In a moment of madness the other day, probably because I was becoming bored with the excitement of twiddling my thumbs, I decided to look up how many days there are in 1000 years. Yes, Dear Reader, it says much about the busyness of retirement that I should be enthused by this piece of …
Dear Friends, many years ago when I lived in London, I was invited to a party in the Borough of Peckham. It transpired it took place in a block of council flats. As is often the case I was greeted and shown to a bedroom where coats were being dropped. On the way in …
In early October I had to go to Park Royal Mall to buy travel insurance. I arrived early. Most of the shops in the Mall do not open until 10.00 a.m. but one can still access the building. On walking past a gaming store I was surprised to find a group of about 25 people …
All the land that stretched for miles outside his ancient pile was his. He looked out on green fields, flourishing forests, a walled garden, some land that was farmed, some that was wild. He controlled it all. His was an ancient title, some said his family went back with the land for 1000 years or …
Now resting proudly on one of the walls of our TV room at home is a picture that used to belong to my mother. It was given her by her Uncle Jim, my great uncle. In 1970 I really got to know Jim Tolmie. I lived with my Grandma in the town of Nairn …
Temple Meads Station in Bristol is a building that was built at the dawn of the railway age. Like everything else it has had to adapt. As the technology has advanced so has the station. Yet that which could remain has done so with the result that the old and the new are become the …
I don’t know, Dear Friends, whether this New Year started with a bang or a whimper. I am talking from both a geopolitical point of view and a personal one. I have long been of the view that politics and governance should be boring. I like to create my own excitement, I don’t need …
Dear Friends, it was a good plan. I brooded on it for a few minutes. I decided it fitted into my lazy modus operandi. And, what is more, my poor work ethic for once would have purpose. Admittedly it was late in the day. Maybe I should have begun to initiate it a month …
Several moons ago, Dear Reader, I was out toddling the neighbourhood on my ‘jack jones’ aka ‘alone’ when I stumbled across two of my walking companions, one of whom accused me of ‘wandering aimlessly’. As we went off in our various directions I pondered upon that accusation and decided that it is true. I …
“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” The wind blew off the North Sea. The family had decided to camp in the shelter of the dunes. The husband and wife team put up their two tents and realised that it was almost impossible …
