Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
Visit to Iceland (3): Reykjavik
September 26th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
On our second full day in Iceland, we spent the day in the capital Reykjavik (the name means “smokey bay”) which is the most northern capital in the world. There are many walking tours on offer, most of them expensive, but we selected City Walk which is “free” (at the end, you donate what you […]
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Visit to Iceland (2): Golden Circle
September 25th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
On our first full day in Iceland, Silvia and I left our hotel at 8.30 am and only returned at 6.30 pm as we went on an organised tour called the Golden Circle, a round trip of some 300 km involving four stops. The weather was cool and sometimes misty but generally excellent for such […]
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Visit to Iceland (1): arrival
September 24th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
For more than a decade now, my sister Silvia and I have had a tradition of most years taking a holiday abroad together without our partners and this year our 13th such trip is to Iceland with Regent Travel. It is a new destination for both of us and the 74th country that I have […]
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A (very) brief history of the River Thames
September 7th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
For the last five months, I’ve lived in a flat in a block which is less than one minute’s walk from the River Thames as it snakes its way through central London. So I see the river every day and, throughout the day and night, it changes level and character considerably because of the tides. […]
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What is the capital of Indonesia?
August 27th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Top of my bucket list is the aspiration – so long as I have the health and wealth – to have visited as many countries as my age. I have now been to 73 countries and I am 71, so I’m currently managlng to hit the target. The most populous nation is the world that […]
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My Thought For The Week reaches 1,000
August 4th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
For the last 20 years, week in and week out, I have send out electronically a motivational thought to what is now a list of around 1,500 friends, colleagues and contacts. It goes out each Sunday and this week’s thought is the 1,000th: “Do we settle for the world as it is or do we […]
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Roger Darlington’s World is 20 years old today
July 2nd, 2019 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 what we then called the World Wide Web (I was never interested in newsgroups or chat rooms or gaming). […]
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At last, I retire completely
June 23rd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Technically, I finished working 17 years ago when I took early retirement on health grounds from the Communication Workers Union after 24 years as a national official with that organisation. In practice, in time I was able largely to address my health issues and continue working part-time through a portfolio of appointments in the consumer […]
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Seminar to celebrate the work of Bob Fryer
June 21st, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Today I attended a seminar at the National Education Union in London to celebrate the work of Professor Bob (Rob) Fryer. Bob has spent 50 years working in higher and adult education as a teacher, researcher, policy advisor, practitioner and leader in relation to employment, industrial relations, trades unionism and lifelong learning. The aim of […]
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A weekend visit to Lille
June 16th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
For our first foreign trip together, Kathleen and I decided to visit Lille, a location neither of us had been to before. Lille is a city of some 230,000 in the north-west of France in an enclave jutting into Belgium and it is the country’s fourth largest city. It is a mere one hour 20 […]
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