So here I am a 16-year-old having breakfast at the Royal Belfast Hotel. I am sure I must look like some ratty orphaned child as I eat from silverware. Oliver Twist looking for Fagan! I love that they bring toast in a silver rack covered by a napkin to keep it warm. The staff IContinue reading ““Travels to a Different Time” : 10August1972: Belfast, Ardrossan, Edinburgh and Unusual Security Issues in Belfast: Missed Bloody Friday by Three Weeks”
Author Archives: Robert K Stephen (CSW)
RKS Wine: North Coast California Dough Cabernet Sauvignon: How a State Monopoly for Liquor Distribution Mocks Us
You may have seen wine “on sale” at your LCBO. Sale most often means a whopping and quite frankly insulting $1.00 or $2.00 discount. Wow! Shiver me timbers! Then the roof gets blown off “a la State Monopoly” with manager discounts that can be as high as 30%. Beyond 30% seems a place no liquorContinue reading “RKS Wine: North Coast California Dough Cabernet Sauvignon: How a State Monopoly for Liquor Distribution Mocks Us”
Dylan’s Passage of the Day: Meditation and Non-Doing
“Meditation is synonymous with the practice of non-doing. We aren’t practicing to make things perfect or to do things perfectly. Rather we practice to grasp and realize (make real for ourselves) the facts that things are already perfect, perfectly what they are. This has everything to do with holding the present moment in its fullnessContinue reading “Dylan’s Passage of the Day: Meditation and Non-Doing”
“Travels to a Different Time” :9August1972: Thoughts on Dublin: Bloody Remains of Blown Up Terrorist, Rubber Bullets and Screaming Mob: Welcome to Northern Ireland
In a way I am regretting my coin toss in Paris that sent me northward. What has it revealed? Awful accommodations, hair lice, great breakfasts, great beer, fish and chips in newspaper and more or less friendly people. But the air and the smells are different than southern Europe. Dublin is a cold city inContinue reading ““Travels to a Different Time” :9August1972: Thoughts on Dublin: Bloody Remains of Blown Up Terrorist, Rubber Bullets and Screaming Mob: Welcome to Northern Ireland”
Dylan’s Passage of The Day: Shut Up the Voices in Your Head and Try Just To Breathe and Concentrate on Your Breath: Sounds Easy But it May Take Months To Be Able To Do It!
“To use your breathing to nurture mindfulness, just tune into the feeling of it….the feeling of the breath coming into your body and the feeling of the breath leaving your body. That’s all. Just feeling the breath. Breathing and knowing that you you’re breathing. That does not mean deep breathing or forcing your breathing orContinue reading “Dylan’s Passage of The Day: Shut Up the Voices in Your Head and Try Just To Breathe and Concentrate on Your Breath: Sounds Easy But it May Take Months To Be Able To Do It!”
“Travels to a Different Time” : 7August1972: Newhaven to London: London to Holyhead
Steve and Mike had hardboiled eggs which we ate for breakfast as well as a pint (of milk). We spent the morning walking the cliffs of Newhaven and looking at the pillboxes facing the ocean. I hitched to London which took me three hours. My last lift was with a lawyer named Jim who apologizedContinue reading ““Travels to a Different Time” : 7August1972: Newhaven to London: London to Holyhead”
“Travels to a Different Time” : 6August1972: Paris, Dieppe and Newhaven: Right into a Pub after Arriving in England: Driving Too Fast With a Man With a Toothache
Up early knowing a long day of travel. Do I head south through France to Spain or head north to England and Scotland home of my ancestors? I did a coin toss and fate has determined north I go. I took the Paris Metro as far north as I could and that left 180 kilometresContinue reading ““Travels to a Different Time” : 6August1972: Paris, Dieppe and Newhaven: Right into a Pub after Arriving in England: Driving Too Fast With a Man With a Toothache”
“Travels to A Different Time” : 5August1972: Last Day in Paris and the Bugs in My Bed? Rats Nibbling at My Toes
It is my last full day in Paris and I am heading North to England tomorrow. I must have walked 10 miles today and managed to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre with only two people looking at it with me. Then to the Eiffel Tower swarming with tourists the bane of my existence.Continue reading ““Travels to A Different Time” : 5August1972: Last Day in Paris and the Bugs in My Bed? Rats Nibbling at My Toes”
RKS Wine: Ranch 32 Cabernet Sauvignon: Dump and Run
I am unsure how this wine ever reached the shelves of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. Aroma: Smells like wine. What grapes? Hard to tell.Taste: Tastes like wine and poor quality at that. Not any shred of fruit.Conclusion: Do not purchase. If purchased return for refund or dump and run. (Ranch 32 2019 CabernetContinue reading “RKS Wine: Ranch 32 Cabernet Sauvignon: Dump and Run”
RKS Film: “Flee the Light”: Witchcraft and Possession Horror Genre
I suppose if you are an aficionado of horror films and have seen them all you might be sophisticated enough you can create a whole list of horror subgenres. With “Flee the Light” you will be introduced to the Witchcraft and Possession subgenre. Horror has become a more sophisticated game than the 1958 film “TheContinue reading “RKS Film: “Flee the Light”: Witchcraft and Possession Horror Genre”
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 