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Pause for reflection

Yesterday for my sins I spent time at my computer with Good Morning Britain – ITV’s early morning magazine show – on this occasion featuring its supposed ‘box-office couple’ presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, providing ‘moving wallpaper’ accompaniment in the background. By [...]

November 3, 2020 // 0 Comments

This old heart of mine

Yesterday I had an appointment with a local cardiologist as a follow-up to my annual medical with my doctor. The doctor with his stethoscope had picked up “A very soft murmur on the aorta”. I was rather freaked out by this and the reference in the referral letter  to “an early sign of heart [...]

October 31, 2020 // 0 Comments

The theory of Life

As I approach my 69th birthday this weekend with alarming speed it is surely a sign of the times when, somewhere in the media earlier this week, I read a report upon a study of 917 people between the ages of 14 and 77 by some Norwegian psychologists demonstrating to their own satisfaction that [...]

October 29, 2020 // 0 Comments

Traffic issues

I have not been having much luck recently whilst travelling in my car. Last Friday, having been detained on the south coast until mid-afternoon, I then embarked upon my drive home to south-west London – a trip I’d estimate I have undertaken in either or both directions well over a thousand [...]

October 27, 2020 // 0 Comments

English rugby: waving … drowning … or what?

And so the 2019/2020 English professional rugby union season came to its protracted end last night in the virtually-empty vastness of a cold, windswept, monsoon-lashed Twickenham Stadium with Exeter Chiefs completing an epic Double of winning the top European club cup competition and overcoming [...]

October 25, 2020 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard/ The Squire and Horse

Yesterday I met an old friend at the Squire and Horse gastro pub in Bury, near Arundel. It’s a beautiful part of the world. As we passed in the car under trees with golden leaves and rolling meadows I felt how lucky I am to be in West Sussex rather than London. I normally meet my friend who lives [...]

October 24, 2020 // 0 Comments

Book review (a curate’s egg)

I bought Robert Colls’ new book This Sporting Life: Sport & Liberty in England, 1760-1960 about three months ago after both reading a review of it in one of the Sunday newspapers and having it recommended to me by a pal because of my general interest in boxing and its forebear – [...]

October 21, 2020 // 0 Comments

Gravetye Manor

As – to use a vogue phrase – a circuit breaker from the daily domestic routine, I made a reservation sometime ago for lunch yesterday at Gravetye Manor near East Grinstead. I had only heard good things of a hotel which was once the home of Victorian gardener and writer William Robinson [...]

October 17, 2020 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard: the Covid Effect on restaurants

Yesterday in London I had breakfast, lunch and an early dinner in three different restaurants. I took breakfast in my hotel. Normally this would be in the restaurant where they lay out a buffet and there is a choice but because of the restrictions it was served in the foyer lounge. The waiter [...]

October 16, 2020 // 0 Comments

London: it’s eerie

Yesterday I travelled to London for various meetings. A taxi took me to my first appointment via Oxford St. – I have never seen it so deserted. If I had to describe the West End pre-Covid I would use the word bustling. Now it would be eerie. It was like those nightmarish science fictions [...]

October 15, 2020 // 0 Comments

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