The Open Door

Blog#82: Maria and the Great Escape

 

Part One

I have successfully navigated my way to the top of a hundred of the highest and often most remote mountain peaks in the northern part of Scotland. However, getting to the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in the S. Polo district of Venice beat me....

We are greeted by an onrush of warm, friendly air as . . .

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May 22, 2024

Blog#81: South of the Alps

 

Prologue

Something which I forgot to develop from the previous post, very important: the kiwi fruit. 

It was my wife who noticed it at the Treviso hotel we were staying in. Breakfast. The table of fruit consisted of a mountain of apples, kiwi fruit, and a solitary banana balanced on top. We had noticed kiwi around . . .

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May 07, 2024

Blog#80: Going Home?

 

Part One

As in anywhere else on Earth, the mass of people now go about their day glued to their hand-held devices. Where once the skyline boasted medieval towers and noble Renaissance church domes, now it is raked with cellphone towers and 5G masts. And kiwi fruits are everywhere. Otherwise, Italy and Italians remain . . .

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April 25, 2024

Blog#79: Small Fry...

Part One

I don't know a lot about what happens in London these days. It is almost twenty years since I moved away from the Big City into the Highlands of Scotland, and London seems far far away. This is both physically - amazingly, the distance between London and Inverness is almost the same as that between London and Bordeaux - and also . . .

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April 08, 2024

Blog#78: The Worst Year of my Life, Part Two

 

Part One

It was, quite possibly, January 1991, a couple of months into my New Zealand sojourn. The phone rang one morning; it was my girlfriend, calling from London (I'd left her behind there).

It was a strange time to get a call from her, since it would have been around midnight in England. And her voice was very . . .

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March 26, 2024

Blog#77: The Worst Year of my Life, Part One

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There have been a few contenders for the grand accolade of 'Worst year of my life'. However, I once used it for this particular period, and the title has stuck. So read on, but be very afraid.....

 

Part One

For hours the plane flew high over vast, empty wastelands. I had flown quite a few times, but never . . .

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March 16, 2024

Blog#76: A Conspiracy Too Many....

 

 

Part One

I've been wanting to write about this for a while now. And the time has come.....

Not everything is a conspiracy. Not every conspiracy is true. And some have elements of truth, mixed with falsehoods.

Far too many people continue to be blind to any 'conspiracies' anywhere. Instead, they insist on . . .

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February 27, 2024

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