Serviette or Napkin
It is one of the burning issues of our age, whether a properly brought up person (like what all readers of this blog are certain to be) should refer to… Read more »
Who’s a pity boy then…?
A Budgerigar in a Cage Puts all Heaven in a Rage William Blake was actually talking about a ‘Robin Redbreast’ (you knew that of course) but the principle’s the same. The… Read more »
On the back of an envelope…
When I was about fifteen – living in Somerset – I discovered penfriends. I can’t remember much about any of them and the long distance relationship was generally very short-lived…. Read more »
Salad Days
Sir John Evelyn, best known for his diary, was also a vegetarian and a fan of salads and would hopefully have approved of the salad pictured above. His 1699 book… Read more »
The wine is corked…
It was a ritual seemingly designed to intimidate the inexperienced diner which began with the scanning of an impossibly long wine list, desperately looking for something which wouldn’t involve taking… Read more »
They flog horses – don’t they?
The writer of Ecclesiastes observed that the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong – but he’d probably never tried to buy tickets online… Read more »
Ballad of Bethnal Green
‘Extraordinary how potent cheap music is’ observed Amanda, a character in Noel Coward’s Private Lives. It’s also extraordinary how a piece of music you haven’t thought about for decades suddenly chirrups back into… Read more »
A Taste of India – possibly
When the first dedicated Indian restaurant – the Hindoostanee – was opened in London in 1809 by an enterprising immigrant called Dean Mahomed, it boasted of “Indian dishes, in the highest… Read more »
Always leave them wanting more…
I can’t really understand the appeal of ‘binge-watching’ – viewing a complete tv series (or box-set) in one sitting. This is clearly an example of the modern desire for instant… Read more »
Battersea’s Patron Saint?
So far the only saint with any Battersea connections seems to be Saint Ethelburga, who was probably just visiting her brother Saint Erkenwald, Bishop of London who may have… Read more »