Tag: Random

  • New Countries Visited in 2025

    New Countries Visited in 2025

    With my last flight of the year completed a couple of weeks ago, that concludes my international travel for 2025.

    I visited a fair number of countries again, including Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland.

    New countries for me included Albania, Austria, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Slovakia and Slovenia. That leaves me just with Sweden to visit so that I’ve completed every EU country, and just Nicosia (Cyprus) and Stockholm (Sweden) to visit so that I’ve been to every EU capital.

    As for my favourite city of 2025, it was without doubt Warsaw, but that is unlikely to surprise many people.

    I didn’t go further than Europe, not least as my Wizz Air pass gave me plenty of options to explore European countries a little more. I’m looking forward to seeing what surprises and delights I’ll find in 2026……

  • The Bravery of It All…..

    The Bravery of It All…..

    More about this in another post, but this is why I couldn’t be at the Norwich Beer Festival, as my best mate Liam and I were busy being brave……

  • 2013 KFC Forest Gate Receipt

    2013 KFC Forest Gate Receipt

    As to what’s this doing here….

    Of no great relevance, but a minor piece of social history from January 2013 and a two piece variety meal.

  • Thank you Facebook

    Thank you Facebook

    Screenshot_20250616_184345_Facebook

    It was me that was trying to log-in, so thanks as ever to Facebook for being so helpful….

  • Bloody Laptop – Small Delay Ahead……

    Bloody Laptop – Small Delay Ahead……

    My laptop has failed which is highly sub-optimal, so my two loyal blog readers might face a delay in reading my riveting posts until the matter is resolved….

    NB, the image is AI generated, not my actual laptop….

  • 1911 Census – Spends My Money

    1911 Census – Spends My Money

    Credit for this one to Family Tree Magazine, but they noted that on this 1911 census form that the occupation of the housewife has been listed as “spends my money”. George Henry Mousell, a transport clerk, lived at 17 Clifford Gardens in Kensal Rise, London, and goodness knows if his wife, Lucy Mousell, ever saw this. [I originally posted this in November 2020, but have reposted it to fix the broken image link].

  • BBC News Story on Oldest Living Person

    BBC News Story on Oldest Living Person

    I really like this story, which is that the oldest person in the world is a lady from Surrey who is 115 years old and 253 days. The element that intrigues me the most is:

    “Ms Caterham was born on 21 August 1909 and is the last surviving subject of Edward VII.”

    There is just one person in the world who was alive when King Edward VII (1841-1910) was Monarch, I think that’s really quite something. Mind you, given my healthy diet and how I treat my body as a temple, I wouldn’t be surprised if I live just as long.

  • Blog Adverts

    Blog Adverts

    I will confess that even I’m getting annoyed at the adverts on my blog, which is just because I let Google choose the best placement. Anyway, there are evidently too many and I’ve worked out the settings that stop the ads from interrupting the flow of my beautiful text. I think I might have a celebratory beer later to mark this event and here’s a photo of the cat I liked in Athens that Richard wouldn’t put in his suitcase to bring back. Also, no-one else commented on the interrupting ads, so many thanks to everyone for their patience.

  • Random – Jay Rayner’s Final Observer Column

    Random – Jay Rayner’s Final Observer Column

    Just as one of my random posts, it’s a little sad to see that my favourite food writer has penned his last column for the Observer.

    As usual, he’s right on so much. Meals should be served on plates and not shovels and the best foods are brown and messy.

    But, he’s especially right with this comment IMO:

    “Waiters should always write down orders.”

    I find it the height of unprofessional service when waiting staff (not that I go many places with waiters, I’m a bit mass market for that) try and remember everything, as it seems to have no advantages and plenty of disadvantages when they remember wrongly. And I will slightly stress and worry during the wait for the meal that they’re remembered my order incorrectly.

    But his best comment of all….

    “Eating alone in a restaurant is dinner with someone you love and a delicious opportunity for people watching.”

    Quite right.