Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
New Year’s Eve with Catrin
December 31st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
This afternoon, Vee and I at last caught up with Rich, Emily & Catrin who have been visiting various relatives over the festive season. Catrin will be two in less than three weeks, but meanwhile opened still more Christmas presents before we all went to Gabriel’s Wharf on London’s South Bank for lunch at a […]
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My latest short story: “This Life Business”
December 31st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I have not written a short story for exactly a year – too many part-time appointments have kept me very busy in 2012. But I want to keep my hand in, so I’ve used the festive break to craft a new story – my 29th. It’s called “The Life Business” and I’ve had the idea […]
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28 short stories – and counting …
December 29th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
In the summer of 2009, I set myself the challenge of writing five short stories. In fact, over the next six months I wrote 16. Since then, I’ve crafted more and the total is now 28. I know that the Christmas/New Year is a busy one for many people with little time to read a […]
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How was your Christmas?
December 25th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Ours was great. This year, all of Vee’s family came over to us: her twin sister Mari and husband Derek, their sons Martin and David, the sons’ wives Isobel and Sharon, and Martin & Isobel’s children Yasmin (7 later this week) and Lucas (4). So 10 of us sat down for lunch of turkey with […]
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How to think critically
December 17th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
For the third consecutive year, my permission has ben sought – and obviously given – for my website essay on “How To Think Critically” to be used on the Junior Military Officer course at the United States Naval War College. If my advice is good enough for the American military, you might want to check […]
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Preparing for the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War One
December 16th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
This week, I visited the Imperial War Museum in central London to view an exhibition of photographs taken by Cecil Beaton during the Second World War. I found that most of this fascinating museum is closed for major redesign, starting with the opening in 2014 of a new section on the First World War to […]
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The Darlington family Christmas letter
December 14th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
So the Christmas tree is up, almost all of the Christmas presents have been bought, and most of our Christmas cards have been posted. Each year, we compile a family newsletter to include with the cards to people of whom we have seen little of nothing in the previous year because of time or distance. […]
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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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