A while back, a long while back, there were calls for Canada to boycott one of the Olympics. It could have been one of the Winter Olympics; Canada does better in them than in the Summer Games. Anyway, a Canadian contender was on the radio saying that there was no way the Government was going to stop her going to the Olympics. Fair enough, in a way. But only if she has repaid every penny of taxpayer money she's ever received in sports grants, etc. Then she's free to go for her dream of Olympic Gold.

A while back, a long while back, there were calls for Canada to boycott one of the Olympics. It could have been one of the Winter Olympics; Canada does better in them than in the Summer Games. Anyway, a Canadian contender was on the radio saying that there was no way the Government was going to stop her going to the Olympics. Fair enough, in a way. But only if she has repaid every penny of taxpayer money she's ever received in sports grants, etc. Then she's free to go for her dream of Olympic Gold.

I was appalled to learn that a Japanese campaign against nuclear weapons had won the Nobel Peace Prize. I mean, there can't be many people who are in favour of using nuclear weapons. Why single out this Japanese group? What the award does is validate the feeling in Japan that the country is a victim of the Second World War. Does no-one there look back to what happened before the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? The invasion of China, the mass rapes and murders committed by the Imperial Japanese Army? The prisoners of war and slave labourers worked to death building railways and working in the mines? Well, apparently the Japanese do. Army officer Masanobu Tsuji was actively involved in many of the worst atrocities. He even dined on the liver of a downed US airman. The Japanese elected him as an MP and put up a statue of him. What kind of people do that?

Well, it's the first blog of the year. And that means........ The Book of the Year is announced. There was a good crop of good 'uns in 2024 and it came close to having joint winners. Very close. The tie breaker between two very well written books proved to be whether a candid first hand account beat out a second-hand one in which the author did a great job of teasing the facts from the actual participants. If you want to find out the verdict, go to Book of the Year

I had to pass a driving test in the UK and again after I came to Canada. I sat my first test in Shetland. I remember there was only one long stretch of road in Lerwick which was regarded as safe for the Emergency Stop - pretty much outside the gates of the Gilbert Bain Hospital. There were only one or two places in town for the reversing around a corner. In Alberta there was no reversing around corners. Instead there was reversing into a parking spot in the space between two cars. In Shetland there were no roundabouts. But there was one outside the ferry terminal in Aberdeen. Eventually, due to the number of smashes involving Shetland drivers fresh off the boat, Shetland Islands Council built an unnecessary, at least from a traffic point of view, roundabout at the north end of Lerwick into the Gremista Industrial Estate. I would hope