America
An Eventful Ride
I was spending a few weeks with “Bestie” at her home in Northern California. She has a beautiful house which overlooks her downward sloping meadow, about five acres, at the bottom of which is a [more…]
Culture
Arts
The Geek’s Guide To Distilling Commercial Grade Whisky For £8 A Litre Bottle
First, for those people in the UK and other countries where it is illegal to distil spirits without a licence, here’s the legal bit: “It is illegal to manufacture spirits in the UK without a [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 19
I can’t understand why people are rude to the staff. I was always getting told off for being kind, or even just polite, to the maids and servants, or ‘helpers’ as they were often known. I was hissed at for always saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. Enquiring politely about their families was frowned upon and helping them with their chores got the second greatest insult [more…]
Arts
My Elderly Aunt
As she is so old now and we try to dredge up our shared history, she tells me things I never knew about our family. Her parents, my grandparents fell in love, got it together [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 18
Mr Gecko lived in the roof space of 25 St Therese Street, in the subdivision of Yulo, in Josephina City, near the creek, slightly inland, on Josephina Island, half way down the Philippine archipelago. He [more…]
Arts
RIP Jen the Blue (Wankpuffin of the Year)
As you probably know Mrs JtB contacted me today to let me know her husband had passed away. ‘Jen’ enjoyed winding me up about sending him a mug and succeeded until I realised that was [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 17
Ferdinand Marcos having been deposed and his People Power successor Corazon Aquino having failed to control the country, an election was due in May 1992. In which, fortunately, no one from the Aquino clan wanted [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 16
I’m thoroughly enjoying life in Davao City on one of the Southernmost islands of the Philippine archipelago, Mindanao. It is election time and our candidates are (General) Fidel Ramos for president and Rodrigo Duterte for [more…]
20th Century
An Afternoon at the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum
Although we moved from Yorkshire to the South Coast 38 years ago and despite living only two miles from his premises in New Milton, I had only once previously visited Sammy Miller’s wonderful motorcycle museum [more…]