Air Canada. Please deliver me. Or at least my luggage.

The image above is from the Air Canada website, explaining, without words or captions, how to navigate Heathrow Terminal Two. With major airports like Heathrow or Charles de Gaulle I know that it's worthwhile to do some planning before arrival. Especially since there are actually TWO Terminal Twos

Happy (?) New (?) Year (?)

That's us, on the right, at the Afandim Uyghur Cuisine Restaurant for a New Years Day feast of roast goat. It was yummy, and decidedly not vegan, and the company was delightful and fun. It was, honestly, the perfect way to start this new year. I'm

Update on Being Cold

For those who don't pay for the Globe and Mail, my latest column is now also up on my own website. There's a follow-up though. Since writing that column we've moved from Grantchester to a couples' apartment at Wolfson College in Cambridge, a

The British Pride in Being Cold

In today's Globe and Mail I write about how British people's greatest pride actually surrounds being cold, all of the time, indoor or out. The comment thread is approaching 300! https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-england-winter-cold-canada/

Trump as Faust?

I cannot claim to be an authority on Thomas Mann, or the long and varied history of various incarnations of Faust. Nor have I read the many, many subsequent books and papers which followed Mann's 1947 novel. When reading it this month, the story felt eerily familiar; as

Learning to Ring Bells

It's been a couple of weeks since Susan signed us up for bell ringing lessons. That red arrow points to the little room, about 70 narrow, winding, stone steps up, where we're learning the basics. In this room. Each big church bell has a rope that

No, I'm Not Canada's Greatest Athlete

I grew up in a household where Stampede Wrestling was a weekend highlight. I pretty much educated myself at the Kelowna Public Library, and somehow never aspired to much of anything. Dad was a used car dealer, and Mom was... well, Mom. Small town Kelowna education was nothing dramatic. There

Are we heading into another dustbowl? And does anyone care?

For those who don't subscribe to the Globe and Mail, my column about dry wells in Nova Scotia is now on-line at my own site. What was touched on, but never really explored, was the question of what the role of governments should be in this disaster. There

What happens when the well runs dry? After months of drought, Nova Scotians are finding out

In today's Globe and Mail I write about the Nova Scotia drought, our dry well, and why governments need to stop supporting fossil fuel use. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-nova-scotia-atlantic-drought-wells-water/

What's a Little Border Between Friends?

Lately I've been reading Jonn Elledge's A History of the World in 47 Borders. Pick up a copy - you won't regret it. And subscribe to his newsletter. Two things emerge from this book: The national (and internal) borders that govern our lives are

Dimplex Creda TSR Automatic Storage Heater 79151C

This post is strictly to give Google something to index, for the benefit of North Americans who move to the UK and are baffled by heating All that you need to know is the Rule of Twos. Your storage heater is pretty primitive. It warms up big heavy blocks overnight

Clear as Night and Day

More on power. When we moved in, we chose to keep EDF as our electricity company. They were already supplying the house, and we had liked them back in France, so why not? For the first time, we have a smart meter that tracks our power usage and keeps us