Neil Rees's Blog: eatingwithsinners, page 7

Time to move on…

Anyone watch the Olympic closing ceremony last night? Maybe the athletes and 80,000 spectators present in the stadium enjoyed it, but it did not make for riveting television. Not a patch on the opening ceremony, certainly. But the games are over. London 2012 is history. Britain will live with an “Olympian hangover” for a while [...]

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano

Still on an Olympian theme. You have probably at some point in life heard the phrase Mens sana in corpore sano, or its English equivalent “a sound mind in a healthy body”. Much is said at Olympic times about the benefit of exercise for overall health and well-being. This is true enough. Our mind and [...]

From Barcelona to London in 20 years and 2 days

Yesterday Barcelona celebrated 20 years since the city hosted the 1992 Olympic games. 25th July 1992 the torch lit the flame at the Mont Juic stadium, so yesterday they did a reenactment, for old time’s sake, I guess. Or maybe they just cannot bear London getting all the attention. A slow jog for a few [...]

Behold I stand at the door and knock knock

I reckon that Jesus would have made a first-class comedian. He knew how to get a message across, and there are times when humour is the absolute best way. Somehow, humour penetrates the armour that surrounds our thoughts and opinions in a way that engaging people in intelligent debate just does not. Yes, there is [...]

The Icing on the Cake

There are some things that I don’t understand in the often acrimonious debate that takes place around the subject of evolution. And I am not talking about geology or genetics. The lines between scientific fact, the subjective interpretation of objective data and deeply held personal convictions sometimes appear a little too blurred for respectful debate. [...]

Hide and seek

Stephen Hawking has just lost a bet. Nothing to do with Pascal’s wager this time (see Dawkins, Williams and Pascal’s Wager for that one). Nor is eternal destiny at stake – it is a mere $100 that has changed hands. The Nobel physicist Stephen Hawking losing a wager might not be so unusual if he [...]

Of gargoyles and astronauts

It has been hard to find time to write over the last couple of weeks. Last Saturday, for example, was a whirlwind day with a whistle-stop tour of student halls of residence in Salamanca thrown in. We have reached that stage of life when our “first-born” is about to fly the nest and start life [...]

Crossed Swords

I have just returned from running an English language immersion weekend for teachers in our region – 30 intense hours, all in English, to help them improve their working knowledge of the language. Most of it was spent in the nearby “city” of Llerena, whose fascinating historical heritage provided the backdrop for some of our [...]

“Donde dije digo, digo Diego”

This weekend the Spanish government announced – to the relief of European governments all, not to mention the US – that they would be requesting “help” from the Eurogroup to prop up the Spanish economy. Channelled through the wonderfully named “Orderly Bank Restructuring Fund” (FROB), the idea is to make sure that Spain has enough [...]

BFF of sinners

More acronyms. BFF or FBF? Best Friend Forever or Facebook Friend? Which does your social sphere most resemble? (I realise that there are more social networking sites than Facebook, some more popular depending on location; I use Facebook as a discussion starter simply because it is the largest and most influential global site, not out [...]