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‘Drive your car in London. Not so difficult as many women think’, urged Margaret Montague Johnstone in the pages of The Motor in March 1933. As well as being a keen shopper and motorist, Johnstone was the daughter of the first man to go around the world on a bicycle! Johnstone recommended several choice parking spots around Oxford Street, noting that ‘Debenhams and Freebody have their own private parking ground …

Thursday 28th November 2024 Readers may recall a blog in August describing an unusual situation north of Bedford where competition had broken out between Grant Palmer and Stagecoach on a bus route between Bedford and the village of Harrold. The pre August 2024 route 25 all operated by Grant Palmer On the face of it the situation on route 25 didn’t seem to make sense not least as Stagecoach began …

You wouldn’t know it was the very end of November from the verdant hydrangea leaves. History is about to be made. The latest recorded first frost I could find for our area ranges from November 23 in Bellingham, 15 miles north, to November 29 in Everett, 40 miles south of us. Today is November 27, and there is no frost in sight, even through December 6, when the high is …

I have another data point for receiving email for other people named “Sean Conner.” This time, I received an email from a auto repair shop in Wimauma, Florida, detailing work on my 2014 XXXXX­XXXXX­XXX with VIN XXXXX­XXXXX­XXXXX­XX and the Florida plate of XXXXX­X with XXXXX­X miles on the odometer for a total amount of $XXXXX­X. If that level of detail isn't scary enough, I also learned of my phone number …

Herons and egrets are some of Eric's favorite birds, and for many years, he and I have both been eager to see two species in particular that are not at all common in California: Reddish Egret and Roseate Spoonbill. Happily, the Gulf Coast of Texas is an excellent place to find both of these species (and many more), so it was with great excitement that we made our way out …

Perfume PosseNoel au Balcon Etat Libre d’Orange Heya Posse! Less than one month till Christmas. For those of you who don’t celebrate, or celebrate other religious milestones at this point, fair play to you. Thing is, across the western world it’s almost impossible to ignore the marketing,… Continue Reading → Perfume PosseNoel au Balcon Etat Libre d’Orange

Happy Thanksgiving to my readers in the U.S. and abroad! To provide you with an after-dinner musical digestivo, I've chosen a wonderful bossa nova album on Elenco. Elenco was one of the most influential Brazilian record labels. Founded by producer Aloysio de Oliveira (above) in 1963, the label was instrumental in widening the popularity of the bossa nova and samba worldwide. Today, many of the label's releases are considered masterpieces. …

The Government’s Autumn 2024 Budget included several major fiscal changes, including a revision of the method by which national debt is measured for national accounting purposes, an upcoming rise in national insurance contributions for employers and commitments related to regional devolution. Some of these changes could significantly influence London’s economic trajectory. On October 30th 2024, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, revealed the newly-elected government’s first Budget, which was …

Maxine and I got away for nearly two weeks, combining a trip to Berlin to see Ruth & Cory with the usual visit to Stuttgart. Having special assistance at Gatwick took us on a buggy to some rather obscure parts of the airport, and we were loaded into the side of the plane! Arriving in Berlin, the family weekend included a boat trip and lunch with Cory’s home made (and …

I've written about Gaburi before but it remains the absolute best karaage I've found in years of searching. Just order the boneless fried chicken thighs ("momo karaage, hone-nashi") and, if you drink, enjoy the $10 all you can drink course for two hours. Can't afford not to.

Susanna Crossman interviewed by Stu Hennigan. In the turbulent late seventies, six-year-old Susanna Crossman and her siblings were transplanted from the comfort of suburbia to the decaying splendour of an old mansion house in the heart of the English countryside when their mother decided to become part of a Utopian community. Here they joined a group of at least fifty others who were determined to free themselves from the tyrannical …

I’m sick in bed the week of Thanksgiving, which is mostly bothering me because I was looking forward to using the holiday lull to finally get some work done. This sounds bad, I know. But my family doesn’t even do Thanksgiving! My whole life I’ve made do with (and enjoyed, to be fair) turning up at other people’s celebrations. This year I’m starving for a secret pocket of time instead; …

Reviewed by Harriet Sequels can be very enticing when the initial book has done well. Readers want to know what happens to a character they’ve connected with. So says a literary agent in this witty, exciting thriller, which is itself of course the sequel to Korelitz’s previous novel, The Plot, which I reviewed on here back in 2021. In that book Jacob Finch Bonner, a failing novelist, gets a job …

I achieved the dream of walking out of Tesco with something I hadn’t paid for. I bought a carton of oat milk that had a promotional price of £1.50 on the shelf edge, but after checking my receipt I saw that I’d been charged £2. Out of principle, I immediately headed for the customer service desk to point this out. The employee disappeared off to check and came back with …