Coronavirus Update Two

02 Oct 2020 Upnor, Kent, UK

Well, so much for hoping that this would all be over by August…! Welcome to instalment three in the Coronavirus blog series. Since the last blog things were slowly beginning to open up following the original spring lockdown and while life certainly hasn’t been normal, it has become the ‘new normal’ to use one of my most disliked phrases. The rou... Read more

Coronavirus Update

10 May 2020 Upnor, Kent, UK

It’s been 50 days since I first posted about Coronavirus and it’s fair to say that in that time, the world has changed. 50 days ago there were 289 deaths in the UK and yesterday’s daily government briefing announced the total is now 31,589 - which puts our little island nation second in numbers only to the USA. Italy was at the centre of the cri... Read more

Coronavirus

21 Mar 2020

The past few weeks have been quite extraordinary. The current Coronavirus pandemic has begun to affect our lives in the way nothing like it ever has before - and I suspect that we’re very much still at the start line. on Friday (20th March 2020) in a live TV address to the nation the prime minister, Boris Johnson directed that as soon as reason... Read more

Lower Upnor Through the Years

28 Sep 2019

I came across some old photographs of Lower Upnor the other day and wanted to share them online. I’m not too sure when the older pictures were taken or by whom, but perhaps somebody will be able to help. They show an fantastic glimse into how upnor has changed over the last 70 or so years. This first picture (above) is the most recent, taken in... Read more

For the Lifeboats!

03 Jul 2019

As all of the very few people who read my blog will know, I am a big supporter of the RNLI. The charity has been close to my heart since childhood, I used to build lifeboats out of lego bricks, subscribe to Stormy Stan’s monthly magazine and became known as Lifeboat Lolly. I recall with glee the fantastic opportunity I had once to sit on the Atl... Read more

Medway Regatta 2019

01 Jul 2019

The Medway Regatta is a big weekend of racing for all classes of keelboat. There are races for Sonatas, Squibs, Dragons, Cruisers and even Thames Barges! The past few years I’ve focused my time underwater rather than on the water but not too many years back I used to spend time sailing dinghies on the Medway in the cadet class. This year I had t... Read more

Quick Beer in Hastings

07 Jan 2019

Last year I did very poorly on my quest to explore the UK and complete my Rail Map. The only piece of new milage I managed to complete was from Birmingham New Street to Worcester Shrub Hill. This was unplanned, a last ditch attempt to get home from Birmingham via Oxford during the January snow. My failed attempt left me stranded at Shrub Hill wh... Read more

Thank you, 2018

03 Jan 2019

Readers of the blog will know that 2018 was The Year of Smart, my first attempt at utilising the concept of a yearly theme to help maintain direction and focus on productivity. The good news is it went well..! The theme worked as intended and helped provide overarching guidance and had many good benefits over using a simple list of annual goals ... Read more

A Quick Update to the Rail Map

14 Oct 2017

It hasn’t been the busiest year for rail travel, in fact, I have barely used the train at all compared to last year. That’s mostly due to much less commuting, instead spending more time working from home but is probably because of the unfortunate expiration of my 16-25 Railcard. Trains now seem and well, are, expensive – that’s a big frustration... Read more

The Atlantic Coast Line

31 Jan 2016

How best to spend a windy and rainy day in Cornwall? Well, a trip to Newquay on the train of course! This is the penultimate journey of all the Cornish branch lines and one I’d been looking forward to for a while. It’s the longest of all the branch lines in Cornwall and during summer special direct services are scheduled using HST sets to/from L... Read more

Whitstable Regatta

17 Aug 2015

This weekend Victoria and I ventured to Whitstable for the regatta and a day out. The regatta was rather odd, there were very few boats, it was no equivalent to Cowes! Perhaps we missed the events somehow. Nonetheless we still had a fantastic time, Whitstable is one of the best parts of Kent, it is on the sea, has a fantastic brewery and isn’t t... Read more