Beyond The Pail

 

This photograph was never intended to be a great picture... it was more of a note of how the Arethusa Spring on Ithaca looks.

But it has just taken on a new significance.

A reader in Key West, Florida, who saw my article in The Guardian on walking in the footsteps of Telemachus, got in touch to say he had hiked to the spring three decades ago... and left a bucket there for hauling up water.

I sent him a copy of this picture and he confirmed that the rusty bucket in the foreground looks like it's his.

Unfortunately, both his rusty bucket and the slightly less rusty one are no longer fit for hauling up water.

So maybe someone needs to take a new one up there...

If you fancy doing it, Walking In The Footsteps Of Odysseus – A Practical Guide To The Homeric Paths Of Ithaca, the book I worked on with author Jane Cochrane, may be helpful. Details at www.janeocochrane.co.uk.

How Journalism Works

I'd better declare my interest at the beginning...

Some time ago, when I was writing a music column for an evening paper, I received an advance copy of Waterloo by Abba. This was prior to their Eurovision appearance and I had no idea who they were. My review simply stated that this was without doubt a number one hit record. 

The rest is history... two master composers, two great singers, a band that rivalled the Beatles in producing pop music with universal appeal. What's not to like?

Abba's recent return has been a general cause of excitement. But today the Telegraph carries a piece by someone called Ed Power, basically using several hundred words to sneer at Abba for saying they won't be doing any more after their comeback album and ongoing hi-tech London stage show.

Ed Power suggests that this may be because their new music isn't very good – and that's why they are not contemplating doing proper concerts. The more likely reason why two divorced couples in their seventies (who now have completely different lives) might not want to go out on the road together seems to have escaped Ed Power. As has the fact that they possibly have nothing left to prove.

Strangely, exactly two weeks ago, someone called Ed Power wrote a lengthy positive puff piece for the new Abba show and album in the Telegraph.

What happened in between? Abba gave an exclusive interview to the Guardian...