Grateful 52

country lane wth fields of sunflowers on either side

2024 Grateful 21: Buying distance

I flew into Budapest late one afternoon. The sensible thing would have been to stay overnight in the city and get the train down to

Wooden shelf on which sits a wooden loaf of bread - writing on the wall reads; vzemi, gospod, in sprejmi

2024 Grateful 22: Spiritual Uplift

Months ago, himself was invited to visit the Jesuits in Ljubljana on the feast of St Ignatius of Loyola. They were launching the Slovenian translation

hand holding a drawing of a stick family - woman, man, and two children

2024 Grateful 23: A man called Ove

I’ve only recently discovered the brilliant Swedish author Fredrik Backman. Were I in charge of the world, I’d make his book – A Man Called

Duck with stunning blue feathers standing on a rock looking down into the water

2024 Grateful 24: Life while you wait

I can’t remember ever living a day when I didn’t stop at least once and wonder at my ignorance. Sometimes, this ignorance is of the

2024 Grateful 25: Change

It’s hard to believe that there are people out there who reckon climate change is a load of old codswallop. Jeremy Shapiro has an interesting

Open white envelope with a blue can inside on which is written the word SPAM in yellow

2024 Grateful 26: Spam

Three blogs. Three times more likely to attract spam comments. Somedays, I take a little time to figure out why they chose that particular post

Photo of a greeting card - white, with a green leaf imprint and the words 'While the rest of the world carries on as though nothing has happened, remember that others know your world will never be the same."

2024 Grateful 27: Condolences

In the last year or so, I’ve made note of a few things I won’t be saying again. Things I used to say with abandon.

Cartoon of a girl sitting behind a boy in a classroom, each holding up a sheet of paper. Caption says: Questions number one

2024 Grateful 28: Questions

Dead people have populated my dreams of late, friends and relatives who have crossed over into the next life. There’s a randomness to it. They

2024 Grateful 29: Time Travel

Somewhere recently, with someone, the conversation of time travel came up. They spoke about how travel into the future might technically be possible, given the

2024 Grateful 30:

I went to visit my dad today. I brought him roses from his garden. I think he’d have liked that. We didn’t talk much. He

Book reviews (51)
Budapest (605)
- Budapest Times articles (318)
- Reviews (187)
- The flat (34)
Hungary (120)
Ireland (86)
Markets (12)
Obituaries (2)
Random thoughts (926)
- 2025 Grateful 52 (12)
- Grateful 52 (667)
  - 2013 Grateful 52 (53)
  - 2014 Grateful 52 (53)
  - 2015 Grateful 52 (53)
  - 2016 Grateful 52 (49)
  - 2017 Grateful 52 (50)
  - 2018 Grateful 52 (50)
  - 2019 Grateful 52 (49)
  - 2020 Grateful 52 (52)
  - 2021 Grateful 52 (50)
  - 2022 Grateful 52 (53)
  - 2023 Grateful 52 (51)
  - 2024 Grateful 52 (52)
Uncategorised (4)
Village life (111)