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Impressions of London

I was in London for social and professional reasons these past few days. It’s very different to the London I witnessed earlier in the year in lockdown when you could look down the length of Oxford Street and not see a soul. It’s the old vibrant London again, teeming with people with every [...]

October 8, 2021 // 0 Comments

Honouring Roy Hodgson

Last night I attended a soccer dinner for Roy Hodgson. Two things struck me immediately: he was worth honouring and he would be the last person to do so. By his own admission a modest player, he went to South Africa and returned with his wife from there Sheila, achieving success in Malmö. Except [...]

October 7, 2021 // 0 Comments

An issue that sport ignores at its peril

At one point during our dinner party earlier this week my better half and his mates raised the topic of the current state of rugby union – a subject in which I have a not inconsiderable interest – and it didn’t make for comfortable listening. Someone mentioned the situation in the world [...]

October 7, 2021 // 0 Comments

And yes, you couldn’t make it up!

Yesterday I had occasion to travel from Chichester to the outskirts of London in order, inter alia, to attend my local GP surgery to have my annual ‘flu jab. As it happened, the ‘flu jab was the only “fixed” appointment (at 1400 hours) in my schedule – everything else was domestic or [...]

October 6, 2021 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard/Fischers

I often say the function of a restaurant critic is less to review new restaurants and more to provide a roster of reliable restaurants. Most diners have their favourites as do most reviewers. One of mine is the Viennese style kondotorei Fischers in Marylebone High Street to where I was invited by [...]

October 6, 2021 // 0 Comments

The entrepreneur & sport

With Derby getting a massive point deduction under owner Mel Morris, Nigel Wray selling most of his stake in Saracens, Bernard Tapie dying and a podcast I listened to on disgraced financier Allan Stanford, today’s post is on the entrepreneur and sport. These are less common with sovereign wealth [...]

October 5, 2021 // 0 Comments

Ridley Road/BBC 1

Every Friday in the 1960s amd 1970s my late mother would shop at Ridley Road market in Dalston. Even when we moved upmarket from Stoke Newington to St John’s Wood in 1964 this routine continued, involving a long car journey. So when I heard of a BBC drama based on the Jo Bloom novel I was [...]

October 4, 2021 // 0 Comments

Brighton HAFC 0 Arsenal 0

The cliche of the sum of the parts is less/more than the total applies to the performance of both teams. Arsenal had the greater talent, Albion the greater application. The battle was fought out in midfield. Arsenal deployed Thomas Partay alongside Sambi with the more gilded Smith-Rowe, Odergard [...]

October 3, 2021 // 0 Comments

My art week

On Monday I watched a Sky Arts programme on the Young Picasso which covered his early life in his birthplace Malaga, the family move to Corunna and then Barcelona where he launched himself. In 1900 he came to Paris. The quality of his work for one so young was staggering. Many – including me [...]

October 2, 2021 // 0 Comments

One more trip to the well …

Yesterday I was obliged to take a taxi in order to arrive at the Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club by 0730 hours in order to play in an annual golf event that was taking place for the 37th consecutive year. [I note here for the record that this cost me some £118.50 before any tip, not far short of [...]

October 2, 2021 // 0 Comments

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