Poofs’ Football

When I was two, in 1956, Anthony Eden was Prime Minister, Eisenhower was President and Clement Crisp wrote his first review for the Financial Times. In those days the FT, still known as the pink ‘un – at least by my grandfather – was cautiously expanding its coverage to include the Arts and even ballet.

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Categorised as Music

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.

Quintin

Nearly twenty years ago I went to Quintin Hogg’s memorial service in Westminster Abbey. At the time I was working in the City but Ian arrived in good time to get front row seats, that is as front row as permitted for nobodies. We were placed behind the section reserved for the House of Lords.

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Categorised as Local, Sport

The Sisters Brothers

On EOMs (Election Observation Missions) we are asked to assess the overall conditions in polling stations; very good, good, bad, very bad are the choices. We thought they were mostly very good in Ukraine but decided to mark them as ‘good’ so that when there was an especially good one we could make it stand… Continue reading The Sisters Brothers

Birds in the Parks

An ornithological highlight in Ukraine was seeing cranes nesting beside the road. My Polish and German election observer partners weren’t impressed as they see plenty at home. I said I’d only seen one pair nesting in England and they are made of stainless steel.

Train-spotting in Ukraine

We returned to Kiev via Poltava after the election and again stayed at the Palazzo Poltava. I had a first floor room with a balcony and a view.

Sunday Lunch

I went out for a belated birthday lunch with a Goddaughter (we share a birthday) and her hangers-on on Sunday in a local gastro pub. The food was excellent, the service friendly but not 100% professional.

The Honoured Society

I had to wait a few minutes on the ground floor of Waterstones flagship branch on Piccadilly while Robert went upstairs to buy the new John Niven (not to be confused with David N).

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Categorised as Literature