Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
The city of Nanjing: 1937 and 2000
September 4th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
In 1937, Japanese troops occupied Nanjing, then the capital of China, and massacred up to 300,000 Chinese. I have just seen an impressive Chinese film on the atrocity called “City Of Life And Death” which I have reviewed here. On the first of my three visits to China in 2000, I visited Nanjing and I […]
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A review of “Shadow Dancer”
August 27th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Britain is noted for its wet Bank Holiday weekends and this one has been no exception. But I went out with friends to Kilburn in north London to see an excellent film at the Tricyle theatre and to have a delicious Afghan meal at “Ariana II” (“Ariana I” is in New York). You can read […]
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The cutest girl in the world
August 23rd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
As regular readers of this blog will be well aware, I have a granddaughter called Catrin who is now just over a year and half old. I try to see her each week, but I went on a trip to Finland and then she went on holiday to Wales. So, when I saw her this […]
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“Your martini, Mr Bond. Shaken not stirred.”
August 21st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
In my teenage years in the 1960s, James Bond was as much a part of my cultural landscape as The Beatles. I read all 14 Bond books by Ian Fleming. As each film came out, I saw it at the cinema, starting with “Dr No” in 1962 and my favourite “From Russia With Love” a […]
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What is the worst opening sentence to a novel?
August 15th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
There is an annual competition to determine the answer and you can see this year’s winner here. I’ve never written a novel, but I have crafted 28 short stories and I hope that none of them has such a terrible opening sentence. You can be the judge here.
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40 photos of our visit to America
August 4th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
It’s two months since Vee and I spent a couple of weeks on holiday in the United States in the Washington DC and New York City vicinities. I managed to put an account of the trip on my web site as soon as we returned, since I had been writing it up as we went […]
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How to spot the big five in Kruger
July 31st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
The ‘big five’ are buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhino. You can see them all in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. There are two ways to do this. One is to be incredibly lucky – as I was on a visit to the park in 2004. You can read my account here. The other way is […]
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The Olympic torch passes our road …
July 25th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
… but I am not there to see it. At about 10.30 am this morning, on Day 68 of the Olympic Torch Relay around the UK, the flame passed down Harrow Road in Sudbury Hill in north-west London, just two minutes walk from our home. My wife Vee and brother-in-law Derek were there to see […]
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The tradition of bun throwing in Abingdon
July 21st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Vee and I spent today in Abingdon visiting our Chinese ‘family’: Zhihao, Hua and five year old Joshua. Abingdon claims to be the oldest continuously populated town in Britain with people living there for some 6,000 years. Certainly it is very proud of its history and traditions. Two weeks ago, the Abingdon County Hall Museum […]
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The 150th anniversary of the Xaverian College
July 8th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
There are so many American movies where former high school students return for a 5th or 10th anniversary event – but we don’t have this sort of tradition in Britain. Imagine my surprise then when I was invited to return to the secondary school which I left in 1966 – an amazing 46 years ago. […]
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