AIRPORT LIFE
I followed the last passengers down to the door of the aircraft and started talking to the cabin crew while the final checks were being...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 21, 20234 min read
NOSH
Breakfast around the Middle East is usually a washout. Two places I’ve enjoyed it have been the Hotel Baron in Aleppo and over the border...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 21, 20233 min read
THE GENTLEMAN IN THE RED WAISTCOAT
I saw him one last time this morning, before closing the back door and heading off to work, the little Gentleman in the Red Waistcoat,...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 21, 20233 min read
AIRPORT LIFE
Have you ever wanted to kick a child in the arse so hard, that like that cow, he’d fly up over the moon? Well, I was giving it serious...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 20, 20232 min read
AIRPORT LIFE
I strode into the office out of a sudden autumn squall, chewing my way through the last mouthfuls of my bun. Budden bounced up out of...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 20, 20234 min read
LOST IN PERSIA
I had a proper job once. A job that involved the barking of orders, the kicking of arses and of, well, generally getting stuff done,...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 20, 20232 min read
INSOMNIA
0420. Twenty-past four in the morning. Four-twenty a.m. Not even sparrow-fart. Awake. Or am I dreaming I'm awake. The fish pie was tasty...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 20, 202311 min read
A CHRISTMAS CAROL IN SYRIA
Syria, early January, out in the Dead Cities; Bara, Sergiopolis, Apamea. The long Cold War of the Classical World had turned hot and the...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 20, 20232 min read
AIRPORT LIFE
'Glad you got off your fizzer Sven'. 'Which one Senior?' 'The "casual sexism" one' 'Oh that one'. 'How did you manage it?' 'I convinced...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 20, 20236 min read
THAT BLOODY BYRON ROGERS
I was in the bar with a cocktail and some Hounslow tapas when Blunt Dave dropped a newspaper on my pint of light and bitter spilling my...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 20, 20231 min read
AIRPORT LIFE
'Boing. Boiing. Boiiing. Boiiing'. You can be quite expressive with a 20' perspex ruler, bouncing it on the edge of your desk at...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 19, 20238 min read
THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST
I may have mentioned that I was born into, grew up in, worked, and grew old in the aviation business and have been lucky to have...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 8, 20234 min read
Family History
My (maternal) grandfather was part of the army of occupation in the old Ottoman Empire after WWI. He survived the Western Front, and was...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 4, 20238 min read
ON THE BUSES
I'd had a pleasant afternoon of tea and hash with the Sufis of Damascus talking quantum mechanics and the unfixed nature of history, but...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 4, 202310 min read
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA
'The island-valley of Avilion, Where falls not hail or rain or any snow, Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies Deep-meadowed, happy,...
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nigelhillpaul6
Dec 4, 20236 min read
ENGLISH BOB
Far, far from the swagger of Monument Valley; far from the abstract patterns of Bryce, far from the twisted tortured sculptures of Zion...
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nigelhillpaul6
Nov 23, 20234 min read
CREATORS, CONQUERORS, & CITIZENS: A HISTORY OF ANCIENT GREECE – ROBIN WATERFIELD, OUP, 544pp, £25.00
I bought my first book on Greek history as a small boy in a second-hand bookshop in Saffron Walden. Those great nodding crests hooked me...
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nigelhillpaul6
Nov 23, 20234 min read
MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC SECTARIANISM – CHRISTINE D. BAKER Arc Humanities Press, 120pp, £11.95
My grandfather used to read a couple of pages from the Oxford English Dictionary every day throughout his retirement, telling anyone who...
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nigelhillpaul6
Nov 23, 20234 min read
The Emergence Of The English By Prof. S. Oosthuizen Arc Humanities Press £11.95
I tend to approach books like this with either a degree of trepidation or resignation. As a Welshman, I have had a lifetime of smiling...
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nigelhillpaul6
Nov 23, 20237 min read
THE THEODOSIAN WALLS pt. II 1-DEC-2016 (Published in Issue Seven of the Byzantine Times)
Well, we’ve had a chance for a bit of a break halfway along the Walls; there is after all, rather a lot of them to cover. A chance to...
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