ACE Opera but not in Fulham

Arts Council England (ACE) doled out the dosh on Tuesday. There’s plenty of it – about £400 million each year. Poor folk, who should know better, chip in £71 million by fecklessly buying lottery tickets.

Breathing Colour

Joining the swimming pool at Charing Cross Sports Club seems a bargain; £31 a month for off-peak, over 60 membership. Only £1 a day.

Orlando

The sermon last Sunday at The Royal Hospital was about baptism. The Chaplain (I prefer padre) recounted that he had been to where John the Baptist baptised Christ in the Jordan.

Jeeves in the Offing

  Trevor was in the offing until his retirement in March and now Alistair has taken his place. They are brokers at Investec and lurk discretely in the background, like Jeeves.

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Categorised as Business

New in the Hood

When I drove more my motorway cruising speed was at least 85 mph so I had to keep an eye open for jam sandwiches as they were called. (Police cars were white with a red stripe.)

School Reports

New Hall, as you shall see, has quite a history for an Essex school near Chelmsford. Since 1799 it has been on the site of the Tudor Beaulieu Palace.

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Categorised as Family

Every Object Tells a Story

I have been to two artists’ studios this week. Sir John Lavery lived at 5 Cromwell Place from 1899 – 1940. To remind, he was born in Belfast and died in Co Kilkenny in 1941, aged eighty-four. In between he was painting in London.

A Hit, a Very Palpable Hit

Last year the first day at Queen’s was a wash-out (Anyone for Tennis?). It’s a different story this year with weather so warm that I dispensed with a tie and even considered shedding my coat.

Microfinance

Time for an update on Kiva, a charity that arranges small loans to people in eighty-four countries. Small loans but they add up to almost $1 billion. You can see some of my loans above. 

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Categorised as Charities

In Requiem

The Riddle of the Sands portends the Great War; published in 1903, written by Erskine Childers and with Carruthers as the central character. How many Carruthers does it take to make a Foreign Office? There’s one in the Korda Bros film, The Drum, another in Sherard Cowper-Coles’s memoir, Ever The Diplomat.