Ahem, It’s been a Football World Cup month, and therefore a danger once again to hear far too much of the ruined popular song from England’s near-miss of 1996: “Football’s coming home” – a song that regularly haunts all England supporters and reminds them of West Ham United’s glorious World Cup win in 1966. But […]
Category Archives: 2022
2025 Ahem
QUERYING PAKKELEG CONVULSED: December 2025
Ahem Our Christmas celebrations normally start after we celebrate Gwen’s birthday on the 12th, when [...]
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01
Jan
Jan
2025 Ahem
FOODELICIOUS WASHBOARD BELEAGURED: November 2025
Ahem, Richard and Marie, from Cholsey in Oxfordshire, where Alli and I lived just after [...]
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01
Dec
Dec
2025 Ahem
HYENA FUNGI HALLOWEEN: October 2025
Ahem There is a village close to the Toleza Farm in Malawi that goes by [...]
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01
Nov
Nov
2025 Ahem
SPIRITUAL CONTINGENT GONGS: September 2025
Ahem As August turned to September, I was with my Kiwi friends Ramon and Colleen [...]
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01
Oct
Oct
2025 Ahem
WIT THEODOLITE JAMS: August 2025
Ahem August was a very fruitful month. Raspberries and blackberries, plums and greengages, even rosehips [...]
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Aug
Aug
30
Nov
Nov
Ahem Our daughter Ella and her partner Sam have become engaged to be married, after over ten years together. They met at university in Loughborough (where their friends referred to them as the ‘golden couple’) and have hardly ever been apart since. Incredibly, their announcement managed to stun us all, with Sam also surprising Ella […]
01
Nov
Nov
Ahem The month featured a lot of wind-sweeping wettish rain, streaming curtain-sleeves large and long. However, at the start of the month, haunting traces of summer hung on desperately rather like liver spots on hands, or an unwanted ex-colleague trying to re-connect even as I laced my bootstraps, felt in pockets for my gloves, and […]
02
Oct
Oct
Ahem The month started with a family visit to Southampton to watch cricket in its new and popular form of the Hundred at the Agea Stadium. I was immediately converted. I venture to suggest this is how many of today’s cricket audience would, openly or secretly, prefer cricket to be like: a game of highlights […]
05
Aug
Aug
Ahem Laurie, my father-in-law, died just a week ago. He was a close friend before he became my father-in-law as we were in neighbouring offices in the Belliard building in the European Parliament when I first arrived there in 1982. He befriended me straight away, showed me around and patiently answered all my stupid questions. […]
04
Jul
Jul
Ahem The weather this past month has been ridiculous even by English standards, a confusing farrago of passive aggression and bipolarity. For several days it was just damply dismal; then it slowly brightened up in a faltering, febrile way, before becoming positively neo-African at its zenith for a couple of days; then suddenly sank back […]
02
Jun
Jun
Ahem, La Hune, our long-neglected house in south west France, was my location and work-place for most of the month. Plotting a non-motorway course due south, I took the overnight Newhaven-Dieppe ferry and drove through Rouen, Chartres, Vierzon. Limoges, Brive, and Cahors to tiny Mansonville (population 286), on the border of the Gers and the […]
01
May
May
Ahem Ant and Susanne, the magnificent Miles from Luxembourg, arrived at Broad Oaks on their bi-annual work detail on a long list of repair and maintenance jobs in the house and garden, crucial as the occupants are incapable of doing the jobs themselves. They left only when almost everything – from making a bonfire and […]
01
Apr
Apr
Ahem Our dogs have not been well. Both Bonnie and Max have suffered from stomach trouble, but Bonnie stopped eating and drinking and her temperature soared while she walked around in a dehydrated and discombobulated daze. There were rumours of a dog virus around the walkers’ slopes of Batchelors’ Farm. She was referred by the […]
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