Earlier this month I reflected on drinking, and posed this question for anyone who still drinks beer or cider: how many pints is enough? The answer I offered, which is true for many questions: “it all depends”. Usually, the “two pint feeling” is good enough but there are times when you go further. The words… Continue reading A tale of two gallons
Robert FitzRoy (1805-1865) was a naval officer, captain of HMS Beagle for Darwin’s voyage to the southern hemisphere, and later an MP. He was also Governor of New Zealand and, later still, the “founding director of the Meteorological Office – the world’s first full-time professional weather forecaster”. That quote comes from the fly-leaf of my… Continue reading Word of the week: FitzRoy
Here’s a question for you, if you’re the kind of person who still drinks beer or cider: how many pints is enough? The answer for me, as with so many questions, is “it all depends”. About 15 years ago I would occasionally have a few drinks with an old work colleague, someone I had worked… Continue reading That two pint feeling
I have not driven on UK motorways much in recent years. I spend very little time outside the M25, London’s orbital motorway. In the early years of this century I went beyond its confines most weeks, on the M1, M11 and M40 in particular, travelling to places like Leeds, Cambridge, Oxford and Stratford-on-Avon. Soon after… Continue reading Norbert, Willi, Eddie
Tomorrow, 30 August, is the Feast of St Fiacre, a 7th century Irish saint. I am drafting these words in a hotel room in Kilkenny, before we relocate to Dublin for the next part of our Irish holiday. Fiacre is celebrated here this time of year at a place known as St Fiacre’s Well, a… Continue reading Word of the week: Fiacre
As a family we have started to watch “3rd Rock from the Sun” on More4, Channel 4’s free streaming service. It calls itself “the world’s biggest free streaming service”. I caught most episodes of this US sitcom when they were first broadcast, from 1996 onwards, and again on one of the comedy channels from around… Continue reading “Contains some outdated humour”
Earlier this month, 1966 was one of the featured years on an edition of BBC Radio 2’s “Pick of the Pops”. I’ll be specific: it was on Saturday 6 August, and the broadcast is available, here, until 6 September 2022. It’s well worth a listen. There are many highlights, including #1s by Small Faces (“All… Continue reading “Live my days, instead of counting my years”
The current UK prime minister is Boris Johnson, still, hanging in there until the election of the new leader of the Tory Party, who will become his successor in 10 Downing Street. That’s how it works these days, and the results should be in on 5 September. There are reports that Johnson is getting booed… Continue reading Word of the week: ponce
You may have heard the old expression, “The family that prays together stays together”. I had never heard of it when I came across this alternative take, the tagline to Roger Corman’s 1970 movie “Bloody Mama”: “The family that slays together stays together”. It was the kind of low-budget cult classic that played regularly at… Continue reading “The family that quizzes together …”
Loose threads, dead ends, unfinished stories. Welcome to my world, or more specifically welcome to the world of items on this Blog that need updating. The one that comes to mind right now is here (“Summer bodies are made in spring”). It recorded my first six weeks’ worth of trips to a local swimming pool,… Continue reading The £307 Swim
The Compartments 