Retired international construction director (despite my degrees being PPE & EU law). Labour Party & NUFC for stress, grandchildren for joy. Wine & rowing help.
UK
Joined January 2011
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Today is Tyneside Day in the Times. Eric Idle interview: “I did all the work. I enjoyed it but I have a rather foolish northern egalitarian spirit. I was born a Geordie and I felt I couldn’t take more for directing and writing than people doing the lighting and the choreography.”
From a review in the Times of a "Northumbrian" London Restaurant.
A singing hinny cake, a kind of Northumbrian scone, made with mixed spice, currants and lavender, fried in butter, smothered in cream infused with buckets of Laphroaig whisky. Tasted like Rob Roy’s shaving foam.
Sometimes I think "getting old is hard work", then I open a bottle of 1969 Cognac (present from a grateful client in 1979) pour a generous glass for my wife (met 4 years before the Cognac vintage) and I and think.....a few more years like this would be quite pleasant
Back in my Chiltern village after a month in Burradon I was confused to see a guy in a T shirt with Hazelrigg Rutland on the back. I've heard of twinning....
Interesting challenge to my remaining ego. Five year old grandson says I'm "quite good" at building Lego. Twenty years in a building family followed by forty years working in construction obviously not totally wasted
Yesterday I took my beautiful 13 year old grandson to the Toon for a lovely lunch.
Today I went to hear a Male Voice Choir in Woodhorn, singing beautifully about mining in memory of the disaster 110 years ago. I thought about my family killed at Hartley when younger than him.
A glass of wine, on a farm that sits over the pit where my great great uncle and his son died. I feel again part of the lucky generation, first in seven with no-one who went down the pits
Piece of trivia that astounded me. Since Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865, every single President has been alive at the same time as Herbert Hoover. It would still have applied even if Kamala Harris had won. She was born the exact same day Hoover died, October 20, 1964
Further stretching of history trivia: since the death of William IV in 1837 every British monarch has been alive at the same time as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, a record which will continue with Prince William
According to Geordie Diary on FB Emma Hamilton, Nelson's mistress, was appearing in Newcastle on July 6th 1791 being buried up to her chin, naked, in Hanover Square as part of an experiment to prove "earth-bathing" could cure various illnesses. Unexpected enough for you @JHCPAL ?
Researching my (apparent) Ogle ancestors I find one marrying a Fenwick from Bitchfield, near Stamfordham, not a location I'd heard of (and not one to boast about, I suspect) There's another Bitchfield in Lincolnshire, strange name @JHCPAL
When I bought a wall thermometer for my (south facing, sheltered) patio, I laughed to see it went up to 50 degrees.
I assumed it was like the speedo in my car "offering" 160 mph.
It's just hit 47....and climbing
For this now very Southern Geordie it seems appropriate to have 5 squawking magpies (feathered version) in my garden