Collecting
Going for Gold – Part 8
Prior to becoming interested in precious metals I had never visited the inside of an auction house, let alone placed a bid. However, during the last lockdown I discovered that auctions can be a rich [more…]
Month: May 2021
Arts
Postcard From November, Part 5
Happy Birthday to Me My birthday is November 4th and as a child my main memory of it was always of my parents laying on a party for my friends who all turned up bearing [more…]
Health
Misdiagnosis
It was 05:45 on a Wednesday morning, in the spring of 2012, when my radio alarm woke me up at my normal time to get ready for work. I immediately realised something was badly wrong. [more…]
Biography
Sailing my life away, part 14
RESPONSE TO COMMENTS ON PART 13 Once again I thank those who commented on Part 13 and particularly the three or four who correctly pointed out my mistake in inverting the description of the speed [more…]
Computing
Dingleberry, Part Two
Part two, How To Drive a (Model) Train Welcome back to the sleepy town of Dingleberry, “somewhere” on the UK rail network, a destination found only by the terminally lost and those who were foolish [more…]
19th Century
Clevedon Pier
Clevedon is a small town in North Somerset, located on the English side of the Bristol Channel approximately 15 miles west of Bristol. It has a wonderful pier with an interesting history which I thought [more…]
Computing
Cnuteneering, Part Sixteen
Welcome back to Cnuteneering, where the possible is made more difficult by bone headed ignorance, overenthusiasm and pointy metal things being brought together. You may want to refresh your memory on the project in: Part [more…]
Authoritarianism
Denying Reality Leads to Tyranny and Societal Failure
The common thread that connects failed societies, from Weimar Germany to the Soviet Union, is an almost pathological insistence on denying reality. Weimar Germany denied that masses of printed money would destroy civilized society. The [more…]
Fiction
The Man Who Played Ross – Part 18
Operation Hussite – October 2005 Jarvis was having a late morning in his flat at Abergavenny, watching the young woman make them brunch. He had to admit that she was very easy on the eye, [more…]