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Eighteen months later: back behind the wheel again

As a senior citizen on the wrong side of 70 with – shall we say – an unfortunate propensity over the past fifty years for collecting “occupational hazard” speeding fines – I am often mocked by friends, family and acquaintances for the obvious reasons that since (generally) they are [...]

March 7, 2023 // 0 Comments

A Day in London (ugh)

When I moved some 9 years ago from Central London, where I had spent most of my life, to the south coast my closest friend – sadly no longer with us – took the view that I would be back in two years. Well, not only do I not regret my decision but I find London trips are highly-stressful [...]

March 2, 2023 // 0 Comments

The White Lotus

The White Lotus is now finished and the identity of body in the sea which opened episode one revealed. You could discern who it was in the last gripping 30 minutes but there were enough red herrings to keep you on the edge of the seat. That said, by general consent, the first series set in Hawaii [...]

December 15, 2022 // 0 Comments

White Lotus

White Lotus is a bit like peaches and cream, at first delectable but less tasty after a while. It’s probably meant to be watched in a binge stream. My old-fashioned approach is to watch it weekly at 9-00pm on Mondays after Mastermind and University Challenge.   I am now into episode 7 and Tom [...]

November 30, 2022 // 0 Comments

Only one in three?!?!?

Apart possibly from corporate organisations’ automated phone call systems that never let the customer speak to a human being, the biggest scourge upon the average member of the British public’s “quiet enjoyment of life as it should be lived” must surely be the existence of [...]

November 2, 2022 // 0 Comments

On the buses

Brighton is celebrated for the theatre of its street life. By the pier there is a replica of Darth Vader and other street actors and other characters happy to pose for some silver in their hat. However there is also theatrical life in a different way… on the buses. A few years ago I was impressed [...]

October 29, 2022 // 0 Comments

You could hardly make it up!

I guess every one of us experiences incidents or periods in life when events, other people, instances of bad luck (and/or even the weather) conspire to thwart or flip upside down the most careful of best-laid plans, or even our actions taken after having accepted a modest degree of risk or gamble [...]

September 26, 2022 // 0 Comments

The terminal decline of customer service

One of the features of modern life that drives me to distraction more than any other is the degree to which the standard of customer service in all sectors of industry and commerce has plummeted since we … er… all “came into the 21st Century at last”. By this means we all acquired our [...]

September 21, 2022 // 0 Comments

Michel Houllebecq and Jane Austen

I have just finished Lanzarote by Michel Houellebecq. It’s a novella of less than 80 pages and contains his normal themes of sex obsession and mass tourism. The story – such as it is – is that Michel, refusing to go to a Muslim country, decides on Lanzarote the Canary Island for a [...]

August 23, 2022 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard: London hotels post Covid

I was shocked – when seeking to book a hotel in Mayfair for the first weekend in September – to be quoted over £1,000 a night for Browns in Albemarle Street. I imagine hotels are making up their Covid losses in the summer when occupancy is much higher and Browns is uber posh but [...]

August 22, 2022 // 0 Comments

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