Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category


Farewell to Billy Blease

May 20th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

In my 60 years (OK, short of a few weeks) on this earth, one of the most decent men I have ever met was Billy Blease, otherwise known as Lord Blease of Cromac. He has just died aged 93 and today his obituary appears in the “Guardian”. At the time I knew Billy best in […]

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Off to do some training

May 13th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

When I am not doing my consumer work, I sometimes act as a Support Trainer with a training consultancy called Lamont Associates. This is run by a remarkable woman called Georgeanne Lamont who wrote the book “The Spirited Business” [my review here]. I’m off now for a few days to run a course for a […]

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This week’s Thought For The Week

May 12th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

For no less than 453 weeks now, I have circulated by e-mail a Thought For The Week to a growing number of friends and contacts around the world (the current circulation is around 1,200). You can check out all these thoughts here. Now this week’s thought is: “Remember – a statue has never been set […]

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Brother Cyril and me

May 11th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

From the age of eight, I was brought up in a single-parent household led by my mother and I was the oldest of the three children. Although I saw my father regularly, it was not a happy relationship – so altogether I was short of a respected father figure and tended to find one where […]

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Another revealing meme

May 10th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

I’ve been tagged for a meme by my American cyber friend Dana Huff. I won’t follow all the rules but I’ll go with the flow and answer the questions. What were you doing ten years ago? I’ve checked my diary. I was Head of Research for the Communications Workers Union (CWU) which represents staff in […]

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How many countries have I visited?

May 9th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

My good friend Andy has directed me to a great web site that enables one to create a personal map showing all the countries one has visited. I’ve eagerly done this and posted the map on my web site. Now on my web site, I list the 49 countries that I reckon I have visited. […]

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Gas explosion near to us

May 8th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

A gas explosion in South Harrow – close to where we live in London – has killed one man and injured two other persons as reported here. I’m so glad that we sorted out our gas leak as I blogged here.

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What we watch

May 4th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

Vee and I usually finish the day sitting on the couch together watching television. Most of what we watch is recorded on Sky+. That way, we never miss a programme we really want to watch, we can stop the programme if we missed some dialogue, and we can skip the adverts. At the core of […]

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Weekend in Winchester

April 27th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

Vee and I have spent the weekend visiting my (much younger) half brother Chris (a Treasury official) and his partner Janine (a Spanish language teacher). They live in a village called South Wonton just north of the historic city of Winchester. On Saturday afternoon, we drove through the New Forest and down to the south […]

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Do you like a thrill?

April 26th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

If so, you might like to try this. Me? I couldn’t do it. When my son was eight (that’s 24 years ago), I took him on Space Mountain at Disneyworld in Florida. I’m still recovering …

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