“When Cash in the Attic came on, I just had to stop everything.” “Is there is an Ikea in Bucharest?” “I do like Chinese food usually. It’s just that Frank doesn’t like stuff that’s too exotic.” “You just need trumpets.”
Berlin is a beautiful, chilled city. Its Marathon appears to be run by the friendliest people ever – efficient, but human. Lots of smiling marshalls, excellent provision of water and the German equivalent of Gatorade. Thousands of bananas, ready peeled and thrust at runners as if we were performing chimps. And lots of very, very…
Everyone thinks that the first Scout camp was held on Brownsea Island. (Well, those that think about Scouting at all, I guess, think that.) But the first uniformed Scout Camp was actually held in Humshaugh in Northumberland a year later – and the Scout County is understandably very proud of the fact. It was a…
Increasingly, I am staying in B&Bs as I travel round the UK, rather than booking into predictable and boring international hotels. With the help of a quirky directory, Mona has found me some brilliant places to spend the night. And if, occasionally, the house doesn’t live up to its hype, well, that can be an…
Today the Career Academy staff team (or at least those who could travel, due to the appalling weather) decamped to Cambridge for a day out. We went punting on theriver, enjoyed a wonderful picnic and I was able to have a blistering argument witha tea shop proprietor who wouldn’t let us sit together… All in…
Olari Secondary School has 250 pre 16 pupils and 350 sixth form students. It’s in Espoo and was the school that had been chosen by the conference organisers for a group of us to visit. If it is typical of schools in Finland, then it has much to teach those of us who are trying…
There was a Monty Python song once that went something like, “Finland, Finland, Finland, the country where I want to be…”. I don’t remember the rest, though I have shared the sentiment since I was a teenager. And now, at last I’m here – and I have a week of conferencing ahead of me with…
After last week’s debacle, I was a bit worried about today’s long run – one of two I need to complete before the Berlin Marathon at the end of September. But I need not have worried. It was hard work, but actually quite fun. I ran the same route as a couple of weeks ago,…
Despite living in London on and off for all my life, I have never visited Kenwood House. I still haven’t actually, but I did join a group of friends in its grounds tonight for a wonderful ‘Last Night of the Proms’ concert and picnic. The weather was kind. The food was delicious. The PA announcements…