Author: Eddie

Mornings, summer and winter always begin with a mug of green tea. Years ago it was espresso, then espresso with a cigarette and finally around 11 am, espresso with a sandwich and a cigarette. This continued until one day my stomach got really sore and my sister, a dietician spelled out the obvious. The pot

I am no stranger to being beaten up. Teenage years in Glenrothes, a Scottish Newtown took care of that. It was the 1970s; flared baggy trousers, Simon shirts, Glam rock and loads of gangs. And although nearly all the boys had long flicky hair it was a time when boys were boys and girls were

I really enjoyed reading Julie Rafalski’s last blog on the flagship site, Henningham Family Press. I liked how just one overheard word on the tube led to such a flow of information. The whole subject of how one writes or composes was foremost in my head yesterday as I tottered along Invalidenstrasse on a beautifully

ankuendigen – to announce achten – to respect anblicken – to look at aufarbeiten – to reappraise – to look at again……………………………………………….. Over the last few months I have been keeping a word book; noting down all the new German words I come across. Before the book, which is really 3 notebooks joined together to

On Friday I finished an 8 week block of German Language learning and with that my head for the first time in two months has begun to clear a little to formulate a few thoughts. Last year when I began to try and learn the German language I looked at a few course introductions on

 It has been a month of corners. I suppose it began with looking down the Landwehrkanal from the corner of Luetzowufer and Klingelhoefer Strasse and realising for the first time just how close the Bauhaus Archive building is to to Potsdammer Platz. Potsdammer Platz, during the inter-war years was the busiest crossroads in Europe. However

20 minutes later I’m off the train and breathing in the clear air of Kirkcaldy.  Years ago the place stank of Linoleum, the weird thing was that the whole of Britain seemed to know about it; at Leeds City Station in 1980, I was having my ticket checked by an elderly rail employee; he looked

I visited Scotland a couple of weeks ago. It was an early start from Berlin and as the plane juddered high above the Forth Estuary on approach to the Scottish capital, I hadn’t had a wink of sleep; the constant offering up of tea, luxury coffee, Panini’s, gambling and snacks (Snaarks),had seen to that. To

When I was 45 I moved to Berlin and overnight lost my voice. 7 months on, I consider myself to be in a very privileged place; floating between languages These bright summer mornings I wake up early to bird song and the sound of the odd car on the road. Both posess an international language;