Life's about experiences. These are mine.
A bumper crop to end the year as my Christmas requests were fulfilled by Santa. This months additions are: Train – Bulletproof Picasso Simple Minds – Big Music The The – Mind Bomb Prides – Mixtape 2014 (single) Peter Gabriel – Back to Front EP (SoS) Alpine – A is for Alpine Tchaikovsky – Serenade …
So all this year I have been recording all the new music I have added to my collection (you can see all the monthly entries here) and I wanted to take a look back and see which of all the albums I’ve added I’ve enjoyed the most. The criteria for this award is quite simple …
30 years ago I went to what was then the Apollo theatre in Oxford to see Marillion. This was during the Fugazi tour when they were still in their ascendancy and Fish wasn’t writing songs like Lavender. I remember the beginning of the gig very clearly. The set had a raised stepped gantry in the …
This has to be my favourite shop in the world. It was situated directly opposite our hotel and with its unassuming frontage was easy to miss. It’s a lamp shop but unlike any I had ever seen before. In the window were several brass instruments that had been turned into lamps and they were beautiful, …
Thanks to my friends at Ryanair I have an extra hour at the airport to write this blog post, so much for the “on time airline”. Oh well. When abroad Helen and I like to try and find off the beaten track places to eat. This usually is done by a combination of guidebooks, hotel …
Today, the reason we had come to Budapest when it was cold – the Christmas markets. I believe that these originate from Germany but they are everywhere now. We visited Birmingham’s German Market a couple of weeks ago and the ones in Budapest were supposedly bigger, hence the trip. You could ask why we simply …
After a relatively mild start to autumn in the UK the cold of Budapest has come as something as a shock and it’s not even that cold. At 2 degrees it is still hat and gloves weather though so that is how we left the hotel this morning. The city is made up of two …
I guess for some London Stansted is a really convenient airport. There must be some people who say “I know let’s leave this dreary English weather behind and jet off somewhere sunny. Stansted is only just down the road”. Those people don’t live in Reading. For us Stansted means a trek along major motorways of …
Last days away are always hard as you have to balance the time you have available to do something meaningful with an eye on the clock to ensure you leave enough time to make your flight. Today was one of those days although with a flight not due to leave until 17:20 we had plenty …
Today was a bit of a departure from the norm in that while we did all the usual touristy things we also went to a museum to see and exhibition of the works of MC Escher. His work fascinates me and is some of the most accessible art that I have come across. Part of …