This is the fourth summary of my year that I have done (you can read 2018, 2019 and 2020‘s reports) and, for reasons I will outline below, this year is very much incomplete. Nevertheless it is still worth taking time to assess the year.… Read the rest
2020, a Year in Review
Well what a year that was! Not quite the one I was expecting to have that’s for sure. We didn’t get to go on the holidays we had planned but we got to see a lot more of our granddaughter which was more than adequate compensation.… Read the rest
Lockdown Live Music in the Ex-stream
On a normal year by this point I would have have been to see, on average, about five music concerts. This, of course, is not a normal year by any means and so the total stands exactly at a measly one.… Read the rest
What I did during my Lockdown
When junior school children go back to the classroom in September (assuming that they do) I have no doubt that up and down the country teachers will be getting their pupils to write the “what I did during my lockdown” essay.… Read the rest
Relative Strangers (and God). The Mill at Sonning, 14th March 2020
God, who we all know is Alanis Morissette, is clearly not very happy with the inhabitants of planet Earth. Those hints about climate change were clearly too subtle for many so she decided that another forty days and forty nights of rain leading to flooding might clue some people up.… Read the rest
2019, a Year in Review
This has taken me longer to sort out this year than it did for 2018 but here, finally, for you delectation is my 2019 in numbers.
Once again these figures have been culled from a number of sources including Exist, last.fm… Read the rest
Marillion, Royal Albert Hall, 18th November 2019. Bums and Pointing.
I think that we have established that I have been to a fair few concerts in my time but last nights Marillion gig at the RAH must have been the strangest of the lot.
The Royal Albert Hall is a beautiful venue and the acoustics are just amazing.… Read the rest
Writefest 2019
A couple of years ago we went to Progress Theatre’s annual Writefest. This is an evening of seven short plays written and performed by local and up-and-coming actors. As you can imagine there is real mixed bag of plays on offer and the quality and therefore the enjoyability is also variable.… Read the rest
Amélie The Musical, The Watermill Theatre, 27th April 2019
UPDATE! Amélie has now transferred to the West End and you can see it too. More info here.
When you discover that someone has turned one of your favourite films into a musical the initial reaction is “well, that can only end badly”.… Read the rest
What Parenthood Does to your Social Life
My eldest son is going to be making me a grandparent in the summer and we were talking about what the arrival of children does to your ability to get out and about. Turns out this is beautifully illustrated in the chart above.… Read the rest