"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London.
No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life;
for there is in London all that life can afford."~ Samuel Johnson in 1777 ( Read more... )

For about the next four weeks, depending on the episode, five excerpts of this fine book read by the author himself, will be available to listen anywhere in the world. Each episode is a delightfully compact fourteen minutes, so there's no excuse to miss out on any of them. Apparently, it was originally broadcast in 2010, repeated in 2011 and again ( Read more... )

...I arrived in London to settle here permanently. The photos below were taken on the night and subsequent morning of that memorable journey. It was my first flight to Blighty in three years - and I only stayed a night on that occasion - so this was actually my first proper visit in nearly four years. I was over the moon, making childhood dreams ( Read more... )

A few months ago I re-posted an earlier entry about the first cricket match (albeit an exhibition) that I attended in Muscat in September 1992. On my recently-concluded visit to Muscat, I came across the book of autographs that links me to the scene of the crime. Growing up in a country which used to host crumbs of international sport of any kind, ( Read more... )

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I arrived back from my travels yesterday afternoon. And I thought I'd get started with a video that I've watched at least a few dozen times. It combines my favourite cricketer with my favourite sports commentator, both of whom provided me with the maximum satisfaction as a young Indian cricket fan. I was fourteen when these two innings were played ( Read more... )

It's exactly ten years since I made my first LJ entry. 3,323 entries later, it's fair to say I've done justice to the original invite that got me started. Only four years ago I thought Twitter would replace this blog. In fact, the two have co-existed comfortably and perhaps, even thrived through their interaction. I have no idea how much longer ( Read more... )

For a while now, I've wanted to make my own contribution to the burgeoning collection of London's Then and Now photos. I always thought, that contribution would merely provide the 'Now' shot, but as it happens, my first contribution contains both the 'Then' and 'Now' shots! The 'Then' picture was taken with a disposable camera on my trip to This ( Read more... )

(I hope Paddy doesn't mind that I've copy-pasted his blog post in full. It's a fantastic insight into the the Little Master's mindset, upbringing and character, from an insider.)It was on the Proteas team bus that I read about Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement from ODI cricket. I found myself reflecting on my three years of working with him. To me, the ( Read more... )

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