11th April 2024  Departure: Our Wizzair flight from Luton wasn’t until the afternoon, so there was no need to thrash our way down a motorway at some ungodly hour, as has become the norm in recent years. However, despite having been packed, checked, added to, and checked again the day before, we still woke before 7… Continue Reading

22nd March 2024 Sue and I met up with Charlotte and her family at Sarah’s for a Palmer family meal. Jamie and Ruth were in Cambridge for the weekend, celebrating Ruth’s birthday with a performance of Sleuth at the Cambridge Arts Theatre. Sarah and Lee had prepared a delicious Mexican meal for us all to… Continue Reading

18th March 2024 Fresh from the land of pasta and vino, Sue and I set off from Harborough early on Monday, 18th March, for a few days in the land of laverbread and Brains Bitter. We broke our westward journey with a visit to Old Oswestry Hillfort. Built and occupied during the Iron Age, it… Continue Reading

17th March 2024 Through family connections, my rugby chum Sean Perry was allowed to use an apartment in San Vito, Abruzzo, Italy, free of charge, and he kindly invited me to join him. It was a no-brainer with return flights costing less than £50 and shared parking fees. So, at 3 a.m. on the 10th… Continue Reading

7th March 2024 Saturday the 17th was a rare dry day, and the family made the most of it by keeping busy and getting out and about: Jamie, Ruth, and Joey flew out to the Swiss/French border for a week of snowboarding, having first dropped off their two rabbits in our greenhouse en route to… Continue Reading

17th February 2024 February continued much like the preceding months; rain was never far away. Even on the rare days when the clouds parted, and we glimpsed a few rays of hope, the sodden ground refused to shed its watery undergarment. The Welland remained swollen, and most fields lay baptised beneath an icy brown blanket.… Continue Reading

1st February 2024 By the weekend of 20th January, Storm Isha had blown the Arctic cold snap away, giving way to the now-familiar wet and windy conditions we’ve been experiencing in the UK for quite some years. It was on that Sunday that Sue and I visited Jamie and Ruth in Waltham on the Wolds… Continue Reading

19th January 2024 As the month progressed, the rain gradually disappeared from our daily BBC weather maps, replaced by temperatures hovering around a chilly 0°C. A high-pressure system had settled stubbornly over the UK, bringing overnight frosts and the occasional snow flurry to the east of the country. It was on one such day, the… Continue Reading

Rant: With Jamie and the family spending New Year’s in New York, it feels apt to reflect on the ongoing debacle in the United States, specifically, the alarming prospect of Donald Trump being permitted to stand again for the presidency. Despite his sustained and aggressive attacks on the legitimacy of democratic institutions, the judiciary, the… Continue Reading

14th December 2023 The day after returning from Bulgaria, I had a dentist appointment while Sue attended a U3A Wildlife Group meeting at East Carlton Park, which included a visit to see the reindeer and lunch with the group. Shortly after I got back home, there was a knock at the door; it was our… Continue Reading