Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
The humour of the kids
July 25th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Earlier this week, I was travelling on a crowded train on the London underground and overheard two young school girls telling each other silly jokes. The first asked: “What’s the fastest drink in the world?” After a pause, she added: Milk – it’s pasteurised before it’s down your mouth.” The second responded: “OK. What’s the […]
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My first short story
July 24th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
As I explained in this posting, I intend to use a quiet summer to attempt to be come a short story writer. I have now published my first short story. It is titled “Making A Difference” and you can read it here.
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Dinner with former labour leaders
July 24th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Yesterday evening was a very congenial occasion when I met for dinner two former trade union leaders with whom I used to work when I was Head of Research at the Communication Workers Union. Tony Young used to be General Secretary of the National Communications Union and the Communication Workers Union, where he was my […]
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The summer of short stories
July 17th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
As long as I can remember, I have written. I’ve kept a personal diary since I was 14; in my professional career, I have written countless papers, reports, articles and speeches; in the mid 1980s I authored a full-scale book which was published in both the UK and the then Czechoslovakia; I’ve had a web […]
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Ten days that shook my world (6)
July 12th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
The long saga of my complaint against my Internet service provider Pipex continues – see here for the original situation. Having filed an online complaint with Pipex and received a totally unsatisfactory reaction, on 21 May 2009, I filed an online complaint against Pipex with the ombudsman Otelo. They replied in a letter dated 2 […]
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Nephew 1: Dom is 30 years young
July 11th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
My sister’s youngest son Dom is 30 today and the family celebrated the event at a special gathering near to his home close to Blackburn. The chosen venue was the wonderfully named pub “The Clog and Billycock” in the Lancashire village of Pleasington. It was only a small gathering of 12 but represented three generations […]
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Do foxes like cricket?
July 10th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just spend two days at the Brit Oval cricket ground in south London as part of an away day for the Board of Consumer Focus. Since my interest in cricket is zilch, I declined the offer of a short tour of the ground. Instead I enjoyed looking at the resident family of foxes that […]
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Three things about me
July 7th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Adapted from an e-mail circular doing the rounds …. Three names I go by 1. Roger 2. Rog (my brother and sister) 3. Rogiček (my Czech ‘family’) Three jobs I have had in my life 1. Research Assistant in the House of Commons 2. Special Adviser to a Cabinet Minister 3. Head of Research for […]
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Jam for lunch
July 5th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Today Vee and I made one of our regular visits to Oxford to see our Chinese ‘family’: Zhihao, Hua and their two-year old son Joshua. Little Josh just gets cuter every time we see him. A couple of days ago, it was Zhihao’s 35th birthday so we took the family out for a celebratory meal. […]
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My web site is 10 years old
July 2nd, 2009 by Roger Darlington
I suppose that, like most non-technical people, I first became aware of the Internet around 1995 when world-wide the number connected to the network doubled. Besides e-mail, for me the great benefit of the Internet was the Web (I’ve never been interested in social networks, newsgroups or gaming). The more I used the Web, the […]
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