I was invited to give a talk last Friday at a conference held at Glasgow University. I’ve been working quite closely with the university for a few years now, and have previously tried to go there-and-back in a day. It’s doable, flying from Birmingham, but it makes for a very long day and I find […]
I had a very interesting and different evening last Saturday. There was a Pink Floyd tribute band in town, for one night only, visiting the Malvern Theatres as part of a UK tour. They got some very good reviews online, the tickets were very reasonably priced, and there were still a few seats left, so […]
The Malvern Festival of Innovation has been running all week, with events ranging from outreach to families and schools, to themed symposiums and networking for professionals. I went to one of those latter sessions yesterday, as it was on a technical topic I’m interested in. I was surprised by the number of people there whom […]
Last week, there was a “technical away-day” where 50 or so of us were summoned to our Hampshire headquarters for a day of briefings and workshops, followed by dinner with yet more networking. It was a long day, but as a bonus our bosses had organised a private, evening tour of Brooklands, the motorcar and airplane […]
I never know quite how to refer to my late husband’s stepfather. Is he my father-in-law? My ex-step-father-in-law? Whatever the technical description, Peter clearly counts as Family, and we make a point of keeping in contact. He has a regular summer annual holiday with friends in Wales, and has to drive practically past the end […]
Work has been absolutely manic recently – I’m in the middle of a series of equipment trials, and it’s all very high pressured at the moment. I looked at my diary and realised that if I was going to have a break this summer, it would have to be this week, or not at all. […]
I admit it. I succumbed to the publicity and hype, and bought myself a ticket to see the newly-released sequel to the original Mamma Mia film. Malvern has a one-screen cinema as part of the theatre, so I didn’t have to trek into Worcester to see it at one of the big cinema multiplexes there. […]
It wasn’t too bad getting to Port Meirion from Malvern on a Friday. Although it was a very long journey, there was a choice of trains and if the connections had gone badly wrong there were alternatives. But it was another matter coming home again on the Sunday. There was only one train that would […]
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 […]
