I was given a flyer during the last week or two at the Proms for a concert featuring The Bach Players in Hampstead. We decided it looked interesting enough to be worth the effort, and booked tickets. Unfortunately we've both had colds this week and Mrs Q decided not to come along, so I was on my own ( Read more... )

Book Review: The Trains Now Departed - Sixteen Excursions into the Lost Delights of Britain's Railways, by Michael WilliamsI've really enjoyed previous books by the same author, so I found myself a little disappointed with this one. It's not that it's bad, but rather that some of his examples of lines that closed prior even to Beeching were plainly ( Read more... )

Perhaps last week was a good week to be away. The shootings in Orlando, the killing of Jo Cox, and the derailment of a train outside Paddington station all impacted on me in a bad way ( Read more... )

Book Review: Steaming to Victory - How Britain's Railways won the War, by Michael WilliamsI'm a bit behind on book reviews, as I finished this over a week ago. This is the second of two books I bought at the National Railway Museum in York a couple of years ago, coincidentally both by the same author ( Read more... )

On Saturday we travelled to Cardiff to meet up with my university friend Rhodri WINOLJ. Having checked the train times, we needed to make an early start. Due to engineering works the train diverted from Reading to Westbury, then up to Chippenham, back to Swindon, before on to Bristol, Newport and Cardiff - essentially doubling the travel time. In ( Read more... )

We took the opportunity last week of going to the late evening at the Royal College of Physician's exhibition Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee. It's a small exhibition but there were some interesting pieces. Books aren't always especially striking visually, and there were a few paintings and other artefacts included in the ( Read more... )

Book Review: London Orbital, by Ian SinclairRescued from the pile destined for Mortimer Station library, I didn't have particularly high hopes for this. It turned out fair, though it's interesting how dated a lot of the references seem. Sinclair took a route following closely the course of the motorway, with fellow-travellers, in 1999, though the ( Read more... )

Book Review: Station to Station - Searching for Stories on the Great Western Line, by James AttleeAgain this was from the work book sale, though it was one of three volumes that had already been on my wish list. Attlee traces the route from London to Bristol, with one or two diversions. It's a mixed bag: there are some interesting sections, such as ( Read more... )

After considering a number of options for a holiday this year, we finally decided on a return to Poland, this time to visit the cities of Warsaw and Gdansk. Setting off on Friday morning only slightly earlier than a normal work-day, the trip to Heathrow was smooth enough. Our flight was slightly delayed, but nothing compared to the disruption we ( Read more... )

We've been home for a week but it's taken time to catch up on things ( Read more... )