I Don’t Believe It!

That’s Victor Meldrew’s catchphrase in One Foot in the Grave; a sitcom broadcast on the BBC in the last decade of the 20th century – those halcyon days. Well, I don’t believe it; I don’t believe I’ve never written about Rafael Sabatini.

Published
Categorised as Literature

A Limpid Dreary Day

This morning I went to the Polish Café by the tube station to buy lunch. It is only doing take-away sales. The corner shop was busy but had run out of eggs. A long queue outside the butcher. A sign on the chemist’s door: “no Ibuprofen, thermometers or hand gel”. Oddbins also have a sign:… Continue reading A Limpid Dreary Day

Published
Categorised as Literature

Country Life

Plenty of time to catch up on reading. I have just given up on Aldous Huxley’s first novel, Crome Yellow, published in 1921. It seems very dated. I am going to play for safety and re-read Jill the Reckless next – written by PG Wodehouse and also published in 1921.

The Virus in Numbers

185,426 people live in Hammersmith and Fulham. We have 23 cases of Coronavirus; just 0.01%, so far. The BBC website has area by area data. It is also interesting to put the spread of the virus into an international context and Worldometers.info is the place to go. The data is updated daily at midnight UK… Continue reading The Virus in Numbers

Published
Categorised as Local

Go to Work on an Egg

This is the best thing since sliced bread; just the job for brightening breakfast in these dark days of uncertainty. It combines elegance and functionality, looking perfectly at home beside the Dualit toaster. What is it? Take a look.       By dropping a steel ball onto the hemisphere covering the egg, the shell… Continue reading Go to Work on an Egg

Hugh Lane

  In May 1915 a German U-boat sunk the Lusitania off the coast of Co Cork and 1,198 passengers and crew lost their lives. Hugh Lane was one of those passengers. He had been born in Co Cork in 1875.

Published
Categorised as Art

Welcome to Dystopia

Walking this evening in sunshine in Margravine Cemetery; the grass mown for the first time this year, trees in bud and spring flowers in bloom. The lark, no doubt, on the wing and the snail on the thorn; though it seems a bally silly place for a snail to pick.

Rear Window

The story so far. Property developer, Dominvs Group, bought the old Magistrates’ Court on the Talgarth Road. They paid £50 million – nice money, if you have it. The site is between the Ark building to the west and a BP filling station to the east. On the south boundary are the Piccadilly and District… Continue reading Rear Window