New boots
I've had mixed luck with boots, or at least that used to be the case. In search of elegance, I seemed always to buy boots that looked good but didn't really fit me properly. In other words, I needed...
View ArticleNew app from Memory-Map
A new year. On the last day of the old one, I made a string of Caravan Club site bookings - my long late-spring tour that will take me to Scotland and back. And as an encore, I bought Memory-Map's 2024...
View ArticleWhen OO15 SHE met OO15 ZZZ
I've got an eye for car registration plates. I do notice them, and always have done. So when travelling westwards on the dual-carriageway A27 past Old Shoreham this morning I couldn't help seeing that...
View ArticleI've just bought a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
It's inevitable that sooner or later one's electronic equipment needs replacing, item by item. Technological developments make it a good idea; but lack of support for security measures, and apps that...
View ArticleMore on my new phone
Thank goodness getting to grips with an important item of new equipment happens only every few years! The arrival of Olivia, my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone on the morning of Wednesday 24th...
View ArticleThe immigrant barge at Portland
I was on Portland recently, having lunch with friends at the Jailhouse Café inside The Verne Prison. From the garden there you can look down on much of the vast Portland Harbour, including the quays...
View ArticleMy abiding memory of Mum
Mum died fifteen years ago today, on 3rd February 2009. It was cancer, first diagnosed in 1975, but defeated for a long while with a mastectomy. It had, however, returned it later life, when Mum was in...
View ArticleCopilot
Microsoft have been rolling out their AI app called Copilot, and a short while ago, after a Windows update, I noticed a new and colourful icon at the bottom right of my laptop screen. I left it alone...
View ArticleFiona's on the road again
I occasionally visit the DVLA website for news of my previous car, Fiona. I traded her in when buying Sophie last October. At that point she had covered 194,729 miles and was visually in very good...
View Article1988 and all that
Here's an interesting slice of social history. I have before me a copy of The Field magazine for October 1988. This is the front cover:This was - still is? - a magazine primarily aimed at well-off male...
View ArticleBig nibs at Newhaven - 1
The Sussex coast is a strange mix of once-elegant Regency resorts, breezy seaside towns, yachty backwaters, and one or two working ports. Newhaven is one such port, sitting astride the River Ouse. It...
View ArticleBig nibs at Newhaven - 2
It's late January 2024, and I've made a special point of seeing what the developer did with the former Parker Pen European management HQ and manufacturing site at Newhaven. I was in for a pleasant...
View Article5G comes to my village
Since its launch some while back, 5G has been making steady progress. I see that 5G coverage with EE (my mobile phone service provider) has now reached the point where every city and most towns in the...
View ArticleSouthampton's Floating Bridge
You can't go and see this one - it was replaced by the Itchen Bridge in 1977. But I took some farewell pictures in May that year, which I hope will stir fond memories in the mind of anyone who lived in...
View ArticleDefeated by mud - again!
The follow-up to my last post will have to wait. I'm on holiday now.Strictly speaking, this is my second caravan holiday of 2024, as I had a few days near Wareham in East Dorset in January, primarily...
View ArticleFixing it
I'm with OVO Energy for my electricity and gas supply. Not from deliberate choice, but because back in November 2022 they absorbed SSE and I automatically became a customer of theirs. I'd already come...
View ArticleUnwanted sophistication
I have composed this post on my laptop using Notepad, an old-time Windows utility that allows you to type only in plain text. No fancy stuff such as bold and italics! But plain text is all I need for...
View ArticleA spate of messages, a fix costing nothing
It's been very nearly six months since I drove away Sophie, my second-hand Volvo XC60 with the prized-but-no-longer-made five-cylinder (D5) diesel engine, and R-Design embellishments, from Caffyns...
View ArticleCar insurance punches my purse
Ever since the end of last year, I had been noticing reports and comments on the rapidly-rising cost of car insurance. There were cases of drivers paying twice what they had before - drivers who had...
View ArticlePersonal emails only, for future blog post comments
I'm fed up with comments that are commercially inspired, and really no better than advertisements. These rarely show up in the very latest posts; often they are placed on older (or even very old) posts...
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