Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Dear Reader, A wonderful month, 6 articles written and now getting ready to a return to teaching. Special thanks not only to the emailers below for the individual posts but also to Wade, Invisible, Chris S, Ricardo, Andy, Borky and Amanda who have sent me outstandings links, something that I can never equal. strangehistorylinks AT gmail DOT […]

Dear Reader, For all those who’ve asked Mrs B pregnancy progresses well and the due date is set for late November. The family are about to go to the sea with my father in law and I get a couple of weeks to write.  Special thanks not only to the emailers (represented below) but also […]

Dear Reader, just finished my single summer course and now have two free-ish months for writing. Mrs B’s nausea has receded: we found that ripe melons somehow work for her. The baby is almost at six months, by the end of July it will be ‘viable’: serious kicking began last week. Little and Tiny Miss […]

May is the laziest month. Exhaustion after the semester, a chance to relax… Watch some of the amazingly good American TV shows out there. Read comics. Potter in the garden. Waste time. Well, it was good but now it has come to the end. Hope to do some hard writing in the next three months […]

Dear Reader, This has been a month of extraordinary strains. Mrs B is now – trumpet blares – just at the end of her first trimester of her third pregnancy and she has AWFUL pregnancies. I sometimes wonder whether we are the only family where the arrival of the baby means that we have more […]

Dear Reader, In 30 days term ends and I say goodbye, bar some trifling summer courses, to the world for May, June, July, August and half of September and, finally, make some time to write. God is great and the anticipation is bucking me up no end. Other news: I’ve discovered kindle (wow, worthwhile technology), […]

A fairly pleasant month has been overshadowed by  internet service has exploding in my corner of the Italian countryside. So as most of this has been tapped out on a phone must be brief. Thanks particularly to all those who sent links in for the roundups. None of those for a couple of days while internet […]

Dear Reader, welcome to February: God knows January had it coming… Here  in the Beachcombing household everything footles along. We are still fighting the good fight against dishonest architects (one down, two to go), keeping a leash on father in law (who hired the dishonest architects and even went on holiday with them) and planning […]

Dear Reader, A very happy new year to you and all yours. A pretty difficult 2013 is coming to an end here and there is the hope that the Beachcombing family will have washed their hands of all their legal and financial problems by the end of January. Included below is a slightly revamped Beachcombed […]

Dear Reader, November has been a blast, from an iron furnace.This is always the most difficult month of the year: a sort of cursed menses. The main issue is that Mrs B. has to organise an annual academic conference: not so much herding cats as herding blind, incontinent seagulls. Child rearing falls mainly to Beach […]

Dear Reader, Crisis continues here as Beach’s father-in-law’s building problems have spiralled out of control: f-i-l classic example of a very intelligent person completely lacking in wisdom; fifty years of sociology haven’t helped either. Interesting new experiences have included getting a nonsensical bill for 50,000 euros; being shouted at out over the phone; opening hysterical […]

  Dear Reader, October Beach is presently away from home. Mrs Beach is at home dealing with one child with chronic and coming earache and the other bairn with chronic and now going toothache. Funny how imperfectly the human body is made. Father-in-law’s builder crisis continues though the first assault on the dishonest so and […]

Dear Reader, a long argument just finished with elder daughter about why she can’t buy ‘a short pointy thing’ for a three year old boy; almost as good as the argument about why we can’t keep a wolf as a pet (yesterday and the day before). In any case, onto more important things. August was […]

Dear Readers, Very short note as Beach prepares to head off to battle. A builder has overcharged ancient father in law by some 60,000 euros and all energy today is about preventing the worst from coming to pass: Beach has been compelled to promise he will not hit anyone (!) or even raise his voice. […]

July 1 2013 Dear Readers, Today lots of writing to do, starting with the correction of a long article on migration in the post Soviet space (wth!!! tears his little remaining hair). So with no more ado a huge thanks to those who have brought such excellent copy forward and who are included in the […]