15th October: Virgil

Virgil was born on this date in 70BC. He was the Classical Roman poet who wrote the Aeneid.

1. They succeed, because they think they can.
2. Time flies never to be recalled.
3. Every calamity is to be overcome by endurance.
4. Fortune favours the bold.
5. The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts.
6. Do not yield to misfortunes, but advance more boldly to meet them, as your fortune permits you.
7. Happy the man who has been able to learn the causes of things.
8. Wherever the fates lead us let us follow.
9. The medicine increases the disease.
10. Even virtue is fairer when it appears in a beautiful person.

14th October: Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield was born on this date in 1888. Here are 10 quotes:

1. Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.
2. I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing.
3. Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different.
4. I imagine I was always writing. Twaddle it was too. But better far write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all.
5. I want to be all that I am capable of becoming.
6. The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.
7. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.
8. I'm a writer first and a woman after.
9. Would you not like to try all sorts of lives - one is so very small - but that is the satisfaction of writing - one can impersonate so many people.
10. Life never becomes a habit to me. It's always a marvel.

13th October: Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher was born on this date in 1925. She would have been 90 today. Love her or hate her, she certainly made history. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is the only woman to have held the office. Update: until Teresa May.

1. At school, she was a hard worker and her extracurricular activities included the Piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking. She was head girl in 1942–1943.
2. She applied for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, but she was initially rejected and was offered a place only after another candidate withdrew. She graduated in 1947 with Second-Class Honours in the four-year Chemistry Bachelor of Science degree, specialising in X-ray crystallography.
3. Being the first Prime Minister with a science degree was more a source of pride than being the first woman Prime Minister in her eyes.
4. In 1948 she applied for a job at ICI, but was rejected after the personnel department assessed her as "headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated".
5. One of her University friends was also a friend of the Chair of the Dartford Conservative Association in Kent, which led to her being selected as the Conservative candidate for Dartford, a safe Labour seat. Officials were so impressed by her that they chose her even though she wasn't on the approved list. It was at the dinner celebrating her selection that she first met Denis Thatcher, a wealthy divorced businessman. He gave her a lift to the train station afterwards.
6. While campaigning in Dartford, her day job was research chemist for J. Lyons and Co. in Hammersmith, part of a team developing emulsifiers for Ice cream.
7. Thatcher's maiden speech was in support of her private member's bill (Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960), requiring local authorities to hold their council meetings in public.
8. In 1970, people were already predicting that Margaret Thatcher would be Prime Minister one day. She didn't share their opinion, and said, "There will not be a woman prime minister in my lifetime—the male population is too prejudiced."
9. In February 2007, Thatcher became the first living British Prime Minister to be honoured with a statue in the Houses of Parliament. The bronze statue stands opposite that of Sir Winston Churchill. Thatcher was at the unveiling ceremony and made a brief speech saying: "I might have preferred Iron — but bronze will do ... It won't rust."
10. Margaret Thatcher had her own coat of arms, granted to her when she became a baroness. It features two Lions, a key, a portcullis, a navy admiral and Sir Isaac Newton. The motto is "Cherish Freedom".

12th October: National Day of Spain

Today is Spain's national day, so here are 10 things you might not know about Spain:

