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Articles by Robert Tickler

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About Robert Tickler

A man of financial substance, Robert has a wide range of interests and opinions to match. More Posts

Wellington and the Te Papa museum.

It is clear immediately after arrival that Wellington is a quite different city from Auckland. Auckland may be the bigger in population and the commercial hub but Wellington is the capital with parliament. More than that, Wellington belies the dull, provincial image of New Zealand. It is cool, edgy [...]

December 19, 2017 // 0 Comments

Auckland/first impressions.

Looking out of the window of the airplane in its descent to the accompaniment of a screaming tot suffering from ear pain, I had my first view of Auckland which is a harbour City about 2/3rd up on the western coastline of the North Island. It has a population of 1.5 million and is New Zealand’s [...]

December 13, 2017 // 0 Comments

In transit

A somewhat hasty and brief note from the Emirates Lounge, Dubai International Airport en route to Auckland where the All Blacks are also present in shorts and polo clustered in groups all on their mobiles. One of the oddities of air travel is that, however much you pay, the airline has little [...]

December 12, 2017 // 0 Comments

End of term

Yesterday we finished the first term of the Italian cultural and intermediate language course I have been attending. I have enjoyed it as an intellectual distraction and for maintaining my level of Italian. There was festive mood in the class with everyone contributing cakes and biscuits mainly of [...]

December 7, 2017 // 0 Comments

Day two of the celebrations

The second day of my great nephew’s barmitzvah celebrations proved to be full on and in the same orthodox vein as the first. I walked to synagogue first thing with my sister-in-law. This was a modern building a community centre adapted to a synagogue with 2 separate areas for men and women. A [...]

November 19, 2017 // 0 Comments

Italian adult learning course

I have been most impressed by the quality of the adult intermediate Italian learning course I attend every Wednesday. This costs £80 per term and the course books a further £35. The course teacher is a retired comprehensive teacher of modern languages who runs ours with enthusiasm and skill. [...]

November 16, 2017 // 0 Comments

up the i360

I was by no means in favour of the i360 watchtower, a project that cost the Brighton council £42m, though nearly half has been recouped by the British Airways sponsorship. I could see more worthy causes and doubted whether it would attract the 1 million extra visitors anticipated. Yesterday was my [...]

November 13, 2017 // 0 Comments

Good old Sussex by the Sea

Yesterday I awoke to the most beautiful dawn of vivid blues and pinks over the sea. I drove over the glorious South Downs and did some early morning shopping in the picturesque village of Rottingdean. I thought of those London commuters pasty-faced, inhaling foul air struggling to work they do not [...]

November 7, 2017 // 0 Comments

If you can’t beat em, app em

A common theme of the Rust is the difficulty we oldies face in the techno society where it is assumed everyone has a smartphone and knows and wants to use it. I have mentioned in the past that the parking machines in Hove are now not coin-friendly but operated via an app. This is unfair to those [...]

November 3, 2017 // 0 Comments

The Dame on the Train

Yesterday I had an odd experience that might have happened on the start of a Hitchcock film whilst travelling up to London on Southern Railway. I was co-organising a dinner later that evening and looking forward to a leisurely journey. I had started the Telegraph crossword but was put off by a [...]

October 20, 2017 // 0 Comments

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