The BBC reminds us that the UK's first lockdown began a year ago today. At that point 364 people had died; now the total has reached 126,172. Over half the adult population has been vaccinated: an incredible achievement, many times better than what any other European country has achieved, and yet life has not returned…
It's one of those situations where people, especially those with a Brummie accent, will say, "I could see that coming!" Very, very annoying - and the more so because they are right. The trouble with a mandolin (or mandoline?), as opposed to a ukulele, say, is that it is an inherently dangerous piece of kit.…
After eight years in the job, I stood down in December as Chair of the Herne Hill Society. Hardly world-shattering news, I realise. It seemed a good time to step aside and let someone else have a go - if I could find someone to take it on (which I did, eventually). Membership is increasing,…
Have you given up looking for reasons to be cheerful? Understandable. Nine months after the first lockdown, coronavirus infection rates are higher than ever. There are over 32,000 people with Covid-19 in UK hospitals. More than 83,000 have died. There have been over three million cases. With many more to come for sure. But now…
I am so looking forward to the Queen's Christmas address to the nation this year. "In difficult times such as these it is such a comfort to have one's family around one..." Leaving aside that Harry and Meghan have run away to California (which looks a better plan with each passing day), it's no longer…
My parents have lived in the same home since 1961: the newly-built semi in Upton we moved into when we returned from Indonesia (cost: £2,800). So, as previously mentioned, when I visit them I stay in the same room I slept in from the age of six to 18. Unless you belong to the landed…
Having lived in Wirral and Oxford until I was 22, I'd but rarely travelled on the Tube until I started working in Upminster. Even then, I travelled mostly by bus or I walked. It took me a while to work out where the lines were connected, how to avoid the interchanges with the longest walks,…
Of course there are more than a few. Ely, for example, which was an island back in the time of Hereward the Wake. Or the Isle of Dogs, more prosaically. But here I am referring to the gorgeous Isle of Purbeck. On the Bramble Bush Bay from Sandbanks to Shell Bay It does feel like…
A long gap between posts indicates nothing more sinister than me having better things to do. This blog is going to have more than a touch of "what we did on our holidays" about it. I fear it will only foment jealousy and resentment. Travelling back from Médoc via Mareuil-sur-Belle *** We are back in…
“And have there been any cases of Covid in La Bréchoire?” we asked. “Yes, one lady, ‘Madame X’, sadly passed away in a care home in Rouillac. Mind you, she was 102.” As I write, France has recorded well over 200,000 cases of Covid-19, with 2,500 or more new cases every 24 hours: the highest…
