On Tuesday I sold the rest of my holding in Shell and, sticking to the plan, reinvested in Vietnam. Previously I bought VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunities Fund (VOF) despite its high charges: 1.5% plus a performance fee.
The Serpentine Gallery pavilion is still under construction but this summer it will be dwarfed by a giant, red, floating mastaba across the road on the Serpentine in Hyde Park.
The re-building of Dresden is almost complete but, as in any city, there is a continuum of regeneration. A bridge over the Elbe is closed to traffic for reconstruction and some bomb sites have not been rebuilt.
A good game is to name structures called after their architects. Let me get you started in Paris with Charles Garnier’s opera house and Gustave Eiffel’s tower and in Vicenza, the Basilica Palladiana by Andrea Palladio.
At Flores, in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay, And a pinnace, like a flutter’d bird, came flying from far away; “Spanish ships of war at sea! we have sighted fifty-three!”
I noticed this sculpture for the first time today. It is in Duke’s Meadows, below Barnes Bridge. Meanwhile, and most noticeably, the box moth (Cydalima perspectalis) is back in west London in force.
Port need not be decanted and savoured at the end of a post-hunt dinner in winter. A chilled glass of white port makes a fine late morning aperitif, especially in hot weather, and there is none better than Churchill’s.