The funeral of my old friend William Stone was held this afternoon at St. Leonard’s Parish Church in the lovely little town of Watlington in Oxfordshire. I was privileged to be among the invited guests, and joined a throng of highly decorated notables, old servicemen and friends as we passed through a gauntlet of television […]

You’d expect Florida to be warm, if not hot and sunny – after all it’s called ‘The Sunshine State’. However it wasn’t to be. Florida had its coldest January for many years. Ice warnings were prevalent and Mike Petryszak brought all his orchids indoors and covered his other plants in the garden to avoid the […]

My advice? Avoid Miami airport whenever you can. After a very early morning start in Barbados I boarded an American Airlines plane, enroute to Miami. I suppose I must be spoiled by Far Eastern airlines service because AA’s was totally impersonal, even sullen, the cabin announcements so fast and mechanical that I could hardly understand […]

The day started with a power cut, Apparently a lorry had collided with a telegraph pole so I missed my nice cup of tea and croissants for breakfast. But no matter. I’ve been firing on all four cylinders ever since I arrived here. Yesterday was no exception – we’d been invited for the day out […]

My car was covered in the salt spread on the roads to avoid slipping on the ice, so on Saturday afternoon, after a pleasant little lunch with Jilly at Phyllis Court, I took it for a quick valet job, then packed a couple of bags and headed for Gatwick. I’d decided to spend the night […]

My friend ‘Bluebells’ gave me a beautiful box of chocolates at Christmas. She was visiting from San Francisco. It’s too nice to open, don’t you think? ‘Pootle’ – my enigmatic blog buddy wanted to see what it looked like – hence the picture. However when I get back from the USA perhaps I’ll give a […]

I saw the New Year in alone this year – mainly sprawled in front of the television, and making and receiving phone calls. The fireworks from the London Eye were quite spectacular. Geen Hong rang from Australia – she said Sydney’s were better. However, yesterday morning I went backwards in time, as I’d been invited […]