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Adventures in South Africa 2006 1/2
As I prepare to pack for the holiday I mentioned in my previous post, I thought it an opportune time to schedule a few memories of a South African trip taken in 2006. The following is the first part of my account. Part two will follow in due course. Part One I have always wanted to go to New Zealand. New Zealand intrigues me and not just because I believe that is where all the Hobbits come from. New Zealand has been on my list of places to visit for years. As my fiftieth birthday approached and folk were deciding how I should celebrate it, a quiet drink, a…
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Talking myself into it
I am about to go on my summer holiday. Am I excited? Trying to be. Am I looking forward to it? Trying to. Am I driving my family mad? Yes. Do I need my head examined? Maybe! The thing is, however good a holiday sounds, I am one of those people who would be quite content to stay at home, in theory if not in practice. This may surprise you given that I have already told you all how I left my home and family and travelled 5000 miles to spend three weeks with an eccentric, undeniably strange and sometimes bizarre woman, the likes of whom I had never met…
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Festivals and BBQs
I was never a ‘festival goer’. That is to say, I could never see the attraction of camping in a muddy field, with limited sanitary arrangements, soggy sandwiches and warm beer. Much less did I ever fancy standing with thousands of other people to listen to a band. Yes, I am well aware that to some people this is absolute bliss. (Jane G, if you are reading this, I admire your stamina!) I am not sure whether it is my aversion to the mud and undeniable discomfort or my claustrophobic reaction to crowds that bred this dislike of such things in me but dislike them I do. The only outdoor…
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Curiouser and Curiouser
Our regular trips to the gorgeous seaside town of Fowey, (pronounced FOY) in Cornwall, never fail to delight and to throw new experiences our way. A while ago we seemed to be in a Celebrity hotspot. Celebrities wandered the streets and sat at dining tables with us, they queued for groceries and stood in doorways making TV adverts while we lesser mortals tried to look inconspicuous. If you are wondering what I am talking about, I point you in the direction of: Fowey Royal Regatta – Celebrity or not Celebrity? Sept. 2010 Our latest visit, however, threw up an entirely new experience. That experience came in the form of a new…
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More haste less speed
“Oh My God! Look at that poor woman Beryl!”
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Taking a bite of the apple
Ok, would you “Adam and Eve it?”* finally, I am doing it. Yes, having been a staunch supporter of the PC and Windows since the dawn of 3.1 I am switching my allegiance. I have purchased an iMac. I have an iPhone, I have an iPad but to date, I have not had a personal iMac. Up until now, those sleek, white machines have resided at the office and I and my laptop PC have resided at home. So, you may well ask, what has wrought this sudden change? Is it the advertising power of the Apple sales team? Have I succumbed to the gorgeously simple yet luxuriously tempting lines…
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I don’t want to be Famous
I opened the Times newspaper the other day, glossed over the first few pages given over to latest world events and looked beyond. My attention was actually caught by a short article on page 19, entitled, “What do today’s youngsters want to be? Just happy.” (Joanna Sugden – The Times) I suspect that if you asked any age group to truly declare their deepest wants then their answers might be the same. Don’t we all prize happiness above all else? A survey was apparently carried out to extract this gem of information. Here are a few statistics to mull over: Apparently 33% of girls aged between 8 and 16 years,…
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Once upon a time
Whilst carrying out research for my latest book, I have been reading about some of the world’s greatest inventions. Many are attributed to named individuals. It all makes fascinating reading. I even found a website which summarises all this information and gives me the names of the inventor, the date and place. All very helpful when writing a historical piece! http://corporate.britannica.com/press/inventions.html It struck me though, as I perused this list, that there is one invention, from which our modern day society has undoubtedly developed, that does not include the name of its inventor: The Wheel. The information given for ‘The Wheel’ is simply: “About 3500 Russia/Kazakhstan or Mesopotamia” It is…
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Smile please!
I was sorting out some old photograph albums recently and they brought home just how precious photographs used to be. The sepia ones, the black and white ones and the first to be taken in colour. A Kodak Box Brownie, was still the order of the day in the fifties and sixties. Do you recall the days when you’d buy a roll of film and wait for the right moment to use each frame? No use wasting any frames as the film was quite expensive to develop. I don’t know about others, but I would keep the last, unfinished roll of film from one holiday to the next. I’d often…
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Meet Doris
Hi, Flossie here, I have been usurped. They told me her presence in my home was a temporary situation. I am not so sure. She was back again today. Who is she? ‘She’ is Doris, an English Bulldog Puppy. Meet Doris: Doris arrived with the little human they coo and ah over all the time. At first, she came with her own crate but she soon gave that up and, horror of horrors, is now allowed to climb into bed with Ol’ Keano. This is something I have never managed to do, even when I was a tiny pup. Keano would send me packing should I so much as put…
