Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
Exactly 100 words on being a doting grandfather
December 13th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
My dear friend Ellie Stoneley has a wonderful blog about her experience of conceiving, carrying, delivering and raising her gorgeous baby daughter Hope. She drew my attention to a fascinating project being run by Charlie Plunkett – the mother of Cole – who is compiling a book of contributions from parents and some grandparents which […]
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My politics lecture at Xaverian College
December 13th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I mentioned in an earlier posting my visit to Xaverian College in Manchester to give a lecture to politics students on a comparison of the UK and US political systems. The college was where I studied from 1959-1966. took my ‘O’ Levels and ‘A’ Levels, and served as School Captain. The new issue of the […]
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Politics as a Darlington family tradition
December 11th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
In 1974, I was a Labour candidate for the (then) constituency of Wanstead & Woodford in the two General Elections of that year. In the first election, I came third. In the second election, I came second. I never ran for Parliament again. This weekend, my daughter-in-law Emily Darlington was selected to be the Labour […]
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Just done most of the Christmas shopping
December 6th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Each Christmas, my sister organises an extended family reunion at her home in Leicester. It used to be the day after Boxing Day, but sometimes people were away visiting other relatives so, in recent years, the event has been convened a couple of weekends before Christmas to maximise attendance. This year, we gather this Saturday. […]
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A new picture of baby Catrin
November 28th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
It’s three weeks since I posted a photograph of my granddaughter Catrin and I know how much visitors to this blog enjoy seeing evidence of her progress, so here’s a picture taken today: As I try to do once a week, I collected her from nursery at the end of the afternoon. We then spent […]
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The things that I’m learning about water
November 28th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
It is now eight months since I was appointed the independent Chair of the Customer Challenge Group at South East Water which supplies drinking water to 2.1 million customers in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire. I’m paid to do a day a week, but obviously the actual workload varies from week to week. This week, I […]
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How information technology came to the aid of the babysitter
November 22nd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
On Wednesday, the nursery attended by my granddaughter Catrin (almost two) was closed for staff training and my son and daughter-in-law asked me if i could help out by looking after her for the day. My clever plan was to team up with my young friend Jen and her son James (just over two) and […]
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The 50th anniversary of “Lawrence Of Arabia”
November 18th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
As everyone who knows me and/or visits NightHawk will appreciate , I am a massive film fan. My card index of films viewed now stands at 2.143 and I’ve reviewed lots of the more recent movies here. My all-time favourite film is “Lawrence Of Arabia” which I have reviewed here. I first saw it when […]
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Happy birthday Vee and happy Diwali everyone
November 13th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Today is my wife’s birthday and coincidentally it is also the birthday of her twin sister. I took Vee out for lunch to one of her favourite cafes: “The Doll’s House” on Harrow-on-the- Hill. For her present, I’ve ordered an iPad mini which Apple tells me is on the way but hasn’t arrived yet. Vee […]
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Three speaking engagements on three consecutive days
November 8th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
It’s been a busy week which has involved me speaking at three different events on three different subjects. On Monday I was at the BBC’s New Broadcasting House to attend an all-day event on digital radio in cars and I was a member of a panel discussion on the stage hosted by BBC correspondent Nick […]
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