Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
Holiday in Pakistan (2): getting there
April 7th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
I’ve done so much foreign travel that I know that, on most trips (especially outside Europe), something goes wrong and one just has to accept this and go with the flow. However, this has been my first holiday abroad when the first major thing to go wrong was before I’d even left the country. We […]
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Holiday in Pakistan (1): introduction
April 5th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
I am about to go on a holiday to Pakistan with the company Voyages Jules Verne. This will the 89th country that I have visited. The country is huge and we will only be visiting the north which is the most interesting part and contains the capital Islamabad (the south is more commercial and contains […]
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An update on my latest book
April 2nd, 2024 by Roger Darlington
For five years now, I’ve lived in a block of flats on London’s South Bank called Rennie Court. It is managed and staffed jointly with another block on the opposite side of the road called River Court. The longer that I’ve lived here, the more I’ve appreciated just how fascinating are the staff and residents. […]
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I always like to have a project
February 10th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Last year, my project was to write a memoir in time for circulation at my 75th birthday on 25 June 2023. I did it. It’s called “Roger And (Not) Out” and you can find it in Amazon. This year, my project is to curate a series of interviews of staff and residents at the apartment […]
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Why we should spend more time talking to strangers
November 7th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
When I took my granddaughters for lunch in a restaurant and I asked the waitress where she was from, my eldest granddaughter said: “Granddad, you talk to everyone.” I guess she’s right. When my son was speaking at my 75th birthday event and the launch of my memoir, he joked that I wanted to know […]
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How long can you stand on one leg? How often should you try?
October 31st, 2023 by Roger Darlington
In the last few weeks, three different friends have advocated to me the health benefits of standing on one leg, especially if one is a senior citizen. So I’ve decided to give it a go. A couple of my friends do it while brushing their teeth. I don’t know how they manage this. I do […]
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A review of the philosophy book “How To Be Good” by John Harris (2016)
October 24th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I don’t read books about philosophy very often because I find them too abstract and removed from the real world, but this book was given me by the author (Emeritus Professor of Bioethics at the University of Manchester), it is commendably short (less than 200 pages), and the title intrigued me. It is a thoughtful […]
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Holiday in the Caucasus (17): conclusion
July 23rd, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia have a common 20th century history as parts of the former Soviet Union and are all modestly-sized countries with small populations in a minor and compact region of the world. Yet they are so different politically, culturally, religiously, linguistically. Azerbaijan is the most modern and confident, aided by plentiful oil […]
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Holiday in the Caucasus (16): more in and round Yerevan, Armenia
July 23rd, 2023 by Roger Darlington
On the last day of our tour of the Caucasus, again there was much less travelling because we were either in or around Yerevan. We made a late start of 9.30 am and drove around the city centre while Garik pointed out key locations such as the parliament building and the presidential palace. Since we […]
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Holiday in the Caucasus (15): in and around Yerevan, Armenia
July 21st, 2023 by Roger Darlington
On the penultimate day of our tour of the Caucasus, there was much less travelling because we were either in Yerevan or in the district about an hour to the east of the city. Over a period of centuries, Armenia has had no less than 14 capitals. The current capital – since the Soviet days […]
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