In the early eighties my paternal grandfather was having to go back and forth between London and New York quite regularly for business; pressing issues like the Brazilian foreign debt and trying to persuade Argentina not to default on her loans. One year – perhaps 1983 or 1984 – he famously flew Concorde return […]

Read more "On supersonic flight"

I was just reminded of a Spanish guy I heard about in London when I was a student. We had a friend in common. He was called Jesus (as in “Hey Suss”; common enough in Catholic Hispanic countries). His English was pretty sketchy but he had heard about a job with Pizza Hut and decided […]

Read more "The problem with foreigners"