Month: July 2026

PC 500 Half a Century!

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Back in 2014 I never ever dreamt that, twelve years later, I would write ‘PC 500 Half a Century!’ Yet here we are, having scribbled about this and that, finding the weekly 1000-word challenge part of the routine of my life. Where did twelve years go and what happened during that time? (I have added some of my photographs from our travels; their position is not connected to the script!)

Eagle on the Yukon River, Alaska 2015

          There are global events that I have no control over, but their significance often affects the decisions of our government and therefore eventually my life. Living in western Europe gives me a view on world events that I wouldn’t necessarily have if I lived, for instance, in Brazil or in New Zealand. I am not saying there’s a bias, but a European war is more concerning for this continent than for South America.

          These twelve years started with Russia’s modern annexation of The Crimea. In England we remember The Crimea as the land fought over between 1853-1856, one of Victoria’s Wars. Then it was Russia against an alliance of The Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Sardinia (!); it ended with Russia’s defeat. Who hasn’t heard Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘The Charge of The Light Brigade’, describing 670 cavalry men’s charge against some Russian guns? Only 195 men remained mounted and survived unharmed.

          In 2014 Russia annexed The Crimea, siting all sorts of historic reasons why its people wanted to be part of Russia; Europe took no action. Eight years later an emboldened Russia invaded Ukraine and that war continues. Whatever its outcome, its use of drone technology is changing the way conflicts are conducted.

The Salt Lake, the Atacama Desert, Chile 2023

           In 2021, after twenty years in Afghanistan trying to bring peace and stability, the United States and its Nato Allies withdrew, having failed. The departure was quite chaotic, reminiscent of the American pull out of its unsuccessful war in Vietnam. So much blood spilt, only to see Afghanistan regress to the C7th ideas of the Taliban. Not having learned its lesson, America embarked on yet another war, this one with Iran, in February this year; most commentators suggest this was ill-thought through and the likely outcome of any peace settlement disappointing. The European focus on the Ukrainian and Iranian conflicts masks news of the other disastrous conflict in Africa, that of the civil war in Sudan.

For two years after the start of my PCs, Africa suffered its first Ebola Epidemic. The second is happening now! And who can forget the global pandemic of Covid 19 that lasted from 2020 for three years. In the UK there were over 25 million cases which resulted in 232,000 deaths. The worst day was on 19th January 2021 when 1490 individuals died. Globally it’s estimated that some 18-35 million people died. No rhyme or reason why someone who caught the virus died – age and health no determinator, but there was a suggestion that some ethnic groups were more susceptible than others.

The island of Vis, Croatia 2024

Two other global changes mark these twelve years. Firstly since 2023 there has been an exponential rise in the integration of Artificial Information technologies in virtually every aspect of life, transforming global industries, labour markets and technology policy. This is comparable with the introduction of the mobile telephone or the shift to digital technology or the introduction of television.

Secondly, the election of Donald Trump to President of the USA in 2024 has been marked by geopolitical shifts in diplomacy, in alliances, in international trade and in the political landscape. Whether you like him or not, his erratic policies and mood swings have created greater uncertainty and instability.

Here in the United Kingdom the 2016 referendum on our European Union membership resulted in 52% of the population voting to leave. The consequences of that fateful decision reverberate in every aspect of our lives today. The Prime Minister David Cameron resigned, and five other politicians have since tried to lead the country, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, the latter replaced as I write by Andy Burnham. Eight in 12 years! Another referendum in Scotland, in 2014, put the case for independence on hold! But in the same year same-sex marriage became legal in England and Wales; Brighton celebrated!

Lake Tekapo, South Island, New Zealand 2025

The circle of life continues. In 2016 ‘births’, my third grandson Theo was born in December, ‘marriages’, ours in August and ‘deaths’, that of Celina’s father Carlos in the January. In the following year my nephew Hugh’s first child Dougie was born, on 17th February, the same day as Celina’s brother’s second son Joaquim. I miss Bill Pender and Ray Morrell, both good friends for decades, who are no longer here. And as a nation we said goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II.

