Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
Our new roof (1)
November 10th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
It started at 7.45 am this morning when the scaffolders arrived. I’m told that it will take three-four weeks – depending on the weather (it’s raining now – poor guys). I’m always so reluctant to initiate house repairs or improvements. It’s not just the cost (which, in this case, is huge) – it’s all the […]
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A busy Halloween
October 31st, 2008 by Roger Darlington
It was a busy Halloween evening. Between 5.30-7.30 pm, the doorbell rang no less than nine times as we were visited by a total of 31 local children. Fortunately Vee had bought lots of miniature chocolate bars and filled up a plastic bucket with them, so everyone went away with two items each. Here are […]
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Waiting for Halloween
October 31st, 2008 by Roger Darlington
When I was a kid (which admittedly was some five decades ago), here in Britain (at the time I lived in Manchester), this time of year meant Bonfire Night: collecting material for a bonfire, building a guy, collecting money for fireworks and then – on the night itself – the bonfire, the fireworks, toffee apples […]
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Snow in London
October 28th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Here in London, it snows rarely. Indeed we can go a whole winter without snow. But tonight it’s snowing here. I can’t remember when it last snowed in London in October. Footnote (29/10/08): I’ve lived in London since 1971 and never seen snow here in October. Today’s media advised us that this has been the […]
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Seeing Sarah Silverman
October 19th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
This evening, Vee and I – together with our American Jewish friend Eric – went to see a show at London’s Hammersmith Apollo by the American Jewish comedienne Sarah Silverman. The British – and here I include myself – have really only just discovered Silverman. It probably started with her video called “The Great Schlep” […]
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Are you a ‘to do list’ person?
October 4th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
I confess that I’m an inveterate – possibly even compulsive – ‘to do list’ person. I think that it all started with my university studies when I kept lists to ensure that I completed all my projects on time and had a good revision timetable for exams. These days, I still do my daily ‘to […]
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Earth from the Air
September 21st, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Today Vee and I drove over to Oxford to see our dear Chinese friends Hua & Zhihao (and their new teenage lodger Jiayu). They live close to the city centre so, after a home-made Chinese lunch, we walked around to Oxford Castle where we found a photographic exhibition called “Earth from the Air”. Now, five […]
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Should humanism have equal status to faiths?
September 14th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
This seems like a good question to pose on a Sunday in a country that still professes to be largely Christian. I think that humanism should be given equal weight in schools to the various religious faiths and there is currently an argument on precisely this subject.
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Fun at the festival
September 13th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
For the next few days, Vee and I are hosting a visit by a couple of her relatives from the Czech Republic (Vee is half Czech on her father’s side). The problem is that these relatives don’t speak any English and the little Czech we know we learned 20 years ago when the country was […]
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“The Bleeding Heart”
September 10th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
“Lady Elizabeth Hatton was the toast of 17th Century London society. The widowed daughter-in-law of the famous merchant Sir Christopher Hatton (one-time consort of Queen Elizabeth 1), Lady Elizabeth was young, beautiful and very wealthy. Her suitors were many and varied, and included a leading London Bishop and a prominent European Ambassador. Invitations to her […]
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