Recently we dug out our old poster showing the flags of the world. It’s titled “World of Flags”. I bought it four years ago, ostensibly for the children (who were aged 7 and 9 at the time), but really for me, having realized that I could only recognize, with confidence, 20 or 30 of them.… Continue reading “World of Flags”
As you may have heard, there’s a new arrival in the royal family. Or maybe that should be: a New Arrival in the Royal Family. From what I heard on the radio yesterday some people are very excited (or, again, maybe that should read Very Excited) about this. A royal baby, on Saint George’s Day.… Continue reading “Prince Wayne … it must be worth a few quid”
Happy St George’s Day to you. If you are planning the kind of celebrations that people like me sometimes indulge in on St Patrick’s Day, have one for me, and have a good time. I will be unable to join you, but I have been reminiscing about a St George’s Day back in the 1980s… Continue reading Drunk for 8 shillings
On the BBC2 quiz show “Only Connect” at the start of the year there was a brief exchange between the host, Victoria Coren Mitchell, and one of the team captains about having a sense of purpose. The episode was broadcast on 1 January and it has played on my mind ever since, enough to make… Continue reading Trivia, quizzing and a sense of purpose
My mother’s funeral took place 21 years ago today, 18 April 1997, a Friday. In each of the last two years I have written about the anniversary of her death, 10 April, first in this piece, and then here, last year. I didn’t publish anything about this year’s anniversary and have instead drafted the thousand… Continue reading A funeral memory: knowing where the trouble will come from
Here’s one of my favourite pop trivia challenges. Try it, if you’re into such things. What do the songs “Virginia Plain” and “Up the Junction” have in common with each other, and with no other singles that have reached the UK Top 10? We’re dealing here, respectively, with Roxy Music’s debut hit, which reached #4… Continue reading More pop trivia: What do “Up the Junction” and “Virginia Plain” have in common?
Last month I recalled my childhood enthusiasm for London Transport and a week spent travelling to the outer reaches of the tube network, just before my 11th birthday. In recent weeks my 13-year-old son has also started taking an interest in London’s iconic tube map and the connections between the lines. Before his school holidays… Continue reading Holiday notes: the end of the line revisited
April 2017 was, for me, a terrible month for sport. All of the teams and individuals that I follow fared badly. Kilkenny’s hurling team failed to make the League Final. Leeds United FC, after spending many months in the top 6 of the Championship, dropped to 7th and failed to make the play-offs. Cambridge lost… Continue reading Already a better month for sport
My subject is memory. Most of the things that I want to remember come to mind easily. Some of the things that I don’t want to remember also come to mind easily, which is a shame. Every now and then a name or word fails to come to mind and, when it finally does, I… Continue reading Cadby Hall
Today, just before 6pm, I paid a visit to our local Maplins, the electronics retailer, in King Street Hammersmith. It could be my last visit to one of their stores. The branch on Kensington High Street closed last month, the Hammersmith shop has big signs announcing its Closing Down Sale and the chain as a… Continue reading Farewell Maplins
The Compartments 