On the Saturday afternoon I joined an hour-long The Prisoner themed walk around Portmeirion village with a guide. He pointed out key locations from the TV series – such as the house occupied by Number Six, the eponymous Prisoner. Today it’s a shop selling Prisoner-themed gifts, including copies of the iconic blazer for £150. Needless to say, […]
One of the main reasons for going to Portmeirion was to scatter some of Christopher’s ashes there, since we hadn’t managed to get there when he was alive. In the evening, once all the day-trippers had left the village, it was extremely peaceful. I found a lovely tranquil spot to scatter the ashes into the […]
Portmeirion isn’t exactly easily accessible from Malvern. It’s on the far side of Snowdonia, on the coast, and I’m simply not prepared to drive for 4+ hours through the mountains to get there. It was actually quite an easy journey by train, perhaps because Great Western Railways didn’t feature at all for once. I changed […]
Christopher was big fan of The Prisoner TV series. Although we were both far too young to have watched it when it was first broadcast in the late ’60s, it was repeated in the ’80s and we both had seen it then. In his last few years, Christopher was a member of what I think […]
Since we were both planning on going to our tutor’s Birthday Lunch on the Saturday, my closest friend from college and I decided that it would be a good idea if we made the most of the opportunity and met up for dinner on the Friday night. We both had recent birthdays of our own […]
As the Senior Engineering Scholar at my Oxford college, I get invited back for the annual “Lubbock Dinner”, named in honour of the founder of the trust fund that supports engineering education at the college. I don’t manage to go every year, but this year was special as it was my tutor’s 90th birthday. The […]
As anyone who has access to TV, a newspaper or an internet connection will know, there was a Royal Wedding on at the weekend. It’s not something I’m particularly bothered about – I wish them well, but it’s no business of mine. However, their “Big Day”clashed not only with the FA Cup Final, but with […]
I’ve not posted much recently – mostly because I’ve been far too busy working. The end-of-year rush meant that lots of meetings had to be deferred to the relative quiet of the new financial year, and since then I’ve been dashing around all over the place. I put an expenses claim in today for business […]
I woke up on Sunday morning with a blinding migraine – a full-on pick-axe pounding at the temples number. Which was really annoying, as I had planned to spend the day at Eastnor Pottery doing some throwing, a date I’d had to reschedule once already due to being snowed in back in March. Fortunately, my […]
It’s been several months since there has been any sign at all of mice in the loft, and I was getting complacent. That was a mistake! They came back on Friday night, just as I was trying to get to sleep, and were scurrying backwards and forwards directly above my bed, all night long. I […]
