Newspapers

During my perambulations through the blogosphere I come across many unusual sites. Many of them are foreign newspapers, or English editions of foreign newspapers.

One I came across this afternoon piqued my interest, from Yemen; and I decided that some of these unusual newspapers could well be of interest to others.

A blog list on the front page (for the moment) will have these listed as I find them.

A Damned Good Read

The Gravel Farm is written by The Jules.

I've been wandering and wondering about the world now for over four decades, and think I'm starting to get to grips with it, at least as much as anyone else on the planet.

And...

Empowered by the undimmable glow of self-empowerment, I am a regular frequent blog neglecter endowed with literally some opinions and a ukulele habit that I could give up anytime. If I wanted.

The Jules is a family man and he writes brilliantly. He has been doing so to my knowledge for about four years, maybe more. His posts range from the mundane to the extraordinary, all with a unique touch of The Jules humour.

An example from his latest post.

I was particularly excited by the promise of this sign outside a farm park which suggested we could feed baby felines to cows:

Kittens! Pound a sack! Gerrem while they're mewling!

As it turned out, the kitten sale and animal feeding were separate entities.

Or from this older post called Snippet, a post about his vasectomy results

Dr: "So send us another sample, and we'll see what the results say now. Could just be a blip."

Me (Sighing): "Okay. I'll do one as soon as I've found the La Redoute catalogue."

Dr: "Good. Good. Oh and The Jules?"

Me: "Yes?"

Dr: "Could we ask you to use a specimen jar this time? Don't just send us a sock."

:
He doesn't shy away from the personal or embarrassing. He is irreverent and down to earth.

This is also a 'must read.'

Great Photography

All downhill from here

A kite in flight, nice story here too

Andrew is The Perpetrator, now most people have an About page, not Andrew.

"Shortly after my birth Harold Macmillan told the British people they’d never had it so good. I’m sure the events were connected." - Quote from The Perpetrator page.

That should give you an idea of the 'mind set'.

Some of his photos are brilliant, the rest are just great. Just look at the one of the kite, apparently eating a leftover cheeseburger... Well, he said that in the story.

He had the gall to capture this leaf

Actually, one of my favourite photos is the texture of a leaf covered in galls, another brilliant effort; and he complains that he should have upped the F stop a notch.

I'm more a point and hope type, I'm happy if a recognisable image appears. Actually, I do know about F stops and depth of field and stuff, learned it all as a youngster, which is why I like good photography blogs and hence the appearance of this one.

His latest post is a wonderful set, actually three sets, of wading birds.

If you like great photos then go visit.

Another New Handcraft Blog

Such Pretty Canvas

An example from her blog

I have had just a brief look through this blog, but gleaned sufficient to tell me that it belongs here.

Shahrul Niza is from Malaysia and this is her intro:

... I write about my artsy journey, random notes on my beloved cats, flea market junking adventures and my LOVE of all things creative.

 Her step by step posts are well documented with great photos.

An added plus is that she has a big list of other craft blogs on her sidebar

Library 2

Finally, I have got around to making Library 2.

Library 1, will now have the title of Humanities and be people orientated

Library 2 will be Arts, and as such, Handcraft Blogs and Photography Blogs have been moved over there.

Library 3 is the next project...

An Ex-pat in Indonesia

Lottie Nevin

An account of my life in Indonesia

There that about says it all, doesn't it? Except that it's a well written and very interesting blog by an ex-pat.

Fish Market post

"I’m Lottie and I’ve been living in Indonesia for just over a year. In a previous life I lived and worked in London. I’m half Dutch and half English. I am not a writer, but I love to communicate and so I started this blog primarily as a way of keeping my 5 children... "

"What I hadn’t reckoned on was that others might want to read about what we are getting up to as well. As the weeks and months go by, it’s been very encouraging to gain followers and have people comment. I now follow lots of other blogs too and have consequently discovered the joys of blogging in every sense."

There's a couple of quotes from her 'About' page. 

The subjects that she writes on are many and varied. The one that tickled my fancy initially was called Frightfully British, but I have since read Phish Food, A Chance Encounter with a Penis (I said many and varied), Two Husbands and a Spectacular Waterfall, Curl Up and Dye and Oh My Giddy Aunt! All are great stories and most are liberally sprinkled with great photos... ah except the 'penis' one.

And a quote from a post:

"As it turned out the highlight of my visit to Ulun Danu was not in fact the temple itself, but an extremely diminutive Japanese woman who, when walking past me, let out the most impressive fart that I have EVER heard in my life. Seriously Folks, this fart was not just any old fart, this fart was the LOUDEST and LONGEST I have ever heard. Of course I have never farted in my life, but if I were too, this lady would be an extremely hard act to follow. How anyone so petito could make that amount of noise for so long I have no idea. This was a record breaker and I was mightily impressed."

Never have I heard a fart described so eloquently.

This blog is a 'must visit.'   

For the Photographers

jukkatolppi photography a very simple blog as far as design goes, but the photography is brilliant.

As you can see, simple ideas captured beautifully.

Brilliant Handcrafts

Here's a sample

Altered Alchemy is a brilliant blog. I have known the author and crafter for some years; although, with the Google fiasco of my Blogspot blogs and account all disappearing, we lost contact.

