Ahem As August turned to September, I was with my Kiwi friends Ramon and Colleen in the lounge of a ferry shuddering darkly out of Newhaven harbour on its five-hour journey to Dieppe. I have done this trip several times and, despite my consistent inability to sleep during the crossing either way, it remains for […]
Tag Archives: Sophie
Our amazing dog Bonnie, possibly a Bedlington Whippet, or maybe a small Schnauzer Lurcher, born in a rescue centre over 18 years ago, and more recently very frail and forgetful, as well as nearly blind and deaf, disappeared about two weeks ago. She became confused one evening in the garden at Broad Oaks in Burgess […]
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 […]
Ahem I’m sure that I’m the last person in Little Britain to have noticed that tea shops and coffee houses are replacing traditional pubs throughout town and country as social centres and meeting places. I even wonder if the British pub can survive much longer in its present form. It’s yet another British institution now […]
Ahem We’ve been thinking of renting a cottage on the Isle of Wight, if it’s not too dear. But it might well be. Alli nearly booked a place in Bembridge on the south east coast a couple of months ago. However, we held back as the owner would not return deposits to renters once they […]





