Category Archives: ramblings

amusements, memes, ramblings, topographical

Things What I Done in London

Last week London blogger Diamond Geezer posted a list of 100 Things I have Done in London. Given that he spends his life out and about in London it is naturally an eclectic and interesting list.

Despite being essentially a Londoner, I can’t compete with DG. However I thought it would be interesting to see what I have done within the bounds of Greater London. And there are some unusual things.

First of all I share just these five things with DG (I’m surprised it is quite so few):

  1. Voted for an MP who actually won
  2. Done jury service
  3. Been underground to watch Mail Rail while it was actually operational – and in my case long before it was branded Mail Rail
  4. Bought my first top shelf magazine
  5. Endured a pandemic

Then I can add:

  1. Been through the red channel at Heathrow
  2. Had lunch with a Herald, and paid the bill
  3. Had tea tête-à-tête with an Earl
  4. Been in A&E at Barts Hospital
  5. Had lunch at the Mermaid Theatre (aged 11) – and was served a whole trout as a starter
  6. Been aboard RRS Discovery (which carried Scott & Shackleton on their first journey to the Antarctic) and the Cutty Sark
  7. Travelled from Charing Cross to Greenwich and back by boat
  8. Travelled down the Thames (and back) from Tower Pier by paddle steamer
  9. Seen Shakespeare performed at the Globe Theatre
  10. Caught the last train home
  11. Caught the first train in from home
  12. Been to the old Billingsgate Market before dawn
  13. Been to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party
  14. Been to exhibition openings/private views at V&A and the V&A Museum of Childhood
  15. Been to an exhibition opening at the Wallace Collection with Simon Russell Beale
  16. Sung in a choir in St Pauls Cathedral
  17. Been to a play reading at the College of Arms
  18. Run conferences at the Wallace Collection and Naval & Military Club (the In & Out)
  19. Been on a tour of the Houses of Parliament
  20. Dined at five London clubs: Garrick, In & Out, Reform, Oxford & Cambridge, Travellers
  21. Had Sunday Lunch at the Ritz
  22. Eaten prunes & custard in a Lyons Corner House (aged about 4)
  23. Been part of a group who formed a literary society, which is now a registered charity
  24. Been to the Chelsea Flower Show (twice; first aged 8)
  25. Rescued several cats
  26. Caught a train to or from every major London rail terminus (of all the London termini I think I’m probably missing only Blackfriars and Cannon Street)
  27. Been “back stage” at Wallace Collection, V&A Museum of Childhood, College of Arms
  28. Been shown round the research labs at the Royal Institution by the then Director, Prof. Sir George (later Lord) Porter
  29. Had sex in a Bayswater hotel
  30. Been to a Christmas Lecture at the Royal Institution
  31. Travelled the old North London Line to/from Broad Street
  32. Had (and used) a BL Readers Ticket, when they were hard to get and gave admission to the iconic BM Reading Room
  33. Drunk a pint in the Pavilion at Lord’s
  34. Been to a Test Match at Lord’s – several times including the one when Bob Taylor was allowed out of retirement to keep wicket as 12th man against New Zealand on 25 July 1986
  35. Played cricket against the Bank of England
  36. Written computer code for Lloyds Register of Shipping, OCL and Thompson Travel
  37. Met Ian Rankin, having arranged for him to speak at a conference
  38. Got married
  39. Been the guide on a coach tour of London
  40. Been in the audience at a conference to hear Prince Charles speak

And I’ve no doubt N will be along and remind me of curiosities I’ve forgotten.

personal, ramblings

Advent Announcement

Marvin, The Paranoid AndroidToday is the first Sunday in Advent, so it’s that time when I, like many others, would normally be running an Advent Calendar of blog posts. And then for a few days either side of New Year have a series of posts summarising the year past and looking forward to the year to come.

