally disastrous; but mostly times worth celebrating.
I very occasionally write a film review on this blog so I thought this would make an excellent opportunity as I had waited for some months after the premiere of Sorry we missed you at the Cannes Film Festival, hoping it would come to Benidorm eventually. This is the latest Ken Loach film. Another of … More Sorry we missed you
I have noticed the growing use of the term anthropocene to describe this second epoch of our current quaternary geological age. It was called the holocene until recently, describing the epoch that began 12,000 years ago at the close of the paleolithic Ice Age. Anthropocene is now used to describe the same epoch as an … More In praise of the equocene
This blog has taken an unashamedly pro-Europe position for the past three years, for as long as the European Union became a contentious issue for some misguided and deluded British people. The UK’s madness has been a rather sorry business, but are Europeans depressed about it? No! Non! Nein! Europeans are happy as ever, according … More EUphoria
It is good of the UK parliamentarians to finally decide to do something – to have an election – rather than carry on doing nothing. As I was travelling back from Alicante today on the train I saw the news from Westminster, and I decided that I would not use my vote. I suddenly came … More Why I shall not be voting in the UK election
Continues from The Brexit Letters, Volume 1 By 23rd October and another complete farce in the House of Commons at the beginning of the week, most people – whether Leavers or Remainers -were ready to strangle Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, the Larry the Downing Street cat, and all missing the very obvious point that it … More The Brexit Letters, Volume 2
The entire Brexit mess has become such a destructive vortex of division and confusion that even some of us who have been totally engaged in the fight for the UK to Remain in Europe have now lost any sense of what the present situation actually means! Even after another million-strong pro-European demonstration in London, there’s … More The Brexit Letters, Volume 1
The title is from the foundation document of the Franco regime in 1936 and refers to him being head of state – elected by his fellow army generals – “for as long as the war lasts.” This is the title of the new film by Alejandro Amenábar which opened this weekend in Spain after launching … More For as long as the war lasts
Through the summer I have been deliberating over the possibility of returning to academia. Having passed my rather easy test for Spanish citizenship in June, I found the study sufficiently enjoyable to consider doing a postgraduate course of study at the University of Alicante. I explored the possibility through July and August and the course … More University of the wind in the trees
During the past years on this blog and in my old Costa Blanca geography teaching blog, the hydrology of Alicante province – and this part of it known as Marina Baixa – has been a frequently mentioned topic. As a geography teacher I brought local hydrology into the Key Stage 3 and GCSE curriculum, and … More Come on in: the apocalypse is delightful
It is difficult to not comment on what is happening in the (former) United Kingdom – as much as I had attempted for most of this summer to concentrate on donkeys, fixing my washing machine, painting the house, repairing fences, and generally being a peasant. I have been very disciplined in not listening to Radio … More God damn the queen
