Archive for April, 2016
U.S. presidential election (24): will there be a contested convention?
April 8th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
In Wisconsin this week, Ted Cruz soundly beat Donald Trump in the Republican race, while Bernie Sanders stormed to victory over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic contest. But, on 19 April when the New York primary is held, Trump expects to triumph and Clinton is hoping for a decisive win. Meanwhile there is increasing speculation […]
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Post Office’s Network Transformation Programme gathers pace
April 7th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
The Post Office network is currently undergoing its largest ever restructuring through the Network Transformation Programme (NTP). Under the programme, the vast majority of post offices will convert to one of two new operating models – Post Office Mains and Post Office Locals. The programme gathered pace towards the end of 2015 and, by February, […]
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It’s “the largest mass poisoning of a population in history”, it’s still continuing, and you’ve never heard of it
April 7th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
“Nearly 20 million Bangladeshis are still drinking water poisoned with high levels of arsenic despite millions of wells being tested and hundreds of thousands of safe ones having been bored to avert a major health crisis, a new report has suggested. The lack of progress in improving what the UN’s World Health Organisation called “the […]
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The Panama Papers scandal is HUGE
April 6th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
The leak of files from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca continues to create upheaval around the world. The documents were leaked to the German daily “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, which shared them with the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the “Guardian”, the BBC and other media organisations. Both the amount of information and the number […]
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What I missed most while in Mexico
April 5th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just returned from a wonderful two-week holiday in Mexico. I took my iPad and managed to access the Internet in each of the hotels where we stayed – but, oh, how intermittent and how slow it was. It was like being back on dial-up and I spent long minutes watching that thin blue line […]
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Highlights of Mexico (15): Chichen Itza
April 4th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
It was the last full day of our holiday – Day 12 (Sunday) – and Cox and Kings had managed to organise the programme so that effectively the best had been saved to the last: a visit to the famous Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. Roger and Vee were awake at 5.45 am (the clocks […]
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Highlights of Mexico (14): Uxmal and Kabah
April 3rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Day 11 (Saturday) was spent visiting two small Mayan sites to the south of Merida. As usual, our local guide was keen to leave earlier than the official programme so that we avoided the crowds and the heat, so we departed at 8 am instead of 9 am. Driving through Merida confirmed just how pretty […]
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Highlights of Mexico (13): Merida
April 2nd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Day 10 (Friday) was another flight and another state. To give ourselves good time for dressing, packing and breakfast, we were up at 6 am as we were departing the Chan Kahn Resort outside Palenque at 8 am. Since there are no flights to Merida from Palenque, we made the two hour drive to the […]
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Highlights of Mexico (12): Palenque
April 1st, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Often on these exotic holidays, Roger succumbs to some kind of stomach upset while Vee has a stomach of steel. Day 9 (Thursday) began early for Roger with three bouts of ‘Montezuma’s revenge’ which meant no breakfast at all. Fortunately Imodium did the trick and he was able to proceed with the programme. Today was […]
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