Coffee Hour (or should that be ‘Tea break’) – I took this photo of my desk with my phone this morning. I didn’t realize at the time how much history and how many special things there could be in a simple picture. One-minute read
April 14, 2020
Reminiscing
December 31, 2018
My 2018 Top 100 on Spotify; it’s a tad eclectic. Brit Pop, Bluegrass, College Rock, Electro Pop, Folk, Jazz, Prog Rock, and Soul. One-minute read
December 8, 2018
Rinse and Repeat. The shop assistant squealed, she’d never seen a passport before, let alone a British one … The UK and the US. It’s often said that they are two nations separated by a common language. After ten years living in the US I can confirm that it is still true. Three-minute read
January 5, 2018
Late Night Cleaning and Polishing. I first cleaned these brass ornaments, belonging to my mother when I was 4-5 years old. Two-minute read, 3 pictures
October 20, 2017
“In the town where I was born …” – It seems that every year or so I find an excuse to take at least one picture of the ceramic fish and/or submarine my sister bought me way back when.
October 8, 2017
Connections and Degrees of Separation – You may have heard of the idea that all the people on Earth are six or fewer steps away from each other in a human chain of contacts. The “Six degrees of separation” theory, In June this year, I discovered I was three steps away from Che Guevara. Three-minute read, 3 pictures
June 16, 2017
Jim’s short wheelbase, 400″ block, 1978 Chevrolet Scottsdale Pickup, just back from the shop after a new paint job. 8 pictures
April 24, 2017
Calm Center (Three) – We visited a place laden with memories for me and recreate a picture from ten years ago. Two-minute read, 4 pictures
April 20, 2017
Langstone Mill – Besides being picturesque, Langstone Mill is interesting because it is the site of two mills. Besides the obvious windmill, there was also a tidal mill. Plus a bonus reminisce, and a picture from the seventies. One-minute read, 3 pictures
March 17, 2016
Coincidences – In one of life’s little coincidences, last night while working on de-cluttering I chanced upon my father’s (rather sparsely populated) sailing logbook.
March 25, 2013
Lancia Stratos HF Zero – I was a school kid when I discovered this jaw droppingly awesome car. It caught my imagination and made such an impression that forty years on, I still think it is one of the most stunning vehicles ever built. Video: 2 clips, ten-minute read, 2 pictures
June 6, 2012
Do You Know Pete Best? — A chance meeting with locals looking for directions on a remote Ozarks farm road. Two-minute read
October 10, 2011
Gary plus rat (365:283) – This plastic rat has been making appearances in lots of places over the past few days. 2 pictures
February 25, 2009
Meet my old friend Penfold. One-minute read
November 23, 2008
Still lots to do and a couple I’ll pass on, thank you… This is one of those lists of things you should do / have done. One-minute read
August 31, 2008
Identity Crisis – My mother’s Christian name is a little different, being a combination of two fairly common names into something a little more unusual. When Ginger was staying I told her the story of my mother’s name, producing my birth certificate with a flourish as proof I had to eat my words when I saw her name wasn’t spelled the way I thought it should be. I had to make an excuse about the story behind her name obviously being a family myth… Two-minute read
June 22, 2007
Saint Nicholas’ Church, Great Hormead – My first visit to my childhood village in around 30 years. Three-minute read, 16 pictures
August 26, 1991
Bennett, Goring, Allman – I’m pretty sure this was the year Bob and Ann turned up unexpectedly.
July 21, 1972
A friend posted a mnemonic on Facebook for the sequence of the royal houses of England in chronological order. It reminded me of one my uncle taught me, which in turn reminded me of a couple I learned at school. Two-minute read, 2 pictures
October 16, 1968
Hadham Hall School, October 1968 – Today (March 11, 2021), spurred on by an email I recently received from another ‘old boy,’ I did a quick stitching job on the pictures. Unfortunately, neither Photoshop nor Lightroom’s auto stitch could merge the images, so I ended up doing so by hand. As the image is low res, and time is short, that was the extent of my repairs to the photograph.
May 13, 1960
They Built Their Own Yacht – Packed away in a box under the bed I found this newspaper cutting from 1960. It tells the story of how my father and a work colleague built their own yacht. I’ve also written about some of my early sailing experiences, in particular a couple of attempts at drowning myself. Five-minute read, 5 pictures