Egypt won - Ghana didnae

But that was over an hour ago, and fans are still driving aimless circles round Doha, beating the timeless tattoo on their horns: Baa! Baa! Ba-Ba-Baa! - Baa! Baa! Ba-Ba-Baa! The same rhythm as favoured by the strutting playground gangs in my primary school, all of fifty years ago, except, for lack of horned cars, it was a vocal exercise: Oi! Oi! Oi-Oi-Oi! - Oi! Oi! Oi-Oi-Oi! It didn't achieve

Rantin Rovin Robin

Built in 1757 by William Burness, two years before the birth of his celebrated son, the thatched 'clay biggin' is still standing, more than 250 years later. Which suggests, perhaps, that biggest, tallest, most expensive, might not be a building's only claim to greatness after all.

The man o' independent mind,
He looks an' laughs at a' that.

Loser takes all

Below the blackening sky go I
warily wearily wobbly o
frightened to live and frightened to die
toll bell toll
sick as a parrot covered in glue
languid as leeks in the depth of a stew
who would be me, except possibly you?
loser takes all

Doom is the name of the game we play
warily wearily wobbly o
doom by the bushel an acre a day
toll bell toll
death is a mercy so sing it again
wrists in the

A bleak, dark place

It's not that the landscape's so different from the UAE. Yes, it's colder. Snow takes the place of sand; conifers, of palms; stone walling, of concrete. One leaden sky is much like another, whether laced with ice crystals or with traffic fumes. And after all, what is a hill but a plane, tilted? Yet here, there is the suspicion, however unfounded, that were attrocities to be committed deep in this

Snow, snow, quick-quick snow...

More than two weeks into my annual home visit, and the snow shows no signs of disappearing. With night-time temperatures dropping to -15C, that's hardly surprising. What is surprising is the grip this cold spell has taken. Usually, the only weather that ever manages to take a hold here for more than a couple of weeks at a time is dinge, that Winter special of late dawn, early dusk and nothing in

The Morgan - what's in a name?

Malvern's old Morgan pub is no more, but the even older Cavalry Arms (which once featured here as a typical example of a real pub) has been refurbished, again, and renamed as 'The Morgan'. Previously, the mid-Malverner had a serious hike up the hill to the Morgan, but an easy roll down after a few beers. In its new incarnation at the foot of the hill, this is of course reversed. It is now easy to

This one rocks

Paraglider's newest toy is a 35mm slide and negative scanner. I have a 35-year backlog of stuff to digitise, which begins to look more like a 50-year collection if I take into account my late father's photographic legacy. This is going to keep me off the streets (maybe!)for the next few months at least. I'm still learning how to use it, but it seems to do a pretty good job on old B&W negatives