Practical, no-nonsense, and achievable tips — Inspiration for a writer is key to developing new ideas. Also key is keeping our perspiration to a minimum. Joking aside, when I write I seek spiritual and mental stimulation from a variety of sources such as: fiction and nonfiction, the natural world, and interactions with other people. One of…

As usual I’m left with more questions than answers, but that’s part of the immigrant’s journey — Forget Brexit and its toxic legacy. For as long as I’ve lived in the UK, the long-standing, unsolvable, contentious issue has been: milk in first or last? Welcome to Great Britain, a country where people take their tea-drinking seriously. Few topics generate as much controversy as this one, so becoming…

The column for those who like to swing more than one way… foodwise —

And how running a marathon helped me understand the importance of training my mind — It will be seven years in April since I first ran the Brighton Marathon. Before that I’d run long distances, but never a 26.2-miler. After that first event in the southern coast of England, I completed three successive marathons (all in Brighton) and three half-marathons (all in London). I began…

A time for hope and joy — A sun-drenched, crocus-filled Allen Gardens greets us. We’ve just been to Spitalfields City Farm and intend to continue to enjoy this early promise of springtime. There’s no rumble of cars. No din of trains heading for or leaving Liverpool Street Station despite the presence of a railtrack over our heads…

Refugee Community Kitchen: a kindness-driven food project — The photo above might look like the sort of takeaway you get from any street food stall in London. But I can guarantee you that there’s nothing common or average about it. The chickpea curry, dhal, saffron-infused rice, roast potatoes, and fresh salad I had this weekend were made by…

Down and out in Venice on a gondola — The artist G. P. Guarienti got it right when he said of Canaleto: He paints with such accuracy and cunning that the eye is deceived and truly believes it is the real thing it sees, not a painting. As I stood in front of Canaleto’s 1740 painting, Venice: the Grand…

My decades-old affair with the language — “Look at the word vulnerable.” I scribbled the phonetic transcription on the board: / (ˈvʌlnərəbəl) / “Look at the way that /ʌ/ sound carries all the weight of the word. The three schwas are mere accompaniments. You hardly notice them. It’s as if the three schwas were on a bit…

A blind “blindsides” me and a new club welcomes me — I’m working in Southwark this week. This means early mornings and train changes. At Green Park tube station, a busker breaks into a violin rendition of Abba’s Waterloo. Wrong station, mate, I feel like saying. Two more stops eastwards on the Jubilee Line and you’ll be fine. I’ve now broken…