However I’ve decided that this year I’m going to do none of that. I just don’t have the stomach for it this year, and cannot make myself invest the time in something I see as increasingly pointless. What price predictions in this increasingly dystopian world? I’ve also struggled to find a suitable and interesting subject for an Advent Calendar – at least in terms of something that sufficiently captivates me and which is not hemmed in with copyright etc. restrictions.

At the end of the day that’s probably all down to depression, and having the brain frazzled by recent illness.

Life! Don’t talk to me about Life!

Nonetheless my monthly posts are planned to continue through next year. So you’ll still have regular quiz questions, quotes, links to interesting items and my unblogged month. In addition, next year I’m adding, on a single (variable) day each month, an “On This Day” post for 100 years ago – yes, just one day a month something from 1923 that happened on that day.

So, sorry, but whatever the reason, the brain isn’t going to hack it all this year. Hopefully at least the Advent Calendar will return next year.

ramblings

Rugby League

During October, while I’ve been ill, I’ve been watching some of the Rugby League World Cup on TV.

I cannot understand the game or its attraction.

Think upon it thus-wise …

  • It’s a game with effectively no competition and no invention.
  • The only tactic seems to be to get the ball and run straight at the nearest three opponents, so they can throw you to the ground.
  • The set plays are all uncontested: the play-the-ball, the scrums, the restart from the ball in touch – you know the outcome in advance.
  • The scrums, as they are defined as uncontested, are pointless – you might as well just give someone the ball and say “Go”.
  • Meaningful penalties are almost non-existent; the vast majority of penalties are effectively no different to the play-the-ball.
  • The opposition only get the ball when you make an error, not by competing for it.
  • Players (and referees) are unable to play without a continual supply of water, with extraneous bodies wandering on and off the pitch to fulfil this need.
  • The referee spends half the time running backwards.
  • Referees seem unable to make decisions – so many of the decisions, especially tries, are referred to the video referee for a decision.

The game is totally sterile and pointless.

And then they try playing it in wheelchairs!

Compare with Rugby Union, where the scrums and line-outs are properly contested; penalties mean something; the tackled player-with-ball sets up ruck and maul which become a contest for the ball; and much more invention in passing and kicking flows from this.

I just cannot see why Rugby League even exists, let alone why anyone would want to play it.

personal, ramblings

What I Did Done

Sometime in early August, Emma Beddington wrote an article in the Guardian under the title Ignore those lists of goals to hit by age 30 – here’s what you should have done by 47.

Well I’m a bit past worrying about either 30 or 47, but it did get me thinking. I wonder what achievements and landmarks I managed in each decade of my life so far? Well here’s a list. It’s all a bit frightening really, when written down like this …

0 to 10

  • Entered the world and was healthy
  • Learnt to read, write, do arithmetic
  • Learnt to ride a bike
  • Learnt to swim
  • Introduced to nudism
  • Introduced to lightweight camping

10 to 20

  • Passed 11+
  • Sung in school choir (including Messiah, Benjamin Britten’s St Nicholas, and HMS Pinafore; also at St Paul’s Cathedral)
  • Scout troop leader
  • Visited the Lake District with school (twice), and Scotland with scouts (twice)
  • School prize for A-levels
  • Went to university to study chemistry
  • Learnt computer programming
  • Played cricket and hockey for school & university
  • Treasurer, and briefly Chairman, of university radio station
  • Broken engagement

20 to 30

  • Somehow got a BA, MSc & PhD
  • Representative on various staff/student committees & similar
  • Resident Tutor
  • Met Prof. Sir George Porter (Nobel Laureate) at Royal Institution
  • Converted to Catholicism and lapsed
  • 3rd XI club cricket captain
  • Learnt to umpire cricket, properly (but never bothered to take the exams)
  • Met my handful of most influential friends
  • Unemployed for 3 months
  • Permanent job (at IBM)
  • School governor
  • Organised a tour for my cricket club
  • Finally moved away from home
  • Got my own rented flat
  • Appendix removed and a summer off work
  • Married

