Quote Of The Day

"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)"

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Ethan…

Had a lovely afternoon out with Ethan and Darce.  We went for a wander into town and then to the Tate Modern. 


@klausfaust

@darce_styles












Sunday, December 28, 2025

Arsenal 2 - 1 Brighton…

Paul was at the game. Yay! 

Also lovely to see the @gaygooners assembled pre match proving once again that fashion, passion, and football can all coexist. Less so on the pitch though.

Arsenal dominated everything except the scoreboard. Odegaard finally remembered he is very good at football and scored after Saka stole a goal kick like a polite burglar. Fifteen first half shots suggested comfort. Arsenal disagreed.

Rice delivered a corner. Brighton delivered an own goal. Very sporting. Then Arsenal remembered tradition and invited chaos. Raya refused the invitation with a save of genuine beauty and everyone exhaled at once.

Top of the league again. Mild panic included.

Onwards and upwards, my friends.

@Arsenal @OfficialBHAFC @bukayosaka87 @martinodegaard
#ARSBRI #COYG #arsenal #afc #gunners #gooners #PremierLeague









Friday, December 26, 2025

Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 6…

15 min (partially orchestral) version of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill? Yup.


Emotionally devastating, spiritually cleansing, still not long enough! Beautiful. 


@Netflix @Stranger_Things @katebushmusic

#StrangerThings #StrangerThings5 #RunningUpThatHill #KateBush #TVMusic #Orchestral #SynthsAndFeelings #UpsideDownEmotions




Wednesday, December 24, 2025

Xmas Eve Drinks 2025…

Lovely Xmas Eve drinks at The Welly while we all wait for Santa to arrive 🎅🎁🥳🍻









Monday, December 22, 2025

Candlelight Carols @ Union. Chapel…

Stuart, Darce and I went to a lovely candlelight carol service at the Union Chapel last night. We’d had a couple of liveners beforehand, so naturally we were all in full voice 🎶🍷😀

@UnionChapelUK @UniChapelChurch @UnionChapelChurchLondon 

#CandlelightCarols #UnionChapel #CarolSingalong #FestiveSpirits #InFullVoice











Sunday, December 21, 2025

Family Xmas 2025…

We had a fabulous family get together yesterday. Thank you Joanna for a beautiful spread, games, laughter, presents, cards, and drink. 🎁🥳🎊🍾 ❤️🎅🧑‍🎄🎄🎉 

















Football and Tax - my Sunday musings….

Not everybody is a football fan. I get that. Overpaid players. Rich clubs. Corrupt organisers etc. 

But let’s just think about one aspect of it. The value to the UK economy. Football is a UK power-house; and so helps all we UK tax payers too!

The Premier League’s international TV rights are now more valuable than domestic ones & have increased 15-fold in the past 20 years. They are now worth more than those of the other top European leagues combined. 

In fact, the new package of global rights is expected to exceed the value of all other UK TV exports(!) — an astonishing achievement given how rapidly these are increasing, too, & another illustration that Britain’s soft power standing continues to rise. 

So how does that help you and me as UK residents? 

Despite having some good accountants, the Premier League & its clubs pay £4.4 billion in tax each year, a handy amount, & deliver almost £10 billion in gross value added to the UK economy.  A real British success story. 

Now, if only they would keep the price of those match-day pies to a reasonable level 😅