Culture
Postcard From Marrakech
Introduction For my 50th birthday, as I didn’t have my children all available, I decided to experience Marrakech. A lot of people recommended it, so decided it was a good time of year to visit [more…]
Blog
Book Review
Furst amongst equals
There are spy novels…. & novels about spies. Fleming, Deighton & Le Carre definitely wrote the former (& in doing so laid bare their inner classist prejudices) , whilst Ambler, Greene, & Conrad constructed far [more…]
History
African Regime Gone Bad, The Players
The Banyarwanda, the Kinyarwanda-speaking community, constituted one of Central Africa’s biggest ethnic groups, its footprint stretching from eastern Zaire to western Tanzania and up to western Uganda. At its core sat the tiny, mountainous former [more…]
History
Elementary, my dear Watson – O2 Oxygen
By now, you should be getting quite used to meandering through the mesmerising memoirs of the elements. So far, we’ve covered Hydrogen, Carbon, Mercury, and Bromine. In doing so, we’ve also covered a good chunk [more…]
Gardening
Sienna Wood House
Before I retired my boss had a beautiful 4-bedroom detached house on a private estate on the edge of Dorking. However, both her and her husband were gardeners, and their pristine garden was just too [more…]
Computing
Cnutelectronics, Part Two
Welcome back to Cnutelectronics! It comprises the same bone headed ignorance, overenthusiasm, poor research, pointy metal things as Cnuteneering and also adds the additional danger of very hot soldering irons. We left the last episode [more…]
History
Who Do I Think I Am? Part Two
Not who I think I am Oh, dear. Be careful what you wish for. Let sleeping dogs lie. Unexpected consequences. Every family holds its secrets – except yours and mine. All is not what it [more…]
20th Century
This Is My England, Part Eight
Look at Tolpuddle now, with its neat thatched cottages, its tall chestnuts in splendid flower, all in all as pretty an English village as ever found its way on to a Christmas card, and you [more…]
Animals
Larry’s Diary – Week One Hundred And Eighty-Three
Monday Good morning people and welcome to a new week. What a lovely sunny morning, I could feel the warmth of the sun on my fur as I headed down the garden. Mind you it [more…]