Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
OK, William and Kate, but we were there (sunset at Uluru) first
April 23rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
William and Kate – otherwise known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – are pictured in many newspapers today witnessing the sunset at Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australia. You can see some pictures here. A year ago, Vee and I thrilled to exactly the same view and you can read our account here.
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Viewing the wonderful cut-outs of Henri Matisse with delightful Czech mates
April 21st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
We have had a very busy, but very enjoyable, Easter hosting a visit by two Czech friends to our home in London. We have known Kaca. the daughter of our dear, deceased friend Pavel [my tribute to him here], since she was three, whereas we have only met Lenka, married to one of Kaca’s cousins, […]
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The nearest I came to becoming a Member of Parliament
April 19th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I was interested in the news that Austin Mitchell is to step down as a Member of Parliament at the General Election next year. Mitchell first became am MP in 1977 when he fought and won a bye-election in Grimsby occasioned by the premature death of the sitting Labour MP and Foreign Minister Anthony Crosland. […]
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How can the consumer voice be heard in the regulated sectors? (2)
April 17th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
This week, I was a speaker at a breakfast seminar organised by the Westbourne Communications agency in central London. The snappy title of the session was “Stakeholder Challenge And Influence: Lessons For The Utilities Industry”. I was invited in my capacity as the Chair of the Customer Challenge Group at South East Water to talk about different consumer models in the regulated utilities. […]
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OK, William and Kate, but we were there (jet boating on the Shotover River) first
April 14th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
William and Kate – otherwise known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – are pictured in many newspapers today enjoying a jet boat ride on the Shotover River in New Zealand. You can see some pictures here. A year ago, Vee and I thrilled to exactly the same ride and you can read our account […]
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We’ve had two little ones staying with us
April 8th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
My wife Vee has two nephews and one of them has two children: Yasmin (8) and Lucas (almost 6). Since they have now begun their Easter break from school. we have just had the two kids to stay with us for two days and two nights (only their second sleep-over with us). Together with their mummy […]
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SD or HD? – that is the question
April 6th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
We’ve had a High Definition-ready television set for a while but so far we have been content to view Standard Definition television. This weekend though we upgraded our Sky subscription to take some HD channels and we acquired a Sky+ HD box. Don’t you just love new technology? Many thanks to Vee’s nephew Martin for […]
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The bad news: Syria becomes an ever-greater tragedy
April 4th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
The civil war in Syria has now been running inexorably for three years. In that time: At least 150,000 people have been killed. The total number of deaths could be about 22o,000. Half the population is believed to have fled their homes. The total number of refugees is around 2.5 million. One million of the […]
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Catching up with Catrin
March 29th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
As regular visitors to this blog will know, i usually try to see my adorable three year old granddaughter Catrin once a week. Here’s a couple of photos from our delightful time together this week. Catrin attempts to set a new world record for how much frozen yoghurt one can get into the standard cup. […]
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The pain and sorrow of saying farewell to so many books
March 23rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I love books. I love the look of them the feel of them, the smell of them. But we have too many – or at least my wife Vee says so. It is true that we have thousands and that, for years now, I have been forced to adopt a policy of ‘one in, one […]
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