1. No-one knows for sure where the name Spain came from, but theories have included Phoenician for “the hidden land” or Carthaginian “land of the Rabbits”.
2. The origins of the name of the capital city, Madrid, are better documented. It was called Ursaria (“land of Bears”) by the Romans because of the many bears in the area. During the Arabic occupation of Spain, it was called Magerit, which means “place of abundant water”.
3. The physical centre of Spain is in Madrid. It's marked by a plaza, The Puerta del Sol (“Gate of the Sun”) is marked as Km 0 for the Spanish radial road network.
4. Spain also includes the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, the Chafarinas Islands and Alhucemas, the peninsula of Vélez de la Gomera and the isle of Alborán.
5. Spain is home to the most valuable sports team in the world, football team Real Madrid. Their annual revenue is $650m and their brand value is $3.3 billion. The third most valuable team also comes from Spain - Barcelona, with a value of $2.6 billion.
6. Spain is famous for its explorers. Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (1499-1543) discovered California. Spanish sailor Gabriel de Castilla (1577-1620) became the first man ever to see Antarctica. Spanish sailor Juan Sebastián Elcano (1476-1526) was the first man to circumnavigate the world. Christopher Columbus was Italian, but the Spanish financed his voyages.
7. The quill pen is thought to have originated in Spain about 1,400 years ago. Other Spanish inventions include the diving bell, the mop, and a Spanish sailor and engineer, Isaac Peral, designed the first fully operative military Submarine. Spanish surgeon and scientist Miguel Servet was the first European to describe pulmonary circulation.
8. People in Spain have two surnames, one from their mother and one from their father.
9. The oldest known cave painting is found in the Cave of El Castillo in northern Spain. There researchers have found a faint red dot there that is thought to be over 40,000 years old.
10. Spain is also known for its weird festivals. On St. Fermin’s Day in July in the northern town of Pamplona, over 1 million people attend the Running of the Bulls festival. On the last Wednesday of August in the town of Buñol, outside of Valencia, La Tomatina, or “The World’s Biggest Food Fight” takes place, basically crowds of people lobbing Tomatoes at each other. Over 150,000 tomatoes are thrown. In Las Nieves, in Galicia there is a festival held in honour of Saint Marta de Ribarteme, the Patron Saint of resurrection. People who have had a near death experience celebrate Mass, but they are expected arrive carrying, or being carried in, a coffin. Finally, in Castrillo de Murcia on the feast of Corpus Christi, all the babies born within the previous year are laid on mattresses in the street so that men, dressed as devils, can jump over them, to protect them from evil spirits in later life.

My Books

As well as this blog, I also write fiction and have published two novels (Death and Faxes and Glastonbury Swan) and a collection of short stories (Jigsaw). If you like ghost stories, crime stories, a bit of romance and anything slightly bizarre you might enjoy them. 

Further details on my books page

11th October: Roman New Wine Festival

In ancient Rome today was the Meditrina - a festival celebrating new wine. So here are 10 facts you may not know about wine.

1. Even though the Romans liked their wine enough to have a wine festival, women at that time were not allowed to touch it. If a man caught his wife drinking wine it was grounds for divorce - he would even be legally allowed to kill her.
2. The custom of bumping glasses together before you drink originated in ancient Rome. Bumping glasses made the drink spill from one glass to the other, so it was a way of making sure your host was not trying to poison you.
3. One bottle of wine contains about 1.27kg of Grapes.
4. European wines are named after their geographic locations (e.g., Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot and Bordeaux) while non-European wines (e.g., Pinot Noir and Merlot) are named after different grape varieties.
5. Plato argued that the minimum drinking age should be 18; wine in should be drunk in moderation until 31. When a man reaches 40, he may drink as much as he wants to cure the “crabbedness of old age.”
6. In the Old Testament of the Bible, wine is mentioned in every book except the book of Jonah.
7. The world’s oldest bottle of wine dates to A.D. 325 and was found near the town of Speyer, Germany, inside one of two Roman sarcophaguses. It is on display at the town’s Historisches Museum der Pfalz.
8. A fear or intense hatred of wine is called oenophobia.
9. Up until the 17th century in England, wine was kept in Goat skins. It was a Catholic polymath and diplomat called Sir Kenelm Digby who came up with the idea of putting it in dark green glass bottles.
10. The Romans discovered that mixing Lead with wine helped preserve it, and also gave it a sweet taste. Chronic lead poisoning has often been cited as one of the causes of the decline of Rome.

