Daydream Believer

Do you look at the Property section and fantasise about buying a second home? Do you want to live the dream: lunch by the pool, sundowners on the terrace, open fires in winter (hellish hangovers in the morning)? Somewhere that has more sunshine than the UK, a beautiful location, an old building with original features.… Continue reading Daydream Believer

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Categorised as Travel

Lest We Forget

Yesterday I took a look at the largest private aquarium in Europe; 18,500 gallons of water and more than 1,000 fish from the Great Barrier Reef swimming around feeling homesick. It is on the ground floor of the Heron Tower which, conveniently, is across the road from St Botolph without Bishopsgate. The photograph is not… Continue reading Lest We Forget

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Categorised as History

A Memorial Cross

Is it a bit morbid harping on about graves and war memorials? I hope not. The first World War I memorial in London and perhaps the country was unveiled today, 4th August, a hundred years ago. The date was significant in 1916 because it was exactly two years since the outbreak of war. The memorial… Continue reading A Memorial Cross

The Sash

Yesterday’s post ended with an IRA marching song dating from the 1916 Easter Rising. For balance this morning I’d like to include an old melody that was adopted by Loyalists – The Sash.

A Pug Called Sherbet

When looking at shares to buy the focus here has been to a large extent on dividends, as many of us have to live on the divis. Today, let’s look at a company that yields only about 0.8% but aims to deliver capital growth.

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Categorised as Business

The Abbey Theatre

The Act of Union in 1800, whereby the Irish Parliament in Dublin was dissolved and Ireland became part of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ireland), ruled from London naturally diminished Dublin as a city. Politicians went to live in London and property prices fell.

Yellow Menace

Two holders of the Victoria Cross are buried in Margravine Cemetery, see Local Hero and Another Local Hero. There are other war memorials including a column for staff at J Lyons killed in The Great War and a curved wall naming those those killed on the Home Front in WW II. The Lyons memorial was… Continue reading Yellow Menace

First Prize

William Morris is all around me; drying-up cloths, his Willow Bough pattern on a sofa, the William Morris Academy round the corner, a pub in Hammersmith and …

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Categorised as Art

Portraits

Painters’ Paintings is at the National Gallery until 4th September. I went this week. 

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Categorised as Art

Democratic Deficit

Two-party politics? Dead or alive? Labour – banana split, Republicans – cookies, Democrats –  another helping of banana split. Conservatives managed to avoid an Eton Mess.

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Categorised as Politics