I read this week that "drivers over 70 face eye tests every three years”. Why “over 70?”, I ask, as a grumpy 70-year-old who has just had to renew his licence. As arbitrary numbers go it's no worse than 65 or 75, but what's the reasoning? The RAC will have a view (supporting its members,…
It was 20 years ago yesterday. I took my usual route to the British Library where I had worked since 1997: Herne Hill to King’s Cross Thameslink, a station that no longer exists - or, rather, trains no longer stop there since St Pancras International opened in 2007. I emerged on Pentonville Road and immediately…
We were visiting friends on the South Coast when they said “Would you like to see the church at Old Romney?”. I’m always up for viewing a church. Saint Clement’s, Old Romney Derek Jarman is buried in the churchyard of Saint Clement’s but the interior of this ancient church is worth seeing. There is a…
Following on from last summer's epic rail trip (France, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy) we've decided to have give it another go while health and finances allow. A different route (apart from a repeat visit to Zermatt) but broadly similar: cities, mountains and a comparatively long lay-up at the seaside halfway through. Mind…
It’s 10 years since I retired from the British Library. A decade indeed! In mid February I reached my 70th birthday: generally known as a milestone, and it certainly feels like it. Hard not to refer to my age when meeting ex-colleagues, as I did last week, one of whom I had not seen since…
Anne and I awoke to another beautiful day in Kandy, Sri Lanka's cultural capital. At last we were over the jetlag and in good form. Saturday 15 February We began with a relaxing stroll round Peradeniya Royal Botanic Gardens, amongst the best planted and most attractive I have ever seen, with an orchid collection, thousands…
Following four very relaxing days at Sea Rock Villa (Induruwa, near Bentota), we took another 90-minute taxi ride to Veyangoda to join our Exodus group for a two-week long tour of the island. In reality, the south-western third of the island, as the monsoon swings according to the season from one side to the other,…
I need little encouragement to run off to a warmer climate in winter. But why choose Sri Lanka? As the years go by I get less and less keen on long-haul flights but Anne convinced me to go on an Exodus Travels tour of the island, and the more I read about Sri Lanka the…
I’ve been thinking about 1982... down Memory Lane, along a tortuous, circuitous, cul-de-sac, but such is the way my mind seems to work. Bruce Taylor has written a biography of my former Spanish professor, Sir Peter Russell, who died in 2006. I’ve just reviewed it for the The Queen’s College website. Sir Peter, his pupil…
Here we are again... bashing out a review of our year with its ups and downs. It would have been a challenge to put all this on a card. There are some in-page links to posts made earlier in the year. Or you can skip to the end if we're boring you. If nothing else…
The Wight Stuff 