On cities
Well, nowt much has happened since my last post. I've been really busy at work and haven't managed to write much. However, everything being grist to the old mill, I suppose it's worthwhile to point out that I've done quite a bit of travelling, including a trip to a place I've always wanted to visit: magnificent Vienna. I really love the 'flavour' of great cities. You get this in London and Edinburgh, but on the whole I find British cities rather generic. With their identical high street stores crowding out places of genuine and unique interest, there's only a handful that survive the merciless prevalence of Big Business. Elsewhere, however, the situation's different . . . or perhaps *feels* different. In Seville or Stockholm or indeed Vienna, there's a sense of the soul of the places being allowed to breathe. Maybe that's because I'm not quite so attuned to the high street logos of foreign companies (except for the universal, the ubiquito...