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
On Boxing Day last year (or St Stephen’s Day, the name more commonly used in Ireland) my brother, my 12-year-old son and I undertook a pub crawl in our corner of West London. Friends joined us for parts of our journey and the whole afternoon was described in this piece from the time. The event… Continue reading Holiday notes: a Spanish pub crawl, of sorts
The new football season is nearly upon us. This weekend my wife and daughter will be off to Wembley for the Community Shield between Arsenal and Chelsea and I’ll be deciding whether to watch the Leeds United game (away at Bolton) in a pub or on NOW TV, as I did on the opening weekend… Continue reading The New Trivia Season
This piece, from exactly a year ago, describes how I learnt about two of the architects from the Gilbert Scott family, or maybe that should say “the Gilbert Scott dynasty”. This obituary for Richard Gilbert Scott, who died last month aged 93, says that he “represented the fourth generation of England’s greatest architectural dynasty”. A… Continue reading Chatsworth and Devonshire
Conjunctivitis, also known as pinkeye, or pink eye, is an “inflammation of the conjunctiva”. The conjunctiva is “the mucous membrane that lines the exposed portion of the eyeball and inner surface of the eyelids”. Dictionary.com just told me this, in the definitions here and here. I am currently recovering from conjunctivitis, the second time in… Continue reading Word of the week: conjunctivitis
One of my favourite sights is rays of sunshine breaking through clouds. You see it surprisingly rarely, even though we have cloud and sunshine most days in the UK. The effect is copied in iconic buildings like St Peter’s Basilica in Rome and Grand Central Station New York. You can see beams of light work… Continue reading Rays of sunshine
My sleep patterns are flexible, much more so than when I was younger. I wrote about it last year in this piece, “Usually I’m Anthony Trollope, but not this week”. I am capable of staying up till 3am, or going to bed before 9pm and waking up between 3 and 4am. These days I’m usually… Continue reading Cup Final Foolishness
Five years ago I was involved with a Quiz Night at my children’s primary school and put together a round called Dead Pubs of Chiswick. People still say nice things to me about it. It was a bit of fun, and that’s one of my two criteria for a successful quiz round. I took photos… Continue reading Dead Pubs of West London
Two weeks ago I took my 12-year-old son into town for Record Store Day. We took rather a long time to leave the house. If we had been more organized we might have seen some live music at Rough Trade, or Rough Trade West as it’s now called, near Portobello Road. That’s where he saw… Continue reading Album shopping on a Saturday afternoon
For many years I have described myself as “plant-blind”. Apart from a few very obvious exceptions, like daffodils and monkey-puzzle trees, I do not recognize the majority of plant species. If a tree has actual fruit on it (like plums, apples or pears) I can identify it, but when the fruit has all gone it’s… Continue reading Cherry blossom and wisteria
