Safety Play

It’s rather disagreeable to start the new year on a sour note but that’s the way the taxman likes to do it. In the UK the Inland Revenue likes its customers to settle up by the end of January.

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Flash Mob Opera Fulham

This year I became associated with Fulham Opera. We perform in St John’s Church near Fulham Broadway. Obviously I don’t perform and in fact have not yet made any contribution.

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Categorised as Music

The Tartar Steppe

It’s feast or famine at No. 56 and right now it’s feast. A feast of lovely books and I will share them with you as I read them. First I never got round to mentioning that I was given two books after I fell downstairs.

Bath Abbey

Most of my Christmas Day Services have been at the C of I church in Dunleer. It was Low Church, austere architecturally and with the old, simple liturgy. Even the plate was a wooden platter, the sort of thing  from which Oliver Twist might have had an exiguous helping of gruel. It was presented by… Continue reading Bath Abbey

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Bath Time

If you are reading this on Christmas Day I wish you a happy, peaceful and holy Christmas. I don’t have any truck with calling it “the holiday season” or similar weasel words denying its place as the second (or third?) most important date in the Christian calendar.

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Under Doctor’s Orders

A friend, who must be anonymous, went for his annual check-up in Harley Street.

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Strictly Social

Robert says that I have a habit of going up to complete strangers and then rambling on about nothing for ages. There is some teeny-weeny truth in this but it does often provide background that adds to the pleasure of a walk, for instance. Of course in London I’d never dream of doing such a… Continue reading Strictly Social

Suez and Brexit; Keep the Aspidistra Flying

As the Suez Crisis unfolded, as with the war we waged in Iraq, it became clear that there had been a pretty big bish. International opinion consigned Britain and France to the dog house; petrol was rationed; the Prime Minister went to recuperate at Goldeneye (Ian Fleming’s house in Jamaica). George Lyttleton expressed his feelings… Continue reading Suez and Brexit; Keep the Aspidistra Flying

The Sloane Club

I have a friend who roosts at The Sloane Club when she is in London. It is conveniently located in Lower Sloane Street just a biscuit’s throw from Sloane Square and Peter Jones. Quick digression; Margaret Thatcher set great store by living near Peter Jones and for many years had a house in Flood Street.

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Old Dog, New Tricks

New converts are always the most fervent, especially in the Catholic Church ever since St Paul saw the light. I notice this in myself.