What with it being a four day week and all sorts of other things going on, it has been a real struggle carrying out my favourite hobby of writing blog posts. This wasn't helped by the mass popularity of this site that resulted in it crashing through its bandwidth limit, leaving literally tens of people with nothing read on the Bank Holiday weekend, just when they needed me the most. Only my fans can judge what it must be like to be denied my ...
I went down to The Joiners in Southampton last night to watch The Men They Couldn't Hang for the third time in the last eighteen months and as usual, they did not disappoint.
Southampton as a city is relatively alien territory to me, a North Hampshire boy brought up out in the sticks of Baughurst and now living in semi-surburban safety just south of Basingstoke. I didn’t realise what a tough old place it is; parts Southampton makes Popley ...
I had virtually erased Boundary Hall from my memory until, a few weeks ago when I drove past it to see that it is now a large Cala Homes housing development. Coincidentally, just a few days later, it (Boundary Hall) came up in conversation with my friend Steve, whose wife once worked at the AWE (Atomic Weapons Establishment) nearby, as did I briefly, before escaping its clutches. For those of you who have never heard of Boundary Hall, it was a ...
I often wonder how a country where the weather can be so grey and unforgiving could possibly have been responsible for so many exports around the world. This island, cut off in the North Sea, has been responsible for the most recognised spoken language on the planet, it has produced scientists such as Alexander Fleming and Isaac Newton, explorers like Cook and Walter Raleigh, writers, Shakespeare and Dickens, musical culture from The Beatles and ...
Well, that’s Christmas done with and from a personal view it was one that was rather blighted by spiteful colds to me and those in my direct company. Annoyingly, a heavy cold in late December is now as traditional for me as the celebration of the birth of the big man himself.
It didn't stop the fun and games on a wholesale basis however and on Christmas day I cleared my nose and mustered the enthusiasm to drive to North London, a somewhat ...