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A trip to Flanders

Yesterday, after about eight months of excuses – both genuine and spurious – as to why I could not return to the continent in furtherance of my current WW1 research project, I finally made it under the Channel to northern France and Belgium. In many respects, given the frequency with which I [...]

April 2, 2014 // 0 Comments

Public perceptions

Now that we have begun having full-on same-sex marriages, one would have thought that the whole issue of revulsion at the very concept of homosexuality in British society might have disappeared, if not been swept under the carpet or buried altogether. After all, that is presumably what all those [...]

April 1, 2014 // 0 Comments

Putting youself through it

I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who famously asserted that death and taxes were the only two certainties in life. However, most of us will also recognise that, as we get older – unless we are diligently alert to the issue and retain a strong degree of self-discipline – we tend to succumb to [...]

March 31, 2014 // 0 Comments

Ending it?

Yesterday I was walking locally when I was accosted by a man I did not recognise. He claimed to be the maintenance man of  an office building where a company of mine had a suite. He seemed cheery enough, commenting on my weight, and asked for my card. Something about him made me reluctant to do [...]

March 30, 2014 // 0 Comments

A case of getting used to it?

At a few minutes past midnight, as this new variety of the institution became officially legal, the first same-sex marriage was duly conducted in Brighton, the south coast town where homosexuality has long been not just accepted but practically compulsory. I am not altogether supportive of this [...]

March 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Bush matters – a female perspective

Yesterday it was announced that Kate Bush’s first tour in thirty-five years later this summer – now amounting to 22 dates – had sold out in fifteen minutes. Naturally, despite my reservations about the entire project, I had my secretary go online ten minutes before the tickets went on sale [...]

March 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Free travel

Although I am rich enough to be driven, somebody suggested I get a Freedom pass. This proved to be the first of many mistakes and anxieties in the process of obtaining one – a Freedom card applies only to those over 62. Thus I returned to the Post Office, queued again, the young lady with a [...]

March 28, 2014 // 0 Comments

That time of year again

I went to the dentist yesterday. Six months previously I had endured a serious session of root canal work, prompted by an infected tooth which had to be extracted, and part of yesterday’s purpose was to check that all was well. Since said (‘little op’) root canal work had resulted in me [...]

March 28, 2014 // 0 Comments

Peter Oakley: a senior citizen who made his mark

Today the National Rust editorial team raises a salute to Peter Oakley, an 86 year-old pensioner, who died recently and whose obituary appears on the website of the Daily Telegraph. Mr Oakley’s primary claim to fame is that, demonstrating the lasting resourcefulness of senior citizens in this [...]

March 26, 2014 // 0 Comments

After dinner speaking

After dinner speaking has been a profitable side-line for me. I am good at it. There are various secrets which I will not give away as I  am much in demand.  Yesterday a good friend of mine asked me to give a speech at his 60th birthday.  Discounting my normal rate by 50 % I was only too happy [...]

March 23, 2014 // 0 Comments

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