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Canaletto at the Holburne

As I left the Holburne museum in Bath I heard two men say of Canaletto: “They all look the same …” It’s a crude description but has some merit to it. Caneletto was a commercial painter sponsored by a clever, very wealthy businessman Joseph Smith, the English consul of Venice in [...]

August 20, 2021 // 0 Comments

Bath – an overview

I’m really here going to plug the gaps of the previous posts. Bath is certainly worth a visit but 48 hours would do it.  The preservation of its architecture, the history of both Roman and Georgian bath are all fascinating. It’s a convenient size to walk every where which is just as well [...]

August 20, 2021 // 0 Comments

Sport and health

Over the past thirty years the issues associated with the long-term effects of an elite sporting career – particularly those of head injuries – have gradually assumed an increasing importance. It is stating the bleedin’ obvious to record that life itself is potentially dangerous – [...]

August 20, 2021 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report/What’s not to like?

Fulham have begun their season more than satisfactorily. Now second in the Championship, a new starlet in Fabio Carvalho and a new coach who has us playing with more tempo, an owner who has enough wealth to withstand all the worst financial consequences of Covid. We also have a squad with depth. [...]

August 19, 2021 // 0 Comments

A La Colthard/the Royal Crescent Bath

It was Nancy’s idea that “Rusters On European Tour” might make a trip to Bath. Alice (Mansfield) wanted to see the Canaletto exhibition at the Holburne museum Bath and I don’t need much excuse to revisit one of my favourite hotels The Royal Crescent. As the name would suggest the [...]

August 19, 2021 // 0 Comments

The curse continues to gather pace

Spotted overnight upon the media websites: another example of the latest fashionable “woke” madness – the drive to promote ridiculous pastimes like cycling and e-scootering, loosely in the supposed cause of saving the Earth from the effects of a man-made carbon emissions [...]

August 19, 2021 // 0 Comments

WRITE AROUND THE WORLD (BBC 4)

The last episode in this excellent series featured Andalusia and writings thereon. Throughout Richard E Grant has been a superb presenter: enthusiastic, well-informed and – above all – he does not get in between the viewer and the subject. Blessed with a beautiful voice his readings [...]

August 18, 2021 // 0 Comments

A sense of proportion, perhaps?

From time to time, it seems to me, events or developments both at home and around the world remind us of the variety and randomness of each individual’s life chances, opportunities and indeed whatever are deemed to be our “human rights”. In the past week I have seen – on the one hand [...]

August 18, 2021 // 0 Comments

A bleeping nuisance

My day yesterday began at 3.30am when I was rudely awaken by an insistent and atonal beep. I traced it to my smoke alarm though there was no smoke. Nowadays you do not get an instruction manual but have to google, which explained that the battery needed replacement. I thought it a simple job at [...]

August 17, 2021 // 0 Comments

An inconvenient development

Some regular Rusters will be aware of my occasional brushes with “the long arm of the law” over my tendency as a driver of motor vehicles to pay slightly more attention to the condition of Britain’s roads – and the activities of those using them – than I do to whatever “speed [...]

August 16, 2021 // 0 Comments

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