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Posts from the ‘Expat UK’ category

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Thomas Buttersworth, "A Royal Navy brig chasing and engaging a well-armed pirate lugger"

Crooked Mary – Part One

“The year is 1798. The date, December the eighteenth. The notorious lugger Crooked Mary is sighted in the afternoon, and the message quickly carried from door to door. A run will take place after dark. All other activity stops. The run is the ultimate priority.” Part One – a story of smugglers off Scotland’s north-eastern coast.

Wick town centre

The Mirage of the North

“Wick is like a mirage, when you’ve been driving up the A9 for ever and ever. Just as you think maybe you’ll reach the end of the world and drop off the edge before you see civilisation again, the road straightens, and falls away slightly in front of you. And in the distance you see roofs and spires and towers floating on clouds.” Mike visits the Far North of the Scottish mainland to see the amazing floating town of Wick.

A silent spring

“It’s been an eerie week out in the countryside. The weather clamped down over the weekend and the first signs of Spring were quickly covered with a blanket of icy wet snow, chilled hard by a biting wind straight from Siberia…” Liz Butterfield describes the eerieness of a country in the grips of foot-and-mouth disease.

The O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome) in Greenwich, London

A Day at the Dome

“The Millennium Dome has caused a lot of controversy. First, it was the amount of taxpayers’ money that was spent on it; then the fact that it’s not easy for those living outside south-east England to visit; and then because it’s said to be a lot of hype and not worth the entrance fee. Or is it?” A day at the Millennium Dome (now the O2).