Vienna celebrates 2013 with its traditional elegant starburst, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s New Year’s Concert, broadcasted to the world from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein. Still think you can get tickets? In your dreams. The way to share in this glorious concert, based around the waltzes of the Strauss family, is live on a big screen… Continue reading
You’ve seen The Snowman (30 times). So what about the other Christmas story?
The arthouse cinema near where I live shows It’s a Wonderful Life every Christmas Eve. You can’t get in, unless you book within the hour back in August, or something like that. I have my personal seasonal TV favorite. It’s the West Wing episode set in the days before Christmas, where Toby Ziegler arranges a… Continue reading →
Conservative MP Yeo calls for decarbonisation by 2030 to boost renewables
I bet Tim Yeo’s List of personal targets for this year did not include briefly trending third on the UK twitter list, just behind Romeo Beckham. And for sound and excellent reasons. [By 2pm he was top trend, ahead of Master Beckham.] Yeo is a significant Conservative MP, Chair of the Energy and Climate Change… Continue reading →
We are all Northern Ireland tourists now.
There was a long time when we looked the other way. You didn’t go there. Northern Ireland was toxic, a place of self-destructive conflict. It was a terrible family argument, spilling, metaphorically, out into the street. Even passers-by were in mortal danger. Those days are over, and it’s hard to believe they will ever return…. Continue reading →
Tour de Yorkshire – will the Wolds open the greatest cycle race
Did the Tour de France organizers choose Yorkshire for the first two stages of 2014 race because the county’s wide open spaces reminded them of home? I would like to think so. There is room in the huge, high landscape of the Yorkshire Wolds for some serious, long-distance cycling, with a hill or two thrown… Continue reading →
Weather set seasonal for Nuremberg Christmas market
I checked the weather for the first four days of the Nuremberg Christmas market. It could hardly be more seasonal, with snow followed by frost and the sort of nipping cold that is so appropriate for what many consider to be the model for all Christmas markets. It’s the weather to make you want to… Continue reading →