A reflection on computer hardware and software stretching back 35 years. Most of it is still in my possession. I bought my first PC (“personal computer”) in 1988, over 35 years ago. It was an Amstrad PC1640, the first IBM compatible PC for sale here in the UK for under £1,000. (It was not the… Continue reading My Computer Museum, Part 1: The Amstrad PC1640
4 April 1980, 43 years ago today, was a Good Friday. My mother and I took our usual trip to Woolworth’s for Easter eggs, and a local bakery for hot cross buns. Attempting to cross the High Road, I was hit by a car and thrown several feet into the air. I wrote about it… Continue reading “You won’t get much for 50p”
Every now then, on these pages, I reflect on the fortunes of Leeds United FC, the club that I have supported since childhood. This season is not going well. At the start of the club’s most recent fixture Leeds sat in the relegation zone, 19th in the table, one place above Southampton at the bottom.… Continue reading A weekend not worrying about football
The clocks went forward in the early hours of yesterday. Our first experience of British Summer Time this year was a cold and wet West London morning but things had cleared by evening. It stayed light until after 7.30pm, as it will do for many months to come. We still have plenty of clocks and… Continue reading What I think of when the clocks go forward
For the first time in just over two years I am up-to-date with Oscar winners, so the following paragraph from my Projects Menu is still true: I have seen every major Oscar-winning movie going back to 1947. By “major” Oscar winner I mean every movie that has won at least one of the following: Best… Continue reading Up-to-date with Oscar winners again
Back in 2016, in this piece, I offered advice about where to get shamrock in Central London on St Patrick’s Day: St Patrick’s Catholic Church in Soho Square. In recent years this advice probably did not apply (lockdown and all that) but this year it has, once again, been valid. But there has been a… Continue reading The price of shamrock in 2023
Well, this is a treat: Theatricalia.com, “a database of past and future theatre productions.”, a kind of IMDb for UK theatre. It lists actors, directors, productions and places, and has provided me with information that I hadn’t been able to find elsewhere. It doesn’t appear to be as complete as IMDb, which has been owned… Continue reading Word of the week: Theatricalia
I have been thinking recently of the two members of my family who made it past their 90th birthdays. My mother’s sister died in 2019, aged 91. I wrote this piece, about decompression, on the way to her funeral in Dun Laoghaire. My oldest relative by marriage, who we knew as Uncle Mido, was married… Continue reading “Better’n steak, boy, better’n steak”
You might well have heard of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). You might have read, and understood, his major work, “The Critique of Pure Reason”. I tried to, as part of a political philosophy paper at university, but most of what I wrote in that week’s essay came from HJ Paton’s book “The Moral… Continue reading Word of the Week: Kant
Here is the latest collection of photos related to “The 4-Ring Man”, an idea originally covered in this piece from 2018. We are dealing here with what remains when you drink a pint of beer (usually Guinness), along with examples of how we deal with empty crisp packets. Below are links to five other pieces… Continue reading The 4-Ring Man, in pictures (Part 6, July 2022–November 2022)
The Compartments 