30 to 40

  • Bought the house
  • Got our first cats
  • Organised a tour for a different cricket club
  • Had a summer off work with glandular fever
  • Had an affair

40 to 50

50 to 60

  • Father died
  • Started this blog
  • Retired (from IBM)
  • Silver wedding
  • Conducted the funeral of a friend; gave the eulogy at her husband’s funeral two years later
  • Got a piercing (don’t ask, TMIA)
  • Visited USA
  • Ran five Anthony Powell international conferences
  • Had Sunday Lunch at the Ritz
  • Visited Eton College; and Balliol College, Oxford
  • Met Ian Rankin and Tariq Ali
  • Attended the Service of the Most Noble Order of the Garter in St George’s Chapel, Windsor
  • Diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and Type 2 Diabetes

60 to 70

  • Mother died
  • Became a state registered geriatric
  • Met the Earl of Gowrie; and Lady Antonia Fraser
  • Ran another four Anthony Powell international conferences
  • Had formal dinner (and informal lunch) in Masters Common Room of Eton College
  • Stood down as Secretary & Trustee of Anthony Powell Society after 18 years
  • Involved in founding GP’s patient group; appointed Chairman
  • Published (privately) a book of photographs
  • Bilateral knee replacements
  • Ruby Wedding
  • Attended Buckingham Palace Garden Party

Over 70

  • Appointed to my local council’s Community Review Panel

That includes a number of things I never dreamt I’d do, like visiting Eton College (and drinking their champagne); meeting an Earl who was also a former Cabinet minister; dining at the Ritz; attending a Buckingham Palace Garden Party.

So even if I exclude the things we all do – like reading, writing and losing parents – that’s still a somewhat mind-boggling list for a mediocre grammar school boy!

However I don’t really feel it is exceptional. Mostly because I’ve drifted; I’ve gone where the wind took me; none of this was a pre-planned long-term objective, because I’ve never had a life (or career) plan. I’ve done what was there at the time. If you’d asked me at 11, 18, or even 21, I couldn’t have predicted any of this (except the very obvious). And I find that somewhat scary.

ramblings

Interesting Times

As I said yesterday, we do live in interesting times. In the last 5-and-a-bit years we’ve seen …

In the UK

  • Three Prime Ministers: Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss
  • Two General Elections in 2017 and 2019
  • 2016 to 2020: just how are we going to leave the EU?
  • June 2017: Grenfell Tower fire
  • May 2018: Royal wedding of Harry & Megan
  • Prince Harry & Megan relinquish royal duties and abscond to California
  • January 2020: finally leave the EU
  • March 2020 to date: SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19 (in UK) including lockdowns, an over-stressed NHS etc.
  • March 2021: census
  • April 2021: death of Duke of Edinburgh
  • Late 2021 to date: seriously escalating energy prices
  • February 2022: Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
  • February 2022 to date: discovery of polio in London’s sewage
  • May 2022 to date: monkeypox
  • September 2022: death of Queen Elizabeth II and accession of King Charles III

Worldwide

  • Three Presidents of the USA: Barak Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden
  • October 2017: ‘Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object, identified
  • November 2018: Gilets Jaunes protests in France
  • April 2019: fire almost destroys Notre Dame
  • May 2019: Naruhito becomes Emperor of Japan on the unprecedented abdication of his father Emperor Akihito (who had ruled for 30 years)
  • December 2019: US President, Donald Trump, is impeached
  • January 2021: US President, Donald Trump, is impeached for a second time
  • March 2021: container ship Ever Given blocks Suez Canal for a week, causing massive disruption to trade routes
  • December 2021 to January 2022: eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai volcanic island in Tonga, currently the largest eruption of 21st century
  • 2022: attempted invasion of Ukraine by Russia and resultant war

That’s what I can remember. And we haven’t even mentioned climate change, or a rash of celebs being arraigned for sexual abuse!

I challenge anyone to find me a more “interesting” 5 years, excepting around WWI and WWII.

Interesting times, indeed.