As we age it’s inevitable our bodies react to internal and external factors but trying to live an active life and eating well helps. For instance, last year I completed 4000 hot yoga classes since I started in 2009, despite having to have a prolapsed disc operated on in 2017!

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2012 – to date

Celina and I have travelled, and not only to Brazil on our annual visits to her home city Rio de Janeiro! In 2015 we went west, up into Alaska, following in the footsteps of great grandfather George Nation. At the end of 2019 we were on the north coast of South Island, New Zealand, on Farewell Spit, the sandbar on which the Queen Bee, a barque from England, sank. Amongst the passengers was Eve Fosbery, aged 17, who would become my great grandmother. We then went out into the Marlborough Sounds, to Frenchman’s Pass, where the survivors came ashore two days later. We’ve had two other trips to New Zealand and Australia, loved Singapore, and spent a few days in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Celina’s brother and family moved to Estoril in Portugal in 2016, giving us opportunities to visit on an annual basis.

But in twelve years I have failed miserably to get to grips with the Portuguese language.

The Monument to the Discoveries, Lisbon, Portugal. 2016 to date

My postcards continue …….. PC 501 in draft!

Richard 17th July 2026

Hove

http://www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

PC 499 Évora, Portugal

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Évora in the centre, Lisbon to its west.

A snippet cut from The Times’ Travel Section over a year ago says that ‘Portugal’s south-central Alentejo (note 1) region is an underrated spot for fine red wine and ‘porco preto’, that’s pork from acorn-fed black pigs. The walled city of Évora is a charming base from which to explore. Between outings to hilltop Monsaraz and along the Alentejo Wine Route, queue to try that pork inside Botequim de Mouraria or to scoff typically simple local dishes such as dogfish soup at rustic Fialho. Évora also has temples and a skull-filled Chapel of Bones to explore, while its markets offer ewe’s milk cheese.’

The DK Guide adds: “The town rose to prominence under the Romans and flourished throughout the Middle Ages as a centre of learning and the arts. It was a popular residence of Portugues kings but fell out of favour after Spain’s annexation of Portugal in 1580. Its influence waned further when the Jesuit university closed in the 18th century.”  Today in the C21st, students once again throng the streets, joined by visitors to this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

So, we went! Évora is about an hour’s drive east of Lisbon; by noon the temperature had reached 39C and it was baking! We had rooms in the Pousada dos Lóios, a hotel converted from the old Monastery of St John the Evangelist, which had been founded in 1485. Today the hotel’s bedrooms are the old ‘cells’ of ‘Cónegas Regrantes’ – although my little suite suggested there was a little luxury permitted!

Our first lunch was in a small restaurant, Luar de Janeiro, somewhere in the maze of tiny streets below the hotel.

I am not a fan of Alentejo food, or most Portuguese food for that matter, but I had to try the little ham, but not its accompaniment of goat, cheese and garlic rice.

Near our hotel stood the Roman Temple, thought to have been built in the 2nd or 3rd century AD.

In daylight it’s a glorious reminder of the deep history evident on the European continent. By night it’s altogether different; more ethereal.

The nearby square has some marble sculpture. I thought this was interesting:

I didn’t find out its creator and wasn’t sure whether the crack splitting it in two was intentional or not!

Some of the shops nestling down Évora’s little narrow streets sell cork products, for the Alentejo region in Portugal is the world’s largest producer of cork; for example, 30 million corks for the wine industry, per day. Hats, bags, purses, waterproofs, those cork mats for the kitchen and even a cork postcard!

Cork trees cover some 7000 sq kms of Portugal. Harvesting cork is a skilled business; mature trees have their bark stripped off every ten years or so, leaving the exposed wood raw and red. 

