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Daithai C: Booze on the Tube.

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:18:02 -0800

Boris Johnson's first policy announcement, a pledge to ban alcohol on public transport, came under fierce criticism from unions and suffered a further setback when it emerged that the measure could not be implemented across the network. The new Mayor of London said that the plan would improve safety and security on public transport in the capital, but concerns were raised that it would be almost impossible to enforce.

http://DaithaiC.stumbleupon.com/review/26998667/

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:42:21 -0700

Berlin Tempelhof Airport

Berlin Tempelhof, once the world's largest airport, will close its gates tomorrow 31st October, 2008 on an 81-year history that spanned the Red Army's invasion, the Cold War and Germany's reunification. A 1940s Douglas DC-3 and a Deutsche Lufthansa AG Junkers Ju- 52 of a similar age will be the last aircraft to take off from the city-center airport shortly before midnight. With them will depart an era of Berlin's history. Tempelhof, expanded under Adolf Hitler, played a central role in the 1948 Allied airlift that circumvented a Soviet blockade after World War II.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/10/berlin-tempelhof-airport.html

Daithai C: Long, Long Ago (OK, It was only this time last year!)

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:50:57 -0700

Boris Johnson had vowed that his first act as Mayor of London would be to scrap bendy buses and replace them with a modern-day Routemaster. Mr Johnson said that the controversial buses were abused by fare dodgers and highly dangerous to cyclists.

Speaking at the first Tory candidate's hustings meeting, the MP for Henley said that he would introduce a new version of the Routemaster bus that had been axed by Ken Livingstone. Their replacement would be fully accessible for the disabled and mothers with buggies. He said: "We should on day one, act one, scene one, hold a competition to get rid of the bendy bus. They wipe out cyclists, there are many cyclists killed every year by them. "It's not beyond the wit of man to design a new Routemaster which will stand as an icon of this city."

http://DaithaiC.stumbleupon.com/review/24695893/

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:43:45 -0700

James Joyce and Me

Today, in my hometown of Dublin, hundreds of people gather to celebrate Bloomsday, the annual event dedicated to the lead character in James Joyce's Ulysses. Bloomsday re-enacts the epic journey through the capital undertaken by Leopold Bloom on June 16th 1904. The name derives from Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Ulysses, and 16 June was the date of Joyce's first outing with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle, when they walked to the Dublin village of Ringsend. Nora Barnacle is the great constant of Joyce's life, a chambermaid from Galway, who remained his rock, teacher, and a portable Ireland throughout their lives in exile. Indeed if you walk down Dublin's Nassau Street at the side of Trinity College you will see in winter (when the leaves are off the trees) on the gable wall of the building where the college wall ends the outline of a sign for "Finns Hotel", the long closed hotel where Joyce's inamorta worked as a chambermaid. The narrator of Joyce's Ulysses, Leopold Bloom is a non-practising son of a Hungarian Jew (Blum) and Dublin is viewed on this single day through his outsiders eyes in a narrative modelled on the structure of Homer's Odyssey.

Ulysses deals with the opulence of personal thought and while we are ushered into its characters private worlds with ease, we know little about their exteriors. The narrative parallels Homer's Odyssey, but an in-depth knowledge of The Odyssey is not necessary for enjoyment of Ulysses. Throughout the novel, the reader is permitted to become wholly familiar with the inner workings of Leopold's mind, but not given enough information about his physical appearance to form a clear mental picture of him. We are told he is quiet and decent, a man of inflexible honour to his fingertips. He has a pale intellectual face in which are set two dark large lidded, superbly expressive eyes.

The story of a haunting sorrow is written on his face and his friends say that there's a touch of the artist about old Bloom, he is isolated from the city he observes, from his religion and most tellingly, from his wife. A safe, moustached man who has his good points and slips off when the fun gets too hot. Another significant figure winding his way through the streets of Dublin in Ulysses is Stephen Dedalus, whom we first meet in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Stephen is an arrogant young intellectual whom Bloom takes under his wing. He acts as a father figure to the young Stephen who fulfils the role to some extent of son for Bloom whose own son died in infancy.

