Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
My afternoon and morning with the Tinder Foundation
December 13th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Among my portfolio of interests, I am a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the Tinder Foundation (previously the Online Centres Foundation) which promotes digital inclusion throughout the UK. I have just returned from Sheffield where Tinder is based after an intense but inspiring afternoon (Thursday) and morning (Friday). Yesterday, the Board, ably chaired by former Schools Minister Lord […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
The 31st “How To …” guide on my web site
December 10th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
A popular section of my web site is the one called Life Skills. It now has 31 items of advice on “How To …” do all sorts of things and you can access them all here. The very latest item – which I have just composed – is “How To Get a Good Night’s Sleep”. […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Madiba, we thank you for inspiring us
December 6th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Although expected for so long, the news is still so sad. In my lifetime, I have never known the death of anyone to affect so many people so deeply as the loss of Nelson Mandela. On 11 June 1988, Vee and I attended a concert in (the old) Wembley Stadium in London to mark Mandela’s […]
Posted in My life & thoughts, World current affairs | Comments (1)
An evening with the film critic Mark Kermode
December 5th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
This week, I went to hear a talk by the “Observer” film critic Mark Kermode. The venue was the “Phoenix” cinema in East Finchely in London. This was Mark’s local cinema when we grew up. It has recently celebrated its 100th anniversary and claims to be the longest running cinema in the country. Ironically, when I […]
Posted in Cultural issues, My life & thoughts | Comments (2)
My first Christmas lunch of the year and how I bumped into Jesse Jackson
December 3rd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
As part of my work portfolio, I chair the Policy Stakeholder Committee of Nominet, the body which operates the .uk domain name system for the Internet. The pattern is that we have a conference call once a month, we meet in London once a quarter, and we meet at Nominet offices in the Oxford Science Park once a […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
What’s been driving me crazy the last three months
December 2nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Recently I have blogged here and here to explain that, for the last 20 months, I have been chairing the Customer Challenge Group of South East Water which has to submit views on the company’s business plan for 2015-2020 to the water regulator Ofwat . Each water company in England & Wales has a CCG which has […]
Posted in Consumer matters, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
It’s the first day of December which means …
December 1st, 2013 by Roger Darlington
… I’ve just received my first Christmas card. It was sent electronically – no doubt to avoid delay in the post.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A new definition of a crisis – or what happened when Catrin came to stay
November 30th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Our granddaughter Catrin stayed with us overnight for the third time in her near three years. This was so that her parents could celebrate one of them having a significant birthday. There was only one crisis and one episode. The crisis occurred when Catrin was all ready to go to bed dressed in her nappy […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (1)
The day Kennedy died
November 22nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
The media is full of reflections on the assassination of President John F Kennedy exactly 50 years ago today. At the time, I was a teenager of 15 attending a Roman Catholic secondary school in Manchester. I reproduce below, without comment, what I wrote in my diary that day: “The Beatles were No 1 in […]
Posted in History, My life & thoughts | Comments (2)
Our attendance at “The Book Of Mormon”
November 21st, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Although we live in London, Vee and I do not take as much advantage as we should of the city’s theatres. However, this week we ventured out in the cold and rain to see the musical: “The Book Of Mormon” at the Prince of Wales Theatre. This is a very funny, very rude, very irreverent […]
Posted in Cultural issues, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)