Most shops shut during the heat of the afternoon but the guide had highlighted a C16th church, the Igreja da Graça, on the top of which are ‘four muscular figures supporting globes. They are quaintly nicknamed Os Meninos’ (The Children). Despite the temperature, (Note 2) I had to go and have a look. The church is undergoing a major restoration and is covered in plastic sheeting. Fortunately, the authorities had stuck a photograph of what it looks like on the outside and I was able to identify Os Meninos; sort of ‘boys will be boys’?

You can make out the four old men, two left and two on the right

Later, back in the wonderfully cool hotel, we had dinner. I chose the ‘stewed peas and Alentejo tomatoes’ as a starter …. more out of curiosity than anything else, although when Nuno the waiter asked whether I wanted the poached egg with it, I was slightly nonplussed; I declined. However, I was completely gobsmacked to be served a bowl of lukewarm soup, complete with bits of pork!

‘Lost in Translation’

I am seriously not one to take photographs of what I am eating although this … took the biscuit! Their ‘orange pie’ for dessert was not a pie!

Beside the C15th church of São Francisco sits the Capela dos Ossos.

The largest and oldest ‘Chapel of Bones’ in Portugal, built in the first half of the C17th, is a space ‘that can only be understood within the context of the Catholic spirituality that originated it.’  The chapel holds the skeletal remains of some 5000 monks and others associated with the church … and has a rather strange invitation at its entrance: ‘Nos ossos que aqui estamos pelos vossos esperamos’ (‘we bones that are here await yours’)

I found it very, very odd, strangely mesmeric, these skulls and bones artistically laid out. I can imagine the chat between those who created it: ‘José, have you got a small skull, just need one to fill a hole?’ or ‘Carlos, do I place the leg bones in a fan shape, or shortest to longest?’ – just seeing them as pieces in some macabre display.

European walled cities have always held a fascination for me, be it St Malo in the northwestern corner of France, Dubrovnik in Croatia or Kotor in Montenegro. Carcassonne in southern France remains on my bucket list.

In Évora fragments remain of the inner Roman walls, whilst the C14th outer wall is very much in evidence, made in the 1640s into a major fortification. 

Water was carried into the town by the aqueduct, built between 1531 and 1537.

Today it’s used by the local water company to pipe water into the town; some 9kms of the old aqueduct still survive. Finally, you remember that marble sculpture near the hotel? With the sunset behind it ….

…. it reminded me of the lines from the song ‘As Time Goes By’ by Louis Armstrong ……. ‘a kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh, the fundamental things apply, as time goes by.’  

Évora? Enchanting!

Richard 10th July 2026

Hove

www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

Note 1 The Romans valued this land ‘beyond the Tagus’ – além Tejo – for its wheatfields; grain was exported all over their empire.

Note 2 Only ‘Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun’ wrote Sir Noel Coward (1899 – 1973)

PC 498 Our Hands

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My annual visit to the Hove Skin Clinic to check for skin cancers resulted in Dr Bav Shergill freezing three little spots on the back of my hands. They took just three weeks to heal and during the first two, I was careful in some yoga postures in the floor series, as the backs of my hands should have been in contact with the floor.

It’s not until we sprain a thumb, split a nail, break a finger, or have an open sore that we realise how much we rely on our hands. The ‘prehensile multi-fingered appendage at the end of the forearm in primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys and lemurs’ is crucial for fine motor skills, tactile sensations and the manipulation of the surroundings. The fingers contain some of the densest areas of nerve endings in the body, giving us enormous tactile feedback. Each hand is controlled by opposing brain hemispheres so that our preferred choice for single-handed activities such as writing reflects individual brain functioning.

This is an outline of my left hand.

The whole hand is made up of 27 bones. The top two bones in each finger are the well-known phalanges and the metacarpus bone completes the finger; four fingers (Note 1), the index, middle, ring and little (or pinkie), and one thumb make up the hand. The importance of our hands and their component parts is reflected in our language, in our sayings and phrases. Instantaneously I recall people saying ‘I’m all fingers and thumbs’, meaning they are, particularly when flustered or nervous, extremely clumsy or awkward.

