If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!It’s been a fantastically sunny day, so I have been on a long walk through the fields behind the house. The only major wildlife I saw was a rabbit; I think everything else was too hot to come up [...]

A woman, sitting on the pavement outside the pet shop near Chelmsford station, feeding locusts in tupperwear boxes.
She was there this morning, enjoying the sun and lifting the corners of the boxes so that she could slip in half-slices of cucumber. I think the locusts knew they were being fattened up.

It was an Orange Wednesday yesterday so, for the first time in the decade he’s been an Orange customer, Paul took advantage of the two-for-one cinema tickets and we went to see War of the Worlds.
It was very spectacular. Of course, after Minority Report and AI, Spielberg’s last two sci-fi films it was inexitable it [...]

The flat saga continues. It’s ten months since I moved out now, and it’s still not rented. It’s freshly painted. It’s cheaper than the others in the road. It’s been with two agents.
All was going swimingly three or four months ago when the first potential tenant got to the point of signing up and then [...]

A fabulously decadent weekend. I have lived like a 1930s flapper - a concept David introduced me to when he explained exactly why he would be wearing a sequinned dress to a party. Needless to say, I did my flapping without the dress.
So, yesterday - Saturday - I walked into Chelmsford. I took the very [...]

From this morning’s Wall Street Journal:
Some journalists turned to blogs to share their thoughts. Nik Rawlinson, editor of MacUser magazine, began a lengthy post: “I consider myself very lucky this morning. I was passing through Liverpool Street as the alarms were going off, and they were sealing the tube station after the first explosion. The [...]

This morning’s Metro and this evening’s Standard show how the mood of the city changed in just a couple of hours

Pages 2 and 3 from this morning’s Metro

Pages 2 and 3 from this evening’s Standard

Oxford Street was devoid of traffic at lunchtime. Usually you can barely cross without being mown down. The shops were full [...]

I consider myself very lucky this morning. I was passing through Liverpool Street as the alarms were going off, and they were sealing the tube station after the first explosion. The sirens were going off, and the emergency lights were flashing as the staff fought with the doors, but the stupid passengers were still crushing [...]

Working so close to Trafalgar Square, it would have been a crime not to wander down with a camera as the results of the Olympic bid were announced. These are the pixellated results of an hour spent in a crowd of 10,000.

Tony Blair, grinning on screens in Trafalgar Square after the winner is announced

Sporty Spice [...]

Already missing the Tenerife Sun
Having just arrived home, to grey skies and drizzle, I’m feeling tanned, and already missing the Tenerife sun.
We flew back last night - very late - and landed at almost one this morning. Allowing for some protracted time-passing at the baggage caroussel, watching two stroppy American teenagers insult their house-sized mother [...]