Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
An account of our two week holiday in the USA
June 10th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Since I started maintaining a web site 13 years ago, whenever I’ve travelled abroad on holiday, I’ve produced an account of the trip for my web site – see full list here. Usually, this takes me a week to two but, for our holiday in the USA visiting Washington and New York, I took an […]
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Have you missed me?
June 9th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Sorry that I haven’t been posting to NightHawk for the last two week, but normal service will now be resumed with the usual daily postings. My wife and I have been away for a two-week holiday in the United States – my first visit since 2000 and her first visit since 1998. We spent the […]
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Don’t you just love the British weather?
May 23rd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Some countries don’t have four seasons in a year; here in Britain we can have four seasons in a day. The weather is so variable that it is an ending source of – usually meaningless – conversation. After a really cold March and a real wet April, suddenly we are having a very hot May. […]
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The treatment of water
May 19th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I am really enjoying my new appointment as Chair of the Customer Challenge Group at South East Water [for details, see here]. The issues are complex but fascinating and my new colleagues are very professional and supportive. But you would not believe how much there is to learn. I’ve now been to the Snodland Head […]
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Free speech – American-style vs European-style
May 14th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I’ve been discussing with friends the issue of free speech as it is understood in Britain and the United States. I’m sure that I’ll have some similar conversations when I visit the USA shortly. There is a cultural difference between the United States and Europe on freedom of speech which I believe has its roots […]
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Top 25 destinations in the world
May 1st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I love travelling and have visited a total of 56 countries as you’ll see here. So I was interested to see that the web site Trip Adviser has produced a list of the top 25 destinations in the world here. Number one is the city in which I live and work: London. In fact, I […]
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Wettest April for a century
April 30th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
It’s the last day of April and the news is now confirmed that in Britain it has been the wettest April for over a century with some areas receiving three times the normal rainfall. Now, on 1 April, I started a four-year contract with South East Water to chair the company’s Customer Challenge Group [further […]
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The world of the Special Adviser
April 25th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Special Advisers – or SpAds as they are known in Whitehall and Westminster – are in the news this week because of the publication of e-mails from the advisers to Cabinet ministers Jeremy Hunt and Vince Cable concerning the News Corporation bid for BSkyB and the resignation of Hunt’s adviser Adam Smith. During the Wilson/Callaghan […]
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Not silent about silent calls
April 19th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
When I was on the governing bodies of the Internet Watch Foundation and Postwatch, I did lots of media interviews – both radio and television, both recorded and live. But, in my eight years on the Communications Consumer Panel, I’ve not done one – until today. Normally the Chair of the Panel picks up any […]
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Film appreciation course – part 2
April 15th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Today I was back at the “Guardian” offices for the film appreciation course run by the critic Danny Leigh. Before the day’s programme began proper, we were shown the famous Odessa steps sequence from “Battleship Potemkin” which was copied in the much more recent film “The Untouchables” [my review here]. Section 1 on Opening Sequences […]
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