Arts
Didn’t He Do Well?
O, wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! Thus wrote grumpy bad speller of a Scottish poet, doonhamer Rabbie Burns. To be blunt, dear Puffins, I wish that [more…]
Travel
Arts
Postcard From Berlin, 1979
Back in the late 1970s, when we were both rising stars in IT in the Ministry of Defence, my friend was posted to Berlin to run the Army’s computer centre there. Being a good mate, [more…]
Arts
Confessions of a campsite courier, Part 1
Background For some of you, the title of this piece has probably resurrected memories of certain quality films from the 1970’s. Here, however, I have used the word “confessions” mainly for alliterative purposes. Not that [more…]
Arts
Further Childhood Holiday Memories
Dad changed jobs in early 1963 and went to work for, what was at the time, the worlds 3rd largest auction house. They were family business based in a turning off Bond Street. Dad’s new [more…]
18th Century
Holding Hands – Part Three
The Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring. In [more…]
18th Century
Holding Hands – Part Two
In Part One, I explained that my husband and I travelled to Moelfre, not far from Oswestry, to see a sculptor by the name of Tony Meadows. During that visit, Tony had made an alginate [more…]
Arts
A Postcard from the Scottish Borders
Having had six months of lockdown, our annual holiday cancelled and finally one or two kids heading back to Uni, I decided that it was time for a long weekend away with Mrs SD. Usually [more…]
Arts
Staycation; A Postcard From The Cairngorms (Part Two)
Following our trip on Loch Ness on the Tuesday we went into Inverness to eat and get a beer, the food (a reasonable enough burger) was passable and the beer was by Innis & Gunn, [more…]
America
A Walk Around Lee Circle
In his seminal commencement address to the University of Texas’s excited class of 2014, US Navy SEAL and four-star Admiral William H McRaven reminded his audience that, if they wanted to change the world for [more…]