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A once-in-a-lifetime visit?

Just occasionally, ever since I was a small boy with a vivid imagination – and rather in the style of mountaineer George Mallory who is said to have replied “Because it’s there” when asked why he wished to climb Mount Everest – I have actively considered making a pilgrimage to [...]

January 24, 2014 // 0 Comments

Am I right when people keep telling me I’m wrong?

As a senior citizen – that is, someone beyond the age of sixty, shall we say – for me the issue of memory loss, alleged or proved, is a near-constant companion. To an extent it is all about different people’s perceptions. I have had a fair number of instances in the past where I know exactly [...]

January 23, 2014 // 0 Comments

Just getting back to it gives a boost

For reasons which not detain us here, I began my New Year’s fitness campaign on Tuesday 7th January 2014, i.e. instead of upon New Year’s Day, as originally intended. Following my practice of previous years, I did so by purchasing a bog-standard desk diary from WH Smith’s, in which I began my [...]

January 21, 2014 // 0 Comments

A stone setting of a friend

Yesterday I attended the stone setting of a local friend I know from the David Lloyd gym, who had an untimely death aged 60. Alan neither ate nor drank to excess, played tennis and golf and had a placid temperament. Last year he complained of severe pain that he thought was sciatica and was later [...]

January 20, 2014 // 0 Comments

Body hair issues

Taking a break from comparing ourselves with each other – plus, of course, ‘sizeism’, eating disorders and the fashion industry’s inability to relate to everywoman – it seems the latest fad is a backlash against the removal of female body hair. From a feminist point of view, this involves [...]

January 20, 2014 // 0 Comments

For those who do what I cannot

Overnight reports have been appearing in the media about the murder of Roger Pratt, a British businessman, in St Lucia – where he and his wife had reached halfway through a year-long sailing holiday to celebrate her 60th birthday. Apparently, he was beaten up and eventually shot by three armed [...]

January 19, 2014 // 0 Comments

Brighton trains, and taxi

Taking my cue from Neil Rosen’s review of Trains Planes and Automobiles, which I much enjoyed, I thought I might emulate the nightmare trip yesterday. i am often told that Brighton  is under an hour by train and therefore most convenient, transport wise. Not so. I complimented National [...]

January 18, 2014 // 0 Comments

It’s that time of year again!

It is with a huge sense of achievement, and not a little relief, that I can report that I may have completed my self-assessed income tax return for 2012/2013 without, as happened last year, having to pay a £100 for late filing. My fundamental problems with tax returns are two-fold: firstly, my [...]

January 18, 2014 // 0 Comments

You can’t always have what you want

Call me old-fashioned, but I hold to the view that there are certain natural, instinctive and inevitable facts of life. It is the case that some people are naturally more talented at specific things than others – and I don’t wish here to get into complications such as the ’10,000 hours’ [...]

January 17, 2014 // 0 Comments

The scale of time

There is a report featured on the website of The Independent today about the discovery of a cemetery of a previously little known Ancient Egyptian pharaohs’ dynasty at Abydos, about seventy miles from the Valley Of The Kings. I bring it to the attention of National Rust readers because I have had [...]

January 17, 2014 // 0 Comments

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