For years, I've been meaning to go Pywll Mawr, aka the Big Pit - a coal-mine-turned-heritage centre, not far from Pontypool. I see the sign for it every time I drive to work in Cardiff, and my daughter even went on a school trip about 13 years ago, but I haven't had the motivation to follow in her footsteps until Monday, when I took Yuko and Moe. ( Read more... )

I learned the other day that it's traditional in Japanese homes, when a girl has her first period, for the family to be served red rice (sekihan). In the explanation I initially heard, this was described as a way of announcing the happy news to the family, where it might be rather indelicate or embarrassing to say it aloud ( Read more... )

In the comments on my catch-up-and-apology post the other day, aerodrome1 was kind enough to ask for more details of my latest Japan trip. This will be a very edited account, but here and in a few later entries you'll find some highlights from that tour, which took place in late March and early April, and involved 16 days in Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto and ( Read more... )

Yesterday I went to Diana Wynne Jones's house in Clifton/Hotwells, to take part in an unveiling ceremony for a plaque, installed by the Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society, or CHIS (pronounced CHIZZ, a la Nigel Molesworth ( Read more... )

I was talking to a Wiccan recently, and fervently recommending (as I often do) Margaret Mahy's The Changeover to her, a book I love for itself, but also regard - unless you know different? - as the very first YA supernatural romance. I would like to say, "Without The Changeover, no Buffy, Twilight, etc.", but in fact, despite its chronological ( Read more... )

Well, I don't think I've ever had such a long period of LJ truancy. It's not that I've been depressed, inactive or in a vegetative state, but I did get to a point where I wasn't sure that I had much to say that would have been of general interest here. For example, I've had plenty of fun trips with my lodger, Yuko, and more recently, Moe, my new, ( Read more... )

I'm as worried about AI as the next person, if not on my behalf then on that of my children's generation - but the discussions I see on social media, particularly among writers, artists and other creative people, often miss a couple of things that I think important, so I'm writing them here.

First they came for the LudditesOne is fairly local to ( Read more... )

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I tossed this into the Facebook oubliette yesterday, but on reflection I'm putting it here too, partly so that I can find it later if necessary, partly for those who don't follow me there ( Read more... )

This morning I was operated on at Bristol Eye Hospital, and my errant retina put firmly back in its place. Considering that the problem was first picked up by Specsavers on the 19th December, and since then we've had Christmas, New Year and a 6-day junior doctor's strike, I'd say that's pretty swift work for a 'crumbling' National Health Service. I ( Read more... )