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I am a fan of Peter Broderick

Peter Broderick, by Snagt I haven't admired a songwriter for a long time, as much as I admire Peter Broderick Softly freezing Not at home And it's alright Below it With the notes in my Ears Diverge Games Games again Esbern Snares Glade Maps

Live, because you will die.

There are many contrasting approaches to the arrangement of funerals, from the relgious to the secular. But after five deaths and four funerals over the last two years, it seems to me that the humanist way of death is the most salutary. This is because it accepts one simple truth. Human life is constructed like a story. It has a beginning, high points, low points and then ends – definitively. The humanist way of death recognises the fact that you will die and that when you do, that will be the story of you. From the viewpoint of a our human, third person narrative, isn't the idea of heaven a little irritating? A life, like a good book, should never end in: " ... to be continued." Life only really makes sense as biography. In contrast, religious funerals, where a stranger usually officiates and witters on about heaven, often fail to commemorate a life well lived properly. Religious funerals can be a whimpering anti-climax. When Uncle Heini died this month at

Waiting for Aeroflot

Unkindness to fellow travellers   Memorandum To: MR. PULAT, Ministry of [Soviet] Civil Aviation MR. ARDYMOV, Transit Manager INTOURIST From: M.A. HALL, PASSENGER ON SU Z44 HELD IN TRANSIT SINCE 12/7/81 Date: 19/7/81 Subject: TREATMENT OF AEROFLOT TRANSIT PASSENGERS               (TO BE READ WITH ATTACHED MEMO. OF 16/7/81) Tonight, one full week after arriving at Moscow airport too late to catch a confirmed onward flight to Mogadishu, myself and six other passengers are finally die to be released from Sheremetyovo transit hotel to fly to our destination. The missed connection was no fault of our own. Nothing was achieved in finding us an alternative flight within a reasonable time. I regret to say that in the following three days since I sent my memorandum of the 16/7/81, I can record no improvement in the treatment of transit passengers, except some improvement s in the quality and variety - not the service - of meals. Everything I wrote in the previou

On the Ferry to Istanbul

Trabazon port, by Feyza Darling Mom and Dad, In a few hours we'll be arriving in Istanbul. We caught the ferry from Trabzon on Friday and it's been a very pleasant and restful two days sailing on the Black Sea . It's beautiful, and the little ports are crowded and not too expensive. We've stayed on deck, as it was much cheaper even than the dormitory beds. To and Phil slept on deck in sleeping bags, while the twins and I slept in the VW - everytime we stopped we bought bread and fruit and kebabs to eat on board. Only today did we have a meal in the restaurant and it was pretty expensive. It's fun, but alas, no place to wash, except your face! So after over 48 hours, we're pretty grubby and smelly! Yesterday, the twins birthday - not really celebrated, except that they got a few extra cokes, and a German lady in a Kombi made them each a chocolate pudding! The deck is pretty crowded- and agains we met a couple we first met at the border in Pakis

Overland trip in July 1976

From New Delhi to Nice Helmand river Tony Hall's plans and notes based on Mary Barnett's log book 5th July Delhi to Amritsar 7am Leave. Arrive around 4pm - stay at Mrs Bandare's Guest House. 6th July Amritsar - Lahore Level fertile country - allow time for border crossing. 7th July Wednesday Lahore - Peshawar (443km = 275 miles) Industrial areas, then across fertile plains to Jhelum. Mountain road to Rawalpindi - busy fairly wide GT road to Peshawar 8th -10th July (Thursday to Saturday) Peshawar to Kabul (205kms = 90 miles) Peshawar to customs 56kms Khyber road, quite winding and narrow in parts, but not very difficult. Pass closed sunset to sunrise. 30 Afghanis toll payable at Sarobi (80kms before kabul) - through gorge to Kabul Sunday 11th July Kabul - Kandahar - pre-dawn departure Take ample petrol and food. 512 kms - 318 miles Modern highway, Resthouse (Petrol) at Ghazni (146 kms from Kabul) Gradual ascent (Highest point 9000ft) then ea

The Shiela

By Eve Hall Published in TRANSITION Volume 4, number 16, 1964 They called her Shiela, because that's what she was, a Sheila, a Johannesburg Moll. She had three different surnames I knew of, Dreyers, the most infamous. She came to the prison with Victor as her alias, and I think she had used van Wyk not long before. She was not quite 19, and very pretty, tall, with short wild blond hair, (the black dye had grown out when I met her), blue eyes, a very snub nose, long firm legs, large perfect breasts and a small waist. She slouched badly and it was her pride that she had, in the seven months she had been there, worn out three pairs of the prison's shoes. She had tatoos on both her arms and an ornate Micky Mouse on one large thigh. When I was first hustled into the communal eating room, harassed by the very thorough search given to political prisoners, naked under my striped dressing gown, staggering under a load of blankets, sheets, uniforms, I hardly saw the women sitt

I was Patti Smith's Pony

Picture of Bosham sunset from Jakeof  Andy , did a portrait session with Patti Smith , and while he took her picture he remarked: "My brother Phil used to really like you." "Yeah? Really. Well that's it. I have to go now." "Come on", said Andy, "it's only been a few minutes". "Well you got more time than I gave Robert Mapplethorpe " , she said, and left. Andy meets a lot of well-known people in his line of work. He said Roman Polanski was a wanker. Or was he talking about someone else? But you have to admire Polanski as a director: Le Locataire scared the hell out of me. In one scene the protagonist sees the sillouette of a man looking out at him from a toilet across the courtyard, and so he runs around the block through the corridors to find out who it is who it is. He finds the toilet. It is painted in yellow, and covered in Hieroglyphs, but there is no one there. He looks out back at his own apartment an