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A la Colthard/the restaurants of Lewes

The last and only time I was in Lewes must have been 15 years ago en route to Glyndebourne. Olly and I were going to the opera with some clients of his and Daffers was on her best behaviour as we boarded a routemaster bus the men in black tie and us ladies in our finery which took us to the famous [...]

February 21, 2015 // 0 Comments

Going over there

One of the few joys remaining to me in my declining years is my very-definitely amateur hobby of researching Western Front cemeteries in northern France and Belgium. As with most avenues of life, expertise in WW1 matters exists along a broad spectrum. At one end is the depth of knowledge available [...]

February 20, 2015 // 0 Comments

Living up to the image

Over time I have come to form the view that – when it comes to social addictions, if devotion to the likes of of food, cigarettes and alcohol can be described as such – there are basically two types of human personalities, viz. those who possess ‘addictive’ genes [i.e. are susceptible to [...]

February 19, 2015 // 0 Comments

Travelling in Brighton

Yesterday I took the number 7 bus into the centre of Brighton. Every bus in Brighton is named after a famous resident of the city. One is named after the deceased painter and sculptor Eric Gill who is the grand uncle of Polly. There was some controversy as it is said that Eric Gill allegedly had [...]

February 18, 2015 // 0 Comments

A reunion lunch

Last week I joined an informal gathering of gents from my old school. I’m not normally one for school reunions but on this occasion I’d met the organiser about a month before and he absolutely insisted I attend. On the day in question I travelled more out of a sense of obligation than anything [...]

February 15, 2015 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard: Danny’s, Hove

In Paris there are essentially 3 types of restaurant: the famous establishment for serious foodies like Ducasse, the Jules Verne In the Eiffel Tower, Tour d’Argent, the well known brasseries like la Coupole, Bofinger, Closerie des Lilas and the neighbourhood restaurant which every Parisien [...]

February 13, 2015 // 0 Comments

Outsider in a different world

Yesterday I drove my father to his old college in a senior British university for a donor’s club lunch. It was a fascinating but unworldly experience at which I should estimate the average age of the guests was about 60, but only that low because about 30% of them were current students. [...]

February 8, 2015 // 0 Comments

Worth a read

Having acknowledged that anyone begins a piece with the words ‘Don’t get me wrong, …’ runs the risk of falling foul of the quotation from Shakespeare’s Hamlet ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks …’ and/or the natural cynicism that accompanies [...]

January 31, 2015 // 0 Comments

Churchill’s funeral : a personal memory

I attended Churchill’s funeral and still have clear memories of it. My mother’s cousin and her aunt came over from Paris to pay their last respects. Every Friday my mother would shop at Ridley Road market and the king of the market was a kind man called Major Alf F. He had an obvious [...]

January 31, 2015 // 1 Comment

An unhelpful survey

I found the report in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph entitled Age is no barrier to an active sex life for sprightly over-80s somewhat distasteful and disappointing. According to a survey of more than 7,000 elderly people conducted by Manchester University’s School of Social Science, as part of the [...]

January 30, 2015 // 0 Comments

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