It's not especially surprising to hear topics such as "Where was Homer's Ithaca?" discussed on Radio 4 - however, Material World is not the most obvious place to chance upon such a discussion. Someone has proposed a theory that the reason that no-one can find an island that corresponds closely to the descriptions of Ithaca in the Odyssey is... it's ( Read more... )

Following the instructions issued by larissa_00
List seven songs you are into right now. It doesn't matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your journal along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening ( Read more... )

Glad to see that the concept of traveling without taking to the skies is gaining in popularity. Not only was there a very good article about it in the latest Friends of the Earth magazine, but even Radio 4 is jumping on the bandwagon: Traveller's TreeI'm pleased to report that the temporary lapse in sanity (not mine, I hasten to add!) that led to ( Read more... )

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Yesterday, we went to Ayios Nikolaos, to visit the excellent (and not especially crowded) museum; in the same way that Knossos is always vastly more busy than the other Minoan sites, Iraklion Museum is a great favourite with the tour parties, but the 'provincial' museums are often surprisingly quiet. Most of the significant finds from the area that ( Read more... )

It's raining! Not that I mind... we're having a lazy day today, and I've finally got round to enquiring about internet access at Big Blue (the lovely apartments where we're staying ( Read more... )

Well, here we are, back in Crete :) We were last here back in October, and on the day we left something very peculiar had happened to the weather... high winds and lashing rain. This evening, however, has been very pleasant and mild, and we discovered a very nice little restuarant called 'Embolo', where we dined al fresco on spinach pie and Greek ( Read more... )

I'm writing this from the comfort of the Travel Inn at Gatwick Airport on my new Sony Ericsson W850i. I'm actually quite impressed that I've managed to figure out most of the stuff I want to do with it so far without resorting to the manual - this is probably just as well as I've forgotten to bring the manual with me. Still need to work out how to ( Read more... )

The big excitement last weekend (apart from having Christmas and 5 people's birthdays all rolled into one!) was moving Kath's piano. She hadn't played it for years, and had told my auntie that she was thinking of getting rid of it. My auntie mentioned this to her cousin Sally, who exclaimed that she'd *always* wanted a piano. My cousin Angela ( Read more... )

Have I really not posted since last May? That's just shocking! And I can tell you exactly who and what is to blame... not just evilmattikinz, though he is of course responsible for a great deal of mischief ;) but neilh for introducing me first to inselkampf, and then, even more perniciously, to tribal wars. And I've been ensnared in virtuality pretty much ever ( Read more... )