10 October: Fiji Independence Day

Fiji's Independence from the UK happened on this date in 1970. Here are 10 things you might not know about Fiji:

1. Fiji consists of over 332 islands. 110 are permanently inhabited. There are more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi). It has 702 miles of coastline. The two biggest islands are Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. 87% of the population lives on these two islands.
2. According to Fijian mythology, Fiji's history began in 1500 BC when giant war canoes arrived from Taganika north of Egypt, carrying Chief Lutunasobasoba and treasure from King Solomon's Temple of in Judah, including a box called the "Kato," meaning case, and "Mana," meaning Magic, which in Fijian translates to "Box of Blessings." The box fell into the sea in the Mamnuca islands, and Lutunasobasoba gave the command not to retrieve it, but his General Degei went back later and tried. He didn't get the box, but did retrieve a large diamond from outside the box. He was immediately cursed and transformed into a Snake with a diamond on his head for all eternity and is trapped in an ocean cave in Sawa-i-lau in the Yasawas. Fijians believe the box is still on the sea bed between Likuliku and Mana and has brought great blessings to the area's villages.
3. Vitu Levu has both the capital city, Suva, and the highest point, Mount Tomanivi at 4,344 feet/1324 metres.
4. The International Date Line runs through Fiji’s island of Taveuni, so there is a spot where you can have one foot in today and one in yesterday.
5. In Fijian villages, only the chief is allowed to wear a hat or Sunglasses, because the top of the head is sacred and mustn't be touched.
6. The people of Fiji are friendly, welcoming and peaceful now, but up until the 19th century it was a different story. They used to be cannibals. Part of their war tradition involved cooking up the bodies of enemies slain in battle, and eating them at festivals, such as the installation of chiefs or the launching of a great canoe. The last victim of cannibalism in Fiji was a missionary, the Reverend Thomas Baker in 1867. He accidentally touched the chief's head, which to the villagers, amounted to a declaration of war. All that was left of him was his Shoe, which is on display in a museum in Fiji. In 2003, the tribe responsible for eating the Reverend Baker apologised to his family.
7. Boiled Bat is a delicacy in Fiji so perhaps the only person who need worry about being eaten there now is Batman!
8. Fiji has 28 airports, but only four of them have paved runways.
9. The term Fijian refers only to the indigenous people - citizens of Fiji are officially known as Fiji Islanders or Fiji Nationals. Only 54% of the population is Fijian. Another large group is people of Indian descent who make up 40%. These people are descended from the Indian servants the British brought with them in the 19th century.
10. On  New Year's Eve, Fiji village women play a team game called veicaqemoli, or “kick the Orange”. The winners are required to give the losers gifts of new clothes.

9th October: Uganda Independence Day

Uganda became Independent from the UK on this date in 1962.

1. Uganda got its name from the kingdom of Buganda which covered the south of present day Uganda. This name means “bundles”.
2. The capital city, Kampala, was originally a hunting reserve which was home to several species of antelope, particularly impala. When the British arrived, they called it "Hills of the Impala".
3. Uganda has a very young population. With a median age of 15 years, it is the lowest median age in the world. Nearly half of the population is under the age of 15.
4. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda is home to approximately half of the world's population of Mountain Gorillas.
5. Women's clothing is conservative. Skimpy clothing is frowned upon, and in Uganda, a skirt that doesn't reach the ankles is deemed to be skimpy.
6. English, inherited from the colonial period, and Swahili are the official languages.
7. On the Flag, the horizontal bands of Black at the top represent the African people, Yellow represents sunshine and vitality and red represents African brotherhood. The crested crane is the national bird.
8. There is a law in Uganda which says that if you cut down a tree you must plant three more.
9. Uganda's lowest point is Lake Albert at 620 metres (2,030 ft), and the highest point is Margherita Peak on Mount Stanley 5,111 metres (16,768 ft).
10. Ugandan athlete John Akii-Bua invented the victory lap. After winning gold in the 400m at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games – the first time an African had won gold in an event under 800m – a spectator handed him a Ugandan flag. He was so overwhelmed with joy he ran around the track waving it, starting a new sporting tradition.

My Books

As well as this blog, I also write fiction and have published two novels (Death and Faxes and Glastonbury Swan) and a collection of short stories (Jigsaw). If you like ghost stories, crime stories, a bit of romance and anything slightly bizarre you might enjoy them. 

Further details on my books page