Yesterday I found her blog again. It's changed, the style of her blog is wonderful, but her craft seems to have matured, it's awesome.

Luthien Thye is a truly remarkable person, which is reflected in her skills, a far cry from beginning life as a professional.

I can only suggest that you have a look and judge for yourself.

Ex-pat in Rio de Janeiro

Eat Rio is a great look at Rio de Janeiro from an Englishman's point of view.

Melzinho, literally 'little honey' image: Eat Rio

I am an ex-pat in Rio, but I look from a different angle and I find Tom's view refreshingly informative about life in this city of 12 million people. He talks about small things that I have overlooked like melzinho and how important it is on long journeys.

Blurb from his 'about': My name is Tom Le Mesurier. Originally from England, I travelled around quite a bit and am now settled in Rio. I enjoy food, drink and over-indulgence of all kinds.

If you want a good read, then definitely check this one out.

A New, but Prolific Blogger

Fractal Tree

Tony's Posts of Hypnotic Suggestion is a new blog, by admission in his latest post only 29 weeks old; in fact he hadn't read a blog until three months ago. All of which makes the quality of his posts even more dramatic. The posts are long, thoughtful and well worded, but appear to have a level of spontaneity about them.

The posts are varied, not doing random, red wine hiccups, Cataluña, Quantum Determinism, gate-crashing cells, slaps in the face by wet kippers and many other unique topics; all of which keep you wanting to read more.

In fact I am, at the moment, at a loss as to how to characterise this blog, what heading to put it under. But don't worry, that'll come to me.

As Tony is such a new blogger, this is the ideal place to welcome him to the blogosphere. While the Cafe is still in its infancy, my previous blog had quite a good readership, I am hopeful this version will attract a similar following and therefore add more readers to the blogs presented.

I've decided to park it under Niche Blogs in Library 1 at the moment.

Two Travel Blogs

The first is An Englishman in Italy, An Englishman, his Sicilian wife and an Italian / English Dictionary, which is all pretty self explanatory.

His last two posts are on Marmite, a challenge issued by the next blogger and a Red Cross parcel from Blighty that has all the necessary items for an Englishman to surive. I wish someone would send me one of those...

You will also find things like this:

His first attempt at growing wine trees.

The next blog, I'm not sure if they are ex-pats yet, but describes the adventures in buying a home away from Blighty.






Our Adventure in Croatia

"Having lived most of our lives in a chaotic, cosmopolitan, exciting, attractive, great European capital city like London, we often wondered what if we could own a property abroad, where we could spend lots of holidays and “quality time” in a warmer climate, where the sky is not always grey and overcast." - From the About page.

Stories cover adventures with policemen, taxi drivers and Google's street view car, so there's plenty to read here. 

That's their house, the one with the red shutters and the washing outside.

Both blogs well worth reading. 

A blog about drinks

boydrinksworld is a blog about drinks. It's an in depth look at all sorts, well written and often humurous. It looks at drinks from the side, the side we don't often think about.

"Gentlemen of a century ago expressed their identity through the gentlemanly arts.  Drinking and making cocktails for friends is to me part and parcel of the expressing the gentlemanly arts."

If you like foodie photos

Cool blog found.

BunnyandPorkBelly

life is always sweeter and yummier through a lens

Lots of food and restaurant photos from around the Boston area, and some further afield. The photos are quality, according to Bunny, not always the food.

One of her fab photos from Sushi Island...

Image credit: bunnyandporkbelly

What a Young Schoolgirl can Achieve

This is a blog that came to my attention some months back.

NeverSeconds

Martha photographing her airline fare to post on the blog

Martha Payne is a schoolgirl from Scotland. Her blog became an international attention getter when the local council banned her from taking photos of her school lunches and posting them, along with a critique, on her blog. The council was so embarrassed by their own pettiness, that they were forced to retract the ban in the face of international pressure.

As a result of the publicity, Martha's original target of raising a few thousand for Mary' Meals, a meal charity providing school lunches in Malawi, exploded. The donations topped  £100,000, the latest BBC News article is the aftermath. Martha went to Malawi to see how the money was being used.

India Update, a new blog added

This blog takes a jaded look at events in India, a swipe at Indian politics and gives the upper classes a backhander.

Well worth reading.

India Update

"Many physicists today postulate the existence of multiple universes, even when sober. We used to live in a world of infinite possibilities. Now we live in an infinite number of worlds. India shines. Democracy thrives. The economy booms. A hundred flyovers bloom. This is not that India. If you see your picture here one day, don’t worry. That’s not you."

I found a blog

I have found a blog worthy of inclusion. It's a strange blog, rather a niche-type called toemail.

Toes from Greece

"Hi and welcome to toemail! We are Quillan and Angela and we started this blog in 2010 after deciding it might be fun to do a mail-in photo blog. We look forward to hearing from you!

toemail is a collaborative photography project featuring original photographs of toes of both genders, from the newborn to the elderly, photographed at outdoor or indoor locations around the globe.

toemail makes the world a better place one foot at a time."

The current posts include photos from New Zealand, Brazil and Croatia. You'll have to check for further afield; who knows, you may have a "toe" photo to add yourself.