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Existentially, it is not possible to do nothing because you exist and that is a full-time job in itself.  I slumped in front of the TV whilst Françoise went and had a long swim in the pool.  We went for a walk at lunchtime to an adjacent village and found a bakery, community centre.  Everyone who entered the shop was known, and it was in order to wait while they had a little chat and gossip and...

Skipton market must be wonderful in the summer but this was off-season and there were a few bedraggled stalls selling stones and miscellaneous knickknacks. We had about three hours here so again decided on a grand walk around. I popped into a local store and bought an excellent pair of corduroy trousers for 18 pounds, and 40 batteries, AAA, and AA for two pounds. We went into the local church...

Though some years, in fact for most of my life, I was skeptical or perhaps cynical about coach trips never mind tours. I suppose years of traveling by National Express, bus instead of the train, partly broke down my prejudices but I had to do an actual coach tour to see what it was all about. The population of coach tours are pretty much standard so far as I can see, normally fairly senior...

So, an early rise in order to pack and do all the little things you have to do to close down a house before you leave. We found our feeder coach near to Bath bus station without much difficulty and left on time, picking up from various obscure points on our way to Gloucester where we met the main coach that came  from Cornwall.  Evidently the coach started at 5:15 AM so that was definitely a...

Storm Dennis has abated and the winds are light and the sky is blue. I like the recent comment on Facebook by 'Annie Dieu Le Vent' (must be a made-up name) who said Lots of fuss about Storm Dennis. Seems pretty small beer, really, for someone who lived in Sevenoaks during the Great Storm of 1987, with the house shaking all night, and then emerging bleary-eyed in the morning to find that half the...

I would like to quote from a conversation recorded in Cambridge between Sir Roger Scrutton and Jordan Peterson in 2018, you can see the video yourself but I quote from the last few minutes - Jordan's thoughts about making a contribution. We could concentrate on building the future as opposed to criticizing the past. It is necessary to de-compose to reconstruct. Those acts cannot be separated....