Life's about experiences. These are mine.
When we told people that we had booked a short break to Plymouth the typical reaction was “Why?” The reason was that we wanted to go somewhere we hadn’t been before and we could reach by direct train from Reading. Plymouth ticked both those boxes. However, as we walked the short distance from the station …
Of the many things I like about Reading the bus service is right up there. There’s a clean, modern fleet with good coverage, an excellent app and they generally run to schedule. It’s interesting that Reading Buses is one of the few buses services that has remained in public ownership being still wholly owned by …
For various reasons we’d delayed doing this next stage of the Thames Path but today we were good to go so it was a bit disappointing to wake to the news that the train we were due to get had been cancelled. No problem we thought, we’ll just get the next one. I checked and …
Continue reading “Thames Path – Day Eight – Windsor to Maidenhead”
Over the years I have been to many a church or catherderal and can appreciate their beauty even if I don’t agree with their usage being a devout athiest. So, when I saw online pictures of a grand Hindu temple in London I added it to my list of places I wanted to visit. When …
Continue reading “BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (Neasden Temple)”
If you live in the town you will know that over the years Reading has played host to many an important person. It is the burial place of a king, King Henry I, the prison of a poet, Oscar Wilde, and the school of an author, Jane Austen. Only it turns out that Austin was …
While driving through the Oxfordshire countryside on the way to Grey’s Court the other day I spotted a sign advertising the forthcoming Stoke Row Steam Rally. Helen was away that weekend so it seemed an ideal opportunity to give it a visit. On arriving at a very large field in the middle of nowhere I …
Below the pavements of Central London is a network of tunnels and ducting so large that I’m amazed that the city doesn’t sink into them. In 2017 it was estimated that there were 4 million km of networks and telecommunications lines underneath London. Slightly worrying is that at that point there was no central record …
In 1998 the curtain came down on the satirical TV sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey. Set in the fictitious newsroom of the Globelink News organisation it was recorded close to transmission and included topical jokes based on the week’s news. It made stars of several of its cast most notably Stephen Tompkinson, Neil Pearson and …
Reading holds an annual programme of classical music events called “Classical Music Alive” which includes a variety of events. As part of this we went last night to the Hexagon to see Film Music Gala. This was basically classical music but for those that are afraid of classical music! I’d never seen the Hexagon so …
Continue reading “Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Film Music Gala, Hexagon, Reading”
For the first time last year, Reading’s Economy and Destination Agency (REDA) (I know it’s a stupid name and they should have stuck to the much more snappy Reading (UK) but I digress) ran the first Reading Walks Festival. It was a great success with many of the walks being sold out quickly so it …