Bloom's wife Molly in Ulysses is equated with Penelope in The Odyssey and the last chapter of the book is dedicated solely to her meanderings and musings. It is one of the most renowned pieces of writing in Ulysses and is famous for its celebration of this voluptuous, sensuous, opulent, abundant, independent, lush, and blooming woman. Molly Bloom's soliloquy at the end of the James Joyce's Ulysses is recognised as one of the most famous female narratives in modern literature. It has been used as the basis of songs, re-appeared in movies, quoted in other literary works and in terms of its effect on Irish culture was, as the award-winning writer Eavan Boland puts it, "a liberating signpost to this country's future". Sensuous, compelling and at times hugely funny, this soliloquy is the only time in Joyce's seminal novel where Molly's voice is heard. In it, we hear the otherwise silent character bare her soul on life, love, sex and loneliness.

Today's Bloomsday is a spirited celebration among culture-lovers in Dublin and the festival, organised by a foundation that commemorates the writer, now runs for a week. It is traditional to dress up and go out around Dublin on Bloomsday, visiting the locations featured in the book and taking part in readings, walks and activities associated with Ulysses. Now a week-long festival, Bloomsday 2008 got underway last Monday and ends today with a number of events taking place in

http://DaithaiC.stumbleupon.com/review/24679015/

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:51:30 -0700

Kos Town

Built around a busy harbour which has been guarded since the 14th century by the Castle of the Knights of St John Kos Town is a wonderful mixture of the ancient and modern and a worthwhile holiday destination both in its own right as well as a base for touring the island of Kos with the other Dodecanese Islands and the Turkish mainland with Bodrum (ancient Hallincarnassus) just a short boat ride away. http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/02/kalymnos-island-of-sponge-divers.html ) http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/09/taxi-driver-of-nisyros.html )The town of Kos was founded in 366 BC, in the same area where modern Kos is nowadays found. It reached the apogee of its importance during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, being a crossroad between civilisations, between East and West, the meeting point for both culture and trade. Its public market was of great fame during antiquity and still is thriving in our today. All around Kos Town you can find signs of the past, reminders of the civilisations that passed through its harbour. Numerous buildings, built in imitation of the Italian architecture of the colonies in N. Africa, most typical being the Municipal Buildings and Court House.

For such a bustling town there are a surprising number of peaceful retreats among the landscaped gardens and shady squares. Traditional tavernas and caf�s around the waterfront also provide a place to escape the air of business that surrounds the island's capital. Most parts have either been carefully preserved or thoughtfully developed to produce a pleasing resort full of character.

Its ancient Mandraki (Harbour) guarded by the Castle of Nerazia provides a pleasant hive of activity and a focal point although the ferries and inter island catamarans and hydrofoils go from a landing stage on the far side of the Castle. Despite regular and devastating earthquakes throughout its history Kos Town has remained on this site benefiting from the seaborne trade. It is the last major earthquake in 1933 (when the island was under Italian occupation) which gives us the shape and form of the contemporary city which spreads out from the harbour and which is home to half the island's population. The Italians rebuilt with wide palm lined avenues and excavated the extensive Hellenistic and Roman archaelogical remains which were revealed by the earthquake. So modern Kos Town provides as fascinating mix of the Greek and Roman, the Crusader Knights who held out here until 1522, the Ottomans who left mosques, Hammans and fountains, the Italians who laid out the modern town and endowed it with fine public buildings, mock North African, fascist Internationalist and art Deco and modern Greece of which Kos only became a part of in 1948. The maze like Ottoman Centre apart (known as Kos Old Town) this is a planned town with the pines, palms and shrubs planted by the Italians fully matured.

Eleftherias (Freedom) square which is the centre of Kos Town. It is the atmospheric open air "Drawing Room" of Kos where everybody goes for their evening stroll, to see and to be seen. It is overlooked on one side by the Nefterdar mosque which was built at the end of the 18th century and the ablution fountain, on the other by the Italian Colonial style Merkato, and by the Theatre and library and the Archeological Museum on the other sides. Towered over at night by the illuminated crosses of the Orthodox Cathderal and adjoined by the ancient Roman Agora it provides a superb urban set piece symbolising the rich mix of influences which have made this unique island. A good pit stop for food and drink is Ideal snack bar on Martiou Street just off Eleftherias (Freedom) Square. Ideal is delightful and always friendly and the Gyros (Chicken or Pork Souvlaki) are the best value and tastiest on the island. It is run by Zo� and her family; She is Greek American from Boston and totally cool. She is also an unfailing source of reliable advice on what to do and what to see but nobody can