(image courtesy of Andrew Shiva/Wikipedia) Being the third part of The Moscow ChroniclesI Follow the link s for Part 1 - Moscow Calling and Part 2 - Taksi! Stepping out from the Arrivals Hall of Moscows Domodedovo Airport into the Russian night was more of a surprise than I expected. It was, of course, cold, this being November. However, at an average of -5C it was, apparently, relatively spring-like by Muscovite standards. The real shock to the...

https://www.itv.com/hub/7-63-up-uk/2a1866a0001 ‘Give me a child and I will show you the man.’ That old Jesuit or ancient Greek aphorism is alive and well. I’m at 56 and UPward myself and one of my classmates, George Devine’s funeral, was on Wednesday. Arthritis creeps around my bones, but I’m still gloriously alive. When I went to school Mrs Boyle taught us that 9 x 7 = 63 (UP). My life has been in eight instalments, but I’ve followed the nine...

There's been some brilliant writing on the site this week, lots of marvellous pieces which I've read and re-read trying to decide the Picks. In the end, Story of the Week goes to The Lost Children by harveyjoseph. This one has haunted me since I read it. It harks back to a dark past and also offers a plausible vision of an uncertain future: https://www.abctales.com/story/harveyjoseph/lost-children Poem of Week is The Stew by socialeaf...

I had to follow this - I'm in the same age bracket, sort of identify with them. I guess it shows 2 things, how a person's life is influenced by their environment and also by their individual character. Perhaps being in the series has been an influence on them too...Several people said they found jumping back in to the public eye every 7 years was painful and yet they wante to stay involved. I think perhaps the series should stop now. Death and...

Being the second part of The Moscow ChroniclesI Follow the link for Part 1 - Moscow Calling I'm not a big fan of flying. If I could manage it on my own, I might probably be just about alright, just as long as I didn't go too high. Terry Wogan used to have a correspondent (Willie Gofar, I think) who aimed to circumnavigate the world by hot-air balloon, the only problem was that he didn't like heights, so he had to keep one foot on the floor at...

There have been disappointing times as a Celtic supporter, but this era isn't one of them. Celtic defeated Hearts on Saturday to complete a clean sweep of Scottish trophies for the third season running. Out of nine competitions, in three years, Celtic have won all nine. Yet, amid the joy there was a bubble and babble of discontent. Neil Lennon had been appointed the new Celtic manager. I remember him when he was the old Celtic manager. I...

Part 1 of The Moscow Chronicles The darkening skies all around the aircraft rather match my mood. It’s only 15.00 GMT but it’s already as black as night out there. This, I suppose, is only to be expected as it is November and I’m flying eastward, away from the setting sun. I’m on a flight from Heathrow to Moscow - Domodedovo Airport to be precise. It’s the year 2005 and I’m not doing this for fun, as you will have probably guessed, it’s part of...

‘I feel that I deserved to die…I’m worthless.’ There are no happy endings here. The crimes these fathers and mothers have committed are against themselves. An infant son or daughter died, slowly cooked, strapped in the backseat of their car, because the father or mother got distracted and forgot they were there. It happens in the United States around 30 to 40 times a year and the number is growing. I’m reminded of another statistic from a bygone...

page 1 The idea of a semi-group appeals strongly to the everyday experience of time. Page 2 A restriction, a kind of “reversibility property” may be assumed, that is the existence of inverses. This leads to the concept of a dynamical system which is very popular in Poland. Page 3 Examples of semigoups in one-dimensional phase space as well as two examples of trajectories through 2D. They are all based on properties of the exponential function,...

Shakespeare is such and inspiration so thank you to Airyfairy for coming up with the brilliant idea - so many good pieces arose that I had to pick two. Story of the week goes to Jane Hyphen's tragic history, Anthony and Cleopatra - I defy you to read and not weep: https://www.abctales.com/story/jane-hyphen/anthony-and-cleopatra Poem of the week goes to Forest Forever's comic/tragic/history - true love never did run smooth, (to mix my plays), but...