Postcard from Bishkek

Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain KCB KCVO KPM was a British Army officer, (and later Inspector-General of the Royal Irish Constabulary – he resigned in the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland), who is credited with inventing of the game of snooker while serving in Jubbulpore (Jabalpur), India in … on 17th April, […]

The Winter Olympics may be underway in Sochi but it’s not the only sporting event to be in the headlines at the moment. Here in Bishkek there’s been a number of international competitions in the last few weeks – the latest, which took place over the weekend, was the 27th tournament tournament dedicated to the […]

As I listened to the Global News podcast from the BBC, I wasn’t sure if I could believe what I was hearing … in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, a Gay Canadian comedian was leading a Ginger Pride Parade as part of the Fringe … it has to be a joke, I thought … but no, […]

One of the inspirations behind my Postcard from Bishkek is the 15-minute weekly radio broadcast Letter from America by Alistair Cooke. It ran for 2,869 broadcasts from 24 March 1946 to 20 February 2004, making it the longest-running speech radio programme in history and became a part of my regular routine as I would listen to […]

As the Games came to a close in London, the self satisfying congratulations lavished by the British Press on each and every success was noticeable, even from thousands of miles away, here in Bishkek. Let’s be fair … they did have something to celebrate.  Britain did have a “good games” – coming third in the final […]

In London Olympic Games, 2012, start in about two week’s times. It is estimated that there will be something like ten and half thousand competitors from about 200 countries taking part in 302 events across 36 sports. Although it must be nice for the participants to be able to travel around the globe to “exotic” places […]

I am constantly amazed by things that I discover on the internet … I sometimes wonder how we ever coped without it. Want to know something? … Google it! … Look it up on Wikipedia! It is not always as simple as that, but it is amazing how much information is out there and how […]

This year is Alan Turing Year, named after Alan Mathison Turing who was born a hundred years ago, on 23rd June, 1912.  Turing was a mathematician, who played an important role in the development of computing,  He is famous for a number of things, most notably his role in the code breaking operations at Bletchley […]

“Float like a Butterfly, sting like a Bee” was the catchphrase coined by Muhammad Ali, (whom I will always think of as Cassius Clay), a three time World Heavyweight Champion who was born on 17th January 1942.  He was  in many ways is an icon of the 1960′s, a period in which I was growing […]

The Americans call it “Soccer” to distinguish it from their home grown version of Football, but the rest of the world calls it Football. Some people, however, call it “The Beautiful Game”. Now, I have never been very keen about soccer, although I am happy to watch the odd game.  Maybe this is because I […]