I had rather a busy week last week. I had a meeting in Hampshire on the Thursday, followed by another meeting just over the county boundary in Wiltshire on the Friday. Rather than spend two and a half hours coming home on Thursday night, then the same again getting back down to that same neck […]
Many years ago, when I was in the sixth form at school, one of the other girls was studying for some sort of drama exam. I forget exactly what – my school certainly wasn’t relaxed enough to offer drama or theatre studies as an A-level, even if such a thing had existed back then. But […]
Panto season is finally over at the Malvern Theatre’s, and they’re back to showing things I might actually want to watch. This week’s performance was Not Dead Enough, a murder mystery adapted for the stage from a book by Peter James. This is apparently the third in a series of “Detective Roy Grace” novels to […]
I’ve been back on my travels again recently, visiting more university departments. Last week I had a meeting with one of the professors at Imperial College, London. The meeting was scheduled for 14:30, which meant I could get a very civilised mid-morning train down to London, and still be in plenty of time for my […]
Every year it astonishes me, the morning after the excesses of the Pudding Club, just how much we all manage to put away at breakfast the next morning. We met up in the dining room at 09:00 and breakfasted extremely well on a full English, plus cereal, toast, fruit, yoghurt, and in the case of […]
Of course, the Retail Therapy was only a side-show to the main event of the weekend, our annual trip to the Pudding Club. We made the short drive over the Cotswolds to the picturesque village of Mickleton, to the Three Ways House hotel. I always rate a hotel by whether it provides flannels, a box […]
The year has gone by so quickly that last weekend was time once again for my now-annual gluttonous girls’ weekend away at the Pudding Club with a group of friends who are all loosely associated with work. Val, who organises it, has been going for 17 years so has the schedule tightly tied down so […]
I mentioned the Great Pottery Throw Down the other week. As if on cue, a transmission date has finally been scheduled. The series starts on Thursday on BBC2 at 8pm, and I shall be watching avidly. I imagine that Jon the Potter, plus lots of other pottery teachers up and down the country, must be […]
For many, many years now, I’ve had regular back and shoulder massages. It started years ago, long before Christopher was ill, when I was having a stressful time at work and was getting a string of migraines. One of the women at work recommended Fiona, as a very competent masseuse. She’s got really strong thumbs […]
It’s been ages since I’ve been to Eastnor Pottery. I don’t quite know why that is – mostly I think I just got out of the habit of making sure I had a future session booked into my diary, and they were so busy last year that I couldn’t just book a slot at short notice. […]
