French Leave

There was a temporary parting of the ways yesterday. Robert went to Mallorca to the Rafa Nadal Academy to brush up his tennis.

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Categorised as Travel

Plain Tales from the Hills

  Brenda Bayliss, who posted a comment on Verdict, has proved to be a diligent and accurate genealogist of the Hill family, from whom her husband is descended. It was rather remarkable that she tracked me down through this website which hitherto has only mentioned Bellew family history.

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Categorised as Family

A Swift Solution

Very broadly, membership of the EU has been bad for fishermen but rather good for farmers, financial services and some manufacturers (especially motor car manufacturers and the aeronautical sector) but what impact has it had on me?

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Categorised as Politics

A Swift Hello

There used to be eels in the lake at Barmeath and probably still are. The lake is landlocked and I could not work out how they got from the sea to the lake but they did; probably through an overflow drain that runs under the fields and then through ditches down to the sea. Much… Continue reading A Swift Hello

BIE Were Best

The British are at heart isolationist while our leaders are strategists who see the benefit of alliances with almost anybody. I’m no historian but any fule can see we have fought against and subsequently fought alongside almost every country in Europe (and the United States). And then there’s Russia …

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Categorised as Politics

Yes to Europe

Our collective memory of the 2016 referendum is emerging: voters were not told by either side the pros and cons of membership of the EU. Our collective memory of the 1975 referendum is that voters were deceived into voting for a Common Market and were kept in the dark about ever-closer economic and political union.

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Categorised as Politics

At the Theatre

The Jermyn Street Theatre have taken on a project of Wagnerian proportions. They are putting on a cycle of nine one-act plays by Noël Coward. It is the first complete London revival of Tonight at 8.30 since 1936.

Globe-Trotter

Arriving at our hotel in Crete about a month ago, the manageress said that she’d show us our room and we could deal with the luggage later. “This is my luggage.” “You travel light.”

Mandarin

In the good old days, which actually weren’t that good, lots of French families lived around South Kensington because of the Lycée. As property prices rose they moved further west getting as far as Barons Court. Aspirational British parents enrolled their children alongside French families to make them bilingual, although it did the little darlings… Continue reading Mandarin

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Categorised as Local

The Wow! Factor

When a friend saw the kitchen Alan Higgs built for me she said Wow!  I was very pleased, as was Alan, by her reaction. On Thursday I visited a building that has the Wow! Factor.