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Beating up the BBC (again)

Today I opened my copy of The Times – chockful of Brexit coverage, natch – and at page 10 came upon  a report headed BBC paid £700m using tax loophole, apparently the latest development in the long-running row over BBC pay that has included elements of public outrage at the size of BBC [...]

November 15, 2018 // 0 Comments

Jackson WW1 documentary review

Last night, three days after its first broadcast on British television, I finally got around to watching my tele-recording of Sir Peter Jackson’s highly-acclaimed (colourised and modern-technology enhanced), six years in the making, 90-minute documentary THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD which was produced [...]

November 15, 2018 // 0 Comments

Another milestone on the road to ruin

Last night – well, ‘last night’ for me, it was actually around 5.10pm – up at the gym I reached and then crossed something of a Rubicon as regards my age and fitness. You know how it is. Yesterday morning I had read an item on the Section 2 of The Times newspaper on the subject of its [...]

November 14, 2018 // 0 Comments

Into the interior

Today we left Hambantota on the southern coast to go by coach to Nuwara Eliya in the interior just south of Kandy the seat of the old Singhal Kings and the venue for the second Test. It was a long, hairy journey of over four hours much of it in mountainous terrain with many hairpin needs with sheer [...]

November 12, 2018 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard/Marriott and Shangri La Hotels

Marriott This is part of an international chain .Sometimes this can lead to a formulaic hotel. I was initially concerned when I saw a large sixties style block but inside there was some deference to Sri Lankan arts and crafts.  The room was large with a balcony over looking the Indian Ocean. We [...]

November 11, 2018 // 0 Comments

For those who fell

No apologies for my post today – a special Remembrance Sunday because it marks the centenary of the ending of the First Word War – and I wish to begin by paying a small tribute to those who ply their trade in the UK media, both the Fleet Street and radio/television varieties. The press [...]

November 11, 2018 // 0 Comments

Getting to know Sri Lanka

First a geography and history lesson. Sri Lanka is the size of Ireland or Florida and has a 22m population of which 74% are Buddhists. It was colonized by the Portuguese, Dutch and British as part of the expansion of Europe through trade routes in search of spices. In spite of the invaders there [...]

November 10, 2018 // 0 Comments

Day two

Our resort Weligama is some 45 minutes away from Galle where the Test ground is situated but it’s a pleasant coastal drive past surfers and fishermen some on stilts. It would be even more pleasant but for the random style of driving. Stray dogs, three wheelers called tuk-tuks, scooters, buses and [...]

November 7, 2018 // 0 Comments

Poppy issues

Next weekend – I presume entirely by coincidence – the key Sunday’s UK Remembrance Day commemorations will take place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh month and mark the centenary of the symbolic official end of the First World War. It all seems very fitting. In recent years there have [...]

November 7, 2018 // 0 Comments

En route and first impressions

We assembled in the BA lounge, tour leader Allan Lamb and wife Lindsay and Graham Gooch and his partner Karen. Lamby I know well from 2 previous tours to South Africa  and India, Goochie less so. His run accumulation of 44,846 first class runs at an average of 49 and 8,900 Test runs at 42 is [...]

November 4, 2018 // 0 Comments

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