Category: Family

The House at Pooh Corner

I had never heard of “crate training” and when I did thought it would be most disagreeable for a puppy to be put in a cage. Robert thought the same so when I changed my mind I had to satisfy him and Bertie. What made me change my mind?

Published
Categorised as Family

Happy Birthday

Yesterday a friend sent me an article from The New York Times celebrating the centenary of the Negroni cocktail, invented by Count Camillo Negroni at his local caffè in Florence in 1919.

Driving Mister Bertie

Earlier this year I posited that the expanded London Ultra Low Emissions Zone, effective in 2021, will stop me owning a car. Well, I can change my mind, can’t I?

The Beagle Has Landed

Not all the news is bad. There was an item in The Guardian this week noting that the urban bird population is increasing and is more diverse because of the popularity of bird feeders charged with nutritious and tempting food.

Colonel Jean

Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg died last month aged 98. His state funeral was held yesterday at the Cathedral Notre-Dame. Princess Anne and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were present with members of the royal houses of Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Lichtenstein, Jordan, Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Oliver Goldsmith

It was a good Grand National for Ireland. The winner, Tiger Roll, is trained at Summerhill in Co Meath on my sister’s doorstep. Another Irish horse came second at 66/1, Magic of Light, trained by Jessica Harrington, my brother-in-law’s sister. Ireland has always punched above its weight and not just on the turf.

Anthony Biddle

Chips Channon will be the death of me. His diaries are on the top shelf and I struggle to reach them while teetering on the library steps.  It wasn’t worth the effort either as he never mentions Anthony Biddle.

Benn v Bellew

I am enjoying Kenneth Rose’s Journals. On every page there is some donnish joke worth repeating but, hitherto, I have resisted.

Of Teeth and Travel

Cereal House on Mark Lane was home to the London Commodity Exchange when I started in the City in 1976. There were futures markets for sugar, coffee, cocoa, etc there, as well as a bar. In 1981 the grandly named International Petroleum Exchange opened in a room that had been home to a defunct futures… Continue reading Of Teeth and Travel

In Rome and Brussels

Naughty Margaret did not confine her friendships to the Bonaparte clan, as her album reveals.