This piece from the start of the year dealt with six different pubs called The Blue Posts, all within a mile of Piccadilly Circus here in London. I had just discovered that the one on Rupert Street, a regular haunt in the 1980s and 90s, had closed. A few times in the early months of… Continue reading A welcome return to the Blue Posts
More than once on these pages I have referred to the “movies by post” service that helped me to catch up with scores of films. Many of them were part of my “Oscars Project”, to watch all the major Academy Award winners of my lifetime (Best Picture, Best Director and the four awards for acting).… Continue reading Farewell LoveFilm
We are often told that London is a global city. People come from all over the world, to visit and to set up home here. If you travel on our public transport system or walk our streets you will hear scores of languages being spoken. As a Londoner I am happy about all this. I… Continue reading “Reporting anything unusual won’t hurt you”
At some point in the last 40 years the Casualty departments in UK hospitals were renamed as Accident and Emergency (or A&E). In the US A&E is known as ER (the Emergency Room). “Casualty” is a BBC1 series set in a hospital, broadcast on Saturday nights after “Strictly Come Dancing”. I have never seen a… Continue reading Urgent Care
Last night, courtesy of my son’s godmother Angela, I had a most enjoyable evening watching the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of “Coriolanus” at the Barbican. This means that I have now seen at least two different stage productions of every Shakespeare play. I make no apologies for making lists and crossing things off them, on… Continue reading “Coriolanus” and completing the set, twice
Last week (“Things we might never do again”) I mentioned a Quiz Night at my daughter’s primary school. It took place in October and was the last such event that I am likely to attend. She is due to move to secondary school (senior school or High School if you prefer) next September, so our… Continue reading Played 3, Won 3
Last weekend, at 1.35am on Sunday, BBC2 screened the little-known 1979 movie “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square”. I say “little-known” but at least 20 people know about it thanks to my efforts over the years. It was filmed all around the part of West London where I, and many of my friends, grew up,… Continue reading “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square”
Earlier this week while driving down the A40 to collect my son from school, through the tunnel under the Hanger Lane Gyratory and past the Hoover Factory, I spent five minutes or more behind a Portuguese truck. It had a sign on the back that read “Veiculo Longo”. It’s a phrase I have seen before,… Continue reading Veiculo Longo
Happy birthday to me, and also to singers Liam Gallagher, Faith Hill, Jason DeRulo and Corinne Drewery, West Indies cricket legends Curtly Ambrose and Chris Gayle, authors Stephen King and Shirley Conran, actor Bill Murray and BBC Radio 2 DJ Simon Mayo. I caught the start of Simon Mayo’s show just after 5pm this afternoon… Continue reading Birthday Musings 2017
Last night my son and I returned to the UK from our holiday in Spain. We landed at Southend Airport, or “London Southend Airport” as it is called. Like any airport within an hour of one of the capital’s mainline stations it has added the word London to its name. It took us an hour… Continue reading Holiday notes: London Southend Airport
The Compartments 