Greg's Occasional News & Views
Good morning to you all. We’ve had a good week although we’re still in recovery from the exertions necessitated by the Mwiri Reunion which was held last Saturday.
In the mid-60s, as many of you will know, Penny’s father took a job teaching at Busoga College, a boys’ boarding school in Uganda. The Butlers were out there for two years during which time Penny endured the educational attention of the sisters at the Loreto Convent in Eldoret, Kenya. Continue reading “30 October 2011”
Good morning to you all. Let’s see what’s happened this week? Hmmm. I’m trying to remember. I’m sure there was something which happened this week that I was going to tell you all about but for some reason I’m struggling to remember what it was.
Oh well, perhaps it will come back to me. Continue reading “23 October 2011”
Not much this week – pretty ordinary stuff. Weather has been tolerable and, to be fair, the tail end of the week was reasonably pleasant – a bit crisp and autumnal but at least dry and bright at times.
I am writing this on Friday morning as we are uncertain, at this stage, what the weekend holds. We are due to travel to the south coast to visit our friends Sue and Stuart for part of the Brighton Comedy Festival and the plan was/is to see Reginald D Hunter, an American stand-up comedian who is very well known over here. I don’t know if he lives here full time (I think he might) but he is a regular fixture on a number of British shows including one of our favourites, Have I Got News for You. Continue reading “16 October 2011”
Well, that was that. The Met Office predicted an Indian Summer. It came. It was lovely. And it went. Now, we are back to our usual Autumnal offerings with grey skies, wind and much cooler temperatures. Winter can’t be all that far away.
We had a lovely afternoon out on Thursday which wasn’t exactly as had been planned but lovely nevertheless. Last Sunday we had a couple of visitors, a business contact of SeamStress and his wife. It’s a longish story but I will try and be brief. Continue reading “9 October 2011”
Well, credit where credit is due. The Met Office predicted an Indian Summer this week and a glorious Indian Summer is precisely what we have had. It’s been a fabulous week with clear sunny skies and temperatures in the high 70s. It’s also been a bit humid and certainly very still making it feel perhaps somewhat “hotter” than it might otherwise but, from my perspective, it’s been delightfully gorgeous. Thursday evening was so lovely we had what may turn out to be the final barbeque of the season. You’ll be surprised to hear that we barbequed Sandy’s salmon with pesto, Amy’s potatoes and Penelope’s butternut squash and spinach gratin. Absolutely delicious, all of which was finished off with a pear and walnut tarte tatin with pears fresh from the tree. Pen’s folks were persuaded to join us as were Nick and Lucy. Continue reading “2 October 2011”
Good morning from an increasingly autumnal beautiful downtown Byfield. It seems very early this year – no doubt a result of the warm spring and cool summer – but things are feeling and looking very autumn-like hereabouts. The shrubs, trees and hedgerows are beginning to adopt their autumn colours and the Boston ivy along the fence and at the front is decidedly brick red. The temperatures are still tolerably tolerable but it looks like it won’t be long before winter is knocking on the door. Whatever happened to the Indian summer we were looking forward to?
Well, it may be that it’s coming next week. It seems that the Met Office is predicting a “mini” Indian Summer this coming week which, they say, will last through until the beginning of October. I wonder if this prediction will be as accurate as the one they made of a BBQ summer a year or so ago?
Good morning and apologies for the absence of any “news” last weekend. As most of you will know, I’ve been somewhat distracted and/or otherwise occupied over the past couple of weeks. And, it may be a few more weeks before everything gets back to “normal” here (whatever that is). So, count yourselves lucky that the News is not befouling your inbox on a more regular basis for the time being.
However, there were just two little examples of the success or otherwise of British bureaucracy that I thought I would share with you this weekend. Continue reading “18 September 2011”
I ran across the following correction in the Guardian the other day:
An article looking ahead to what the world might be like in 2109 made some gloomy predictions but added: “It’s not all bad news. Advances in medicine should boost mortality rates in countries such as the UK.” That would not be good news, but fortunately medical advances are more likely to cut mortality rates and boost life expectancy.
Which just goes to show – even “great” newspapers sometimes get it wrong and need to issue the occasional correction or clarification. Continue reading “4 September 2011”
It’s been a bitter-sweet week; we had a couple of decent days early in the week, an exceptionally grand family picnic, a round of golf and a very nice meal out (with voucher, of course). However, I also had the misfortune to tweak my back on Wednesday and then, on Thursday afternoon, Adam had to depart on his journey home, the bitterest blow of the week and a sad reminder that the summer is winding to its conclusion.
Continue reading “28 August 2011”
As far as “smoking guns” go, the latest revelation in the on-going phone hacking saga concerning Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is pretty significant. One can certainly smell the cordite if not actually see the wisps of smoke. The latest document to be released this week by the Commons Select Committee is a letter written by Clive Goodman four years ago protesting his sacking from the News of the World following his conviction and imprisonment for hacking the royal family. News Corps has always alleged that he was the “one rogue reporter.” However, his letter claims that phone hacking was widely discussed at editorial meetings until Andy Coulson, the editor at the time and more recently David Cameron’s media adviser, specifically banned further references to it, that Coulson assured him his job would be safe if he did not implicate the newspaper when he came to court and that his own hacking was carried out “with the full knowledge and support” of other senior journalists whom he named. Continue reading “21 August 2011”