Open House 2024

I’ve been to Open House a few times. Every year, the Open House Festival opens up London’s architecture, special sites, and neighbourhoods. Some of the places are not normally accessible to the public. You get to see people’s homes, offices, and other interesting buildings. Some places you must book but others you can just drop … Continue reading / view photos Open House 2024

Clacton-on-Sea to Walton-on-the-Naze

This weekend, a friend and I walked from Clacton-on-Sea to Walton-on-the-Naze. The tide being out, we could walk on the beach for the whole 20 km. With the sun out and mild temperature, it felt more like summer than autumn. We started by walking through Clacton’s town centre, which is quite small. Once on the … Continue reading / view photos Clacton-on-Sea to Walton-on-the-Naze

A play, the lido, and outdoor cinema

Last weekend started with a trip to the National Theatre in central London on the river. We went to see The Grapes of Wrath. This is a play of the novel by John Steinbeck. The play follows the book quite closely and recreates the feel of the book with a minimalist set, which was highly … Continue reading / view photos A play, the lido, and outdoor cinema

Paris 2024

One of the reasons I started a blog was to record what I was doing and thinking at a particular point in time. I looked back at my post on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which were postponed until 2021. There were so many things about the Tokyo games that I’d forgotten. The most glaring being … Continue reading / view photos Paris 2024

Worcester waddle

During my last trip to Worcester, I didn’t have time to go to its fabulous library, The Hive. This time I spent some time in it. Once I’d walked around the library, I went to the top floor and read my book, The Bee Sting, which everyone seems to be reading and is a page-turner. … Continue reading / view photos Worcester waddle

From Euro 2024 to a lavender farm

It’s been all quiet for me lately, having been absorbed in Euro 2024 and now the Olympics. This year’s Euro football tournament was a mixed affair. In England, there was great hope (as always) for the England team. This time there were genuine reasons to be optimistic. The England team had some of the best … Continue reading / view photos From Euro 2024 to a lavender farm

From Chequers to pizza

We had a couple more days in Birmingham before going to London. There’s an environmentally friendly shop called Clean Kilo, which uses no plastics, and you take your own containers to fill up with food, toiletries, and cleaning stuff. There were two shops at one time, but they struggled during the pandemic. The one in … Continue reading / view photos From Chequers to pizza

Damselflies in Ironbridge

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon, and a short drive got us to Ironbridge. We’d done an autumn walk there a few years ago and I had fond memories of the once industrial town. We followed the same route, finishing at the Iron Bridge itself. Along the canal on the walk, the azure-blue damselflies were … Continue reading / view photos Damselflies in Ironbridge

Hay Festival 2024

A last-minute decision and booking took us to Hay-on-Wye for the second May Bank Holiday weekend. Before going into town, we walked up Hay Bluff, one of our favourite hill walks. You can ascend and descend the 677m in about an hour. Hay-on-Wye is renowned for having lots of bookshops. When I first went there … Continue reading / view photos Hay Festival 2024

Great Malvern

Being in Birmingham, I took a day trip to Great Malvern, which is easily reached by train. I’ve been many times to Malvern and have always liked walking in the hills, which the station poster told me consisted of some of the oldest rocks in England, formed over 650 million years ago. Malvern is also … Continue reading / view photos Great Malvern