20th Century
North Wales Holiday – 1932
In the summer of 1932, my grandfather and his pregnant wife set off in a motorcycle and sidecar for a motoring tour of North Wales. In our last episode we recalled their stop in Liverpool. [more…]
Hobbies
20th Century
South American Journey, Part Three
More writings by uncle, John Alldridge. This time he is reporting from South America in 1960 for the Birmingham Evening Mail – Jerry F Over The Stone Curtain of The Andres Buenos Aires was as [more…]
19th Century
Ancient and Modern (or a Tale of Two Cartridges: 2)
In Part One I described the processes involved in reloading the (to me at any rate) ‘modern’ .303 British cartridge, all stages of which can easily be automated. Now let’s look at what is involved [more…]
Cooking
Real Men Eat Curry (or, in this case, Aduk Ayam Goreng Basah)
The splendid Tachybaptus recently posted a recipe on this very blog for the ever-controversial quiche. “Real men eat quiche”, was the surprisingly strident assertion accompanying the article – a bold claim indeed. However, as it [more…]
Animals
Larry’s Diary – Week One Hundred And Ninety-Seven
Monday Hello everyone and welcome to another week in Westminster. It was grey and grotty first thing outside, so I rushed back down and back and was busy tucking into my Felix before the rain [more…]
20th Century
Family Connections
Holiday 1932 My father’s parents were married on 8th October 1931. My grandfather, Elihu, was a 25-year-old mechanic. His bride, Edith, was four years his junior and worked in a wool shop. My grandfather left [more…]
20th Century
South American Journey, Part Two
More writings by my uncle, John Alldridge. This time he is reporting from South America in 1960 for the Birmingham Evening Mail – Jerry F Paraguay: The Irish beauty who started a lunatic war I [more…]
19th Century
Ancient and Modern (or a Tale of Two Cartridges: 1)
Introduction Two questions that I am regularly asked when shooting my long-obsolete 19th century rifles at our local club range are i) how much does it cost to make one cartridge? and ii) how long [more…]
Cooking
A View From (Almost Opposite) The Greenhouse; Will A Tide Turn?
The weather continues to perplex and frustrate in equal measure. Just over a month ago I was writing about the greenhouse being unbearable to work in, past noon, as temperatures climbed into the low hundreds [more…]