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{ Monthly Archives } October 2014

Hampton Court

My college friends Tom and Katie and their daughter were staying in a holiday cottage in darkest Herefordshire for a long weekend over half term. Since the cottage was only about half an hour’s drive from where I live, I met them there for a leisurely Sunday lunch, followed by an excursion deeper into the […]

The Fibula Event Horizon

One of the weirder concepts that I came across working through the MOOC on Hadrian’s Wall is that of the “Fibula Event Horizon”. This is apparently a recognised archaeological term, referring to the sudden and dramatic increase of small brooches (fibulae) found in late iron-age contexts in Britain just before the Roman conquest. It is […]

“Hang on a minute! Come back!”

So Rob finally finished the bathroom and the long list of household maintenance jobs I’d given him. I got home from work to find him packed up and waiting for me in his van on the drive. We went round the house inspecting and ticking off all the items. Sapling removed from roof? Check. Gutters […]

“While you’re here…….”

Rob the decorator has been making good progress with the bathroom. All the tiles are up and grouted, there’s fresh lining paper on the ceiling, and he’s made a start on painting the woodwork. However, he’s going to have plenty of time to fill in over the next two days, while he’s waiting for the […]

Glass Fusing

I had such fun last year glass blowing that I thought I’d try another glass-related craft. After quite a bit of searching online, I found a one day course on glass fusing and slumping, hosted by Rainbow Glass in Stoke Newington, North London. It sounded intriguing, so I signed myself up for the one-day course […]

Bathroom Chaos

My house has been in an ongoing state of chaos for the last week – I’m having yet more work done on it. This time, it’s the main bathroom, which has barely been touched since we moved in over fifteen years ago. We had it rewired, along with the rest of the house, as soon […]

The Blues Brothers Experience

Work’s pretty challenging again at the moment – four bids to get out of the door this week! So I’m pretty tired, and really the last thing I wanted to do was to drag myself out again in the evening. A night in front of the telly sounded really attractive! However, there was a Blues […]

From Adrian’s Wall to Hadrain’s Wall

It was particularly timely that I went to see Adrian’s Wall, the new play by the local Writer-in-Residence about four misfits walking the length of Hadrian’s Wall. I’ve recently started a new “MOOC” online course studying the Wall itself. The course is on the FutureLearn platform, and is being run by Newcastle University. The Wall […]

The definition of “middle class”

I was at Waitrose this afternoon, doing my regular food shop. Ahead of me in the queue for the till was someone I can only describe as a “Yummy Mummy” – somewhat floaty clothes, immaculate make-up, and a trolley full of organic baby food. She was clearly a signed-up member of the MyWaitrose loyalty-card club, […]