Articles from the author

Novelty Items

A battle is being waged in our back garden at the moment between grass and sand, and it looks as though the latter is winning. We had a fine lawn throughout the hottest months of this summer, but then something mysterious happened. A patch at the front began to go a little bald, and in no time the house was surrounded by a mini desert.

The Japanese marathon champion, Naoko Takashashi, who ran at this year's Olympic games in Sydney, became famous overnight more for the curious potion she drank before her race than for the gold medal she won

Esperanto never really caught on as an international language. English won that honour, spawning various "Englishes" with widespread use and becoming the universal lingua franca, nowhere more so than on the Internet.  With this in mind, the new edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is rich with examples of cyberspeak and other colourful additions that express the mood of the times.

Novelty Items

The fine Christmas tableau in Dubai's Wafi Centre seems a little incongruous when the temperatures outside this cool emporium remain high enough to warrant the wearing of short sleeves and sunglasses.

Ever since I discovered the unparalleled joy of playing crazy golf over the New Year on a particularly fine course in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, I have been hooked.

Protect the environment: Please re-use this bag," reads the slogan on the plastic carriers provided by Spinneys for customers' shopping. The suggestion is a good one. Plastic is a scourge to the environment when it gets loose. Bags wash up on shore, become trapped in trees and bushes and litter the streets.

Coco Chanel, founder of the fashion house that still bears her name and epitomises the French talent for chic, is commonly credited with having invented the suntan in the early 20th century.

The local cinema, during the heady days of my teenage years, was a slightly gloomy place, painted a drab orange, with brown curtains concealing the square screen.

Some time ago, I offered a useful guide to catching killer hornets.Ê Apparently, their stomach juice boosts energy levels and gives a person a tremendous sense of well-being.

The news that the Dubai Municipality will be giving names to city streets brought great joy to this household where, until recently, a stereotypical telephone conversation inviting friends round for dinner went a little like this: