Category: News

Are you kidding me? Snow? Already? Come on!

Yes, we had snow in the week – only a couple of inches in our area, considerably more in other parts of the country – but honestly, what’s that all about? It’s way too early.

Fortunately, it only lasted a couple of days and created none of the usual disruption to transport (in our area, at least). So, having just about managed to get rid of the remnants of the rain and floods of last week, we now have the f***ing freezing temperatures with more forecast for next week. A great start to the winter! Continue reading “9 December 2012”

Good morning to you all on a cold, cold, frosty morning. The rain and flooding from last week are still much in evidence in various parts of the country but we’re almost dried out in our area. There is one stretch of my morning walk with Molly – the railway cutting just beyond the recreation ground – which is still impassable which causes her great consternation every morning. She starts off down the cutting every morning and I have to call her back explaining that we will be in big trouble if we come home from the morning walk covered in mud – the afternoon walk generates enough mud to keep us busy.

Continue reading “2 December 2012”

This week’s edition seems to have a water-related theme.

A special, personal note to those of you who used to live in the UK but now reside elsewhere: cast your minds back to what you recollect about the worst aspects of British weather – those days when it was cold but not freezing, when the sky has a consistent dark, dull grey shade to it and the rain lashes down incessantly so that the roads flood and merely looking out the window at the downpour is enough to soak you through several layers. That’s what the weather has been like for much of the week. Unmitigated misery – it rained, and rained, and rained and then rained some more. Continue reading “25 November 2012”

I am a very lucky guy.

I have a gorgeous and wonderful wife, three extraordinarily handsome and intelligent sons, the most gorgeous and intellectually advanced granddaughter known to Christendom . . . and a dog. Continue reading “18 November 2012”

Good morning to you all on what is supposed to be a sunny and tolerably pleasant November morning. It’s been a mixed week – grey, damp days interspersed with the occasional bright sunny day so let’s hope that this morning’s forecast turns out to be moderately accurate.

Continue reading “11 November 2012”

Top o’ the mornin’ to ya and may your neighbours respect you, trouble neglect you, the angels protect you, and heaven accept you.

We’re back after a splendid couple of days in Dublin visiting with our Ben and what a grand time we had. Although we had driven through Dublin on a couple of previous occasions when visiting either the south or the west, we’d never spent any time in the city and are delighted that we’ve now been able to do so.

Continue reading “4 November 2012”

Good morning on a tolerably, tolerable day – a bit fresh to be sure and somewhat grey but at least it’s dry (so far). Yesterday was glorious – bright and sunny with clear blue skies but fresh to the point of being positively frigid as the wind has turned round to blow from the northeast bringing way too much Arctic-like conditions our way. Snow in the highlands, even.

And goodbye to British Summer Time – thank goodness. Continue reading “28 October 2012”

Good morning to you all and welcome to the last Sunday before (at least here in the UK) the clocks return to their proper place after the lunacy that is British Summer Time. For months our body clocks have been disrupted for no useful purpose because someone, somewhere decided that they could make the sun shine longer by altering the time on the clock face. I’ve got an even better idea – let’s put the clocks forward twelve hours each Spring and then we can be truly amazed at how much sunlight there is at midnight every day! Never mind, it will all soon be over, at least until next year. Continue reading “21 October 2012”

OK, we’re back after a wonderfully enjoyable weekend with friends on the south coast – sorry for the interruption to your normal service. We drove down on Friday afternoon for a performance at the Brighton Comedy Festival by Jack Dee. (I was going to include a link to a YouTube video to give those of you who don’t know of him a feel for his comedy. After searching for several minutes, however, I was unable to find a clip which didn’t include, at some stage, a torrent of four-letter language of which I know my mother would not approve. So, for those of you who don’t know his act, you’ll have to search for yourself). Wikipedia describes his comedy as “sarcastic, witty and deadpan” which is a pretty good description. I would add “acerbic” as well, partly because it’s such a great-sounding word but also because it describes his humour fairly well. Continue reading “15 October 2012”

I warned you last week that we might be late this week – and so it has proved. We’re down on the South Coast visiting friends and attending Jack Dee’s performance at the Brighton Comedy Festival. I may get something posted later today once we return to beautiful downtown Byfield or perhaps tomorrow. In the meantime, however, I ran across the following from The Other Coast on Friday which certainly paints an accurate portrait of our Molly’s halitosis.

And, just to ensure your disappointment is complete, the following from Shoe was simply too true to ignore, especially in the current electoral season:

We’ll catch up either later today or during the week (or not at all – you never know your luck).

Love to you all,

Greg