The distance between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the index finger is typically around 6 to 7 inches (15cms); maybe a more useful measurement is the distance between the tip of your thumb and the tip of your little finger, about 9 inches (23cms). The tip of the thumb to its first joint is about an inch (2.54cms), and from the nose to the tip of the outstretched arm is about a yard (92cms). A finger is approximately ¾ inch wide – so if you’re asked how much whisky you want and you answer: ‘two fingers’ – you’ll get about 1 ½ inches. (Note 2)

Sailing in coastal waters and checking for navigational aids, it’s good to know that at arm’s length the little finger covers about one degree, three middle fingers together about 5 degrees, a clenched fist about 10 degrees, the spread of index and pinky about 15 degrees, and there’s 25 degrees between the thumb and pinky. There’s more! If you spread your hand out so the pinky is horizontal, the ring finger is at about 30˚, the middle 45˚, the index about 60˚ and the thumb 90˚.

We talk of using the ‘rule of thumb’, working with a method or procedure based on experience and not on theory.

‘Many hands make light work’ is a saying that’s been around since the 1540s, meaning with teamwork tasks are more easily achieved. In this case the word ‘hand’ refers to a ‘person who does something’, most common as a sailing term for the ship’s crew – ‘all hands on deck!’. Those of you who remember The Goon Show with Harry Seacombe, Spike Milligan, Michael Bentine and Peter Sellers may recall a skit when they gathered around an unlit light bulb; ‘Ah! Many hands make light work’ quips Spike …. and the lightbulb lit up; a wonderful example of the zany, timeless humour of that show.

This is my left hand (Note 3). Pseudo psychology would have me believe that if the ring finger is longer than the middle finger, I am poor, that if the middle finger is longer than the index finger I am rich, and if the ring and index finger are the same length you’re a genius. As I said: ‘pseudo psych’!

I wrote at the start of this postcard that we rely on our hands for so much. Spare a thought for Armi, a yoga friend from Naples, who works for the hairband Schwarzkopf. Over the years he developed repetitive strain injury in his left thumb, which eventually required the insertion of a metal rod.

He had his operation some weeks ago and the normal functionality is returning. There was debate about who owns the copyright to his X-ray …. so I am chancing he does!

You could add ‘hand’ to ‘writing’, ‘shake’, ‘cuff’, ‘ball’, ‘bell’, ‘to mouth’, ‘over fist’; or after ‘in’, ‘off’, ‘to’, ‘take in’. You could keep your hand in, lay your hand on, change hands, or even ‘win hands down’.

One of the greatest hits of the French singer Françoise Hardy’ was ‘Tous Les Garcons et Les Filles’, from 1962. It’s second verse started: ‘Et les yeux, dans les yeux, et la main, dans la main’  (And the eyes, in the eyes, and the hand, in the hand …). Like every song or lyric one adores, it’s on instant recall.

There is no space here to delve into the interesting mysteries and reading of the various lines on the palm of one’s hand. Palmistry has been around for centuries; who knows what a professional reading of mine would reveal, Oh! I don’t know, how any years I have left …… or whether I should just reflect that according to those beliefs about the lengths of my fingers …. I am a poor genius or a rich nincompoop!

…… if I could put my finger on it!

Richard 3rd July 2026

Evora Portugal

www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

PS Back in 1964 I hitched through the Low Countries. Here’s me trying my luck ….. to ‘thumb a ride’.

Note 1 I asked one of our fellow yogis, Daren, whether he remembered the ‘Four Candles’ sketch with Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett and he admitted to never having seen it. I told him a scruffy Barker walks into a hardware store and asks Corbett who, complete with brown coat, is behind the counter, for ‘fork handles’ (ie new wooden handles for large gardening forks.) Corbett hears ‘four c …. andles’, as Barker has dropped the aitch, and puts those on the counter. It continues ……..

Note 2 Imperial units of measurement work better here.

Note 3 Actually it’s my right hand but when you insert a photograph into a word document sometimes the software turns it through 180˚!