Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
A fun weekend looking after baby Catrin
November 5th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Although I try to see my granddaughter Catrin – now almost two – each week when I collect her from nursery and sometimes babysit, we have only had her with us overnight on two occasions. The first was a year ago when I blogged here and here. The second was this weekend. Our son Richard […]
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A lovely day in London with Yasmin and Lucas
October 31st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Here in London, it’s half term this week and Vee and I have some major childminding duties. First, for two days and two nights we are looking after Yasmin and Lucas, the daughter and son of Vee’s nephew. Then I have an evening babysitting our granddaughter Catrin at her home. Finally, at the weekend, we […]
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My latest appointment in the comms sector – or how a damsel is coming to help those in distress
October 30th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Today 4G mobile services arrive in the UK delivered by EE using its existing spectrum. This initiative has acted as a spur to bring about an agreement that the auctions for new spectrum for 4G will be brought forward to the New Year so that EE should have competition by the late summer of 2013. […]
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Taking bite after bite out of the Apple
October 27th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
First, I bought an iPod. Then I went for the first iPhone as soon as it was launched. Next I obtained the first iPad as soon as it was out. Then I bought the Mac Mini to replace my PC. Finally and quite recently, I upgraded to the New iPad aka the iPad 3. I […]
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The life and language of baby Catrin
October 26th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
My wonderful granddaughter Catrin is now 21 months. As regular readers will know, I try to see her each week and this week I babysat one evening. She went from a morning at nursery to an afternoon with her Canadian grandpa visiting from Montreal to an evening with me without any problem at all. She […]
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How to have a good job interview
October 22nd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I spent this afternoon supporting a good friend in carrying out interviews of four young people for a part-time job. Over the years, I’ve done a lot of interviewing (and been interviewed many times) and it always astonishes me how ill-prepared many interviewees are and how weakly they often present themselves. I was asked so […]
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Why does the statue of Gladstone have red hands?
October 19th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
As I explained in my previous posting, yesterday I was visiting London’s East End to view a participating location in this week’s Get Online Week events. While I was in the area, I noticed a rather fine statue of the Liberal statesman William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) who managed to serve four terms as Chancellor of the […]
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My visit to London’s East End
October 18th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I used to travel a lot through the East End of London because I lived out in Leyton and then Leytonstone for a decade and my son was actually born in the London Hospital at Whitechapel. But, since I moved to north-west London almost three decades ago, I don’t visit the East End that much. […]
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Online Centres Foundation Annual Review
October 8th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Since the beginning of the year, I have been an non-executive director of the Online Centres Foundation and Chair of the Board’s Remuneration Committee. The OCF is a co-operative that does great work getting people online for the first time. The terrific staff work with some 3,800 local centres helping those who have no or […]
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Two things happened half a century ago today
October 5th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
1) The Beatles released their first single “Love Me Do” and four lads from Liverpool changed the world – see more here. 2) As a 14 year old, i spent a day at school in Manchester where I did badly in a Physics test, did a bit better in a Latin test, and started on […]
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