Month: March 2018

  • That’s just not cricket

    Oh dear Australia, what have you done? Over the weekend news has seeped out that the Australian cricket team tampered with the ball in their latest test match with South Africa. Captain Steve Smith has been banned for one match and fined his entire match fee after admitting the team’s “leadership group” came up with…

  • A cold day in Shakespeare country

    “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” At the weekend S and I made a quick overnight trip to the home of the Bard, Stratford-upon-Avon. This mini weekend away idea has become quite a success of ours recently. Our working timetables mean we don’t always get strings of days off together, so we make…

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    Travel real tale: What I’ve learned

    I travel for work. I know that sounds very exciting and glamorous – and it is, sort of. But there are a few moments when plane-hopping round the world delivers the sort of head-shaking, face-palming experience that you get in any other work place. Whether it is a 5am flight out of a back-of-beyond airport…

  • Vegan slutty brownies

    I have been a fan of Slutty Brownies for a long time. For the uninitiated, these are simply the best brownies ever created in the history of the world. They are a joy which I first discovered courtesy of the wonderful Rosie and her blog The Londoner. If you haven’t checked her out before I…

  • Two parties in Tel Aviv

    Last week was a bit quiet on the blog – mainly because it wasn’t that quiet off the blog. I headed off to Tel Aviv, Israel, for a work conference. I’ve not been to Israel before but everything I read said Tel Aviv is the livlier, “more youthful” place to visit, as compared to its…

  • Trailer Time: Fantastic Beasts & Avengers

    Don’t say I don’t do anything for you. The movie world has dropped two big trailers in the last couple of days – Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald. But if these silver screen franchise heavy hitters have passed you by, then grab a cup of tea and…

  • International Women’s Day: 11 pieces of good advice

    In honour of International Women’s Day, here are 11 great pieces of advice from great women. That’s all, I’m keeping it simple because the best way to get the message of this day is through actions, words. But this is a blog, so here goes: “We need to do a better job of putting ourselves…

  • Country Living don’t do weekends, but if they did…

    Spring is trying to, well, spring. The snow, which plunged us into a deep freeze last week, shifted as the weekend hit and that meant that S and I could indulge in a countryside day out we have been planning for a while. We woke up surrounded by fields, with cool sunshine overhead and barely…

  • The rise of vermouth

    The age of vermouth is here. Now it is entirely possible that you have had one of two reactions to that statement: 1. Isn’t that the stuff my Grandma drinks? 2. Ver-what now? But have no fear, for you are not alone. A short while ago I was having dinner in Helsinki when my dining…

  • The Non-Oscars 2018

    The Oscars were last night. As I sit writing this at my desk in London, Twitter is lighting up with photos of semi-inebriated Hollywood bods enjoying the post-ceremony merriment. The morning after the Academy Awards always produces a tidal wave of lists all chronicling one of two things: who won what and who wore what.…