No rush

My children (or at least one of them, presumably speaking on behalf of them all?) have promised to buy me a new Bristol, as and when they have earned enough money.

The latest Bristol is the Bristol Bullet, which is a 2 seater open top sports car.  It does look stylish, but I will be very happy to wait until the next 4 seater is available, which is apparently going to be very high-tech, and might be a while yet in the gestation.

So there is really no need for my children to be in any great rush to

Daughters in the Frame

My elder daughter Annabel’s piece about getting up close and personal with great white sharks in South African waters has appeared up on the MailOnline Travel page.  That was just a few days ago, but a quick search reveal that the Mail has since published another 10 pieces by her. So she has been busy with both her keyboard and her GoPro.

Meanwhile, my younger daughter Lucy’s recent short film A Piece of Cake has been already

Unigh Stays I – The Smell of the DoI

I had some business in London, and decided I might as well fly home via New York and then Houston.

My own past experience of New York is that it is a hard place to like. For my money, it is too noisy, too ugly, the people (or at least some of them) are too graceless and I do not cope well with the smell of urine and vomit in the streets being never far away.  But this time, surprisingly, I enjoyed myself.

Partly, of course, this was because it was such a pleasure to spend some time with my son Charlie, and to see how happy he is with his beloved. And partly it was because the Penn Club, where I stayed, was very civilised, with a decent library.

But there are things I do not understand about New York. For example, why do the immigration officials need to be so gratuitously unpleasant. Unlike Heathrow, where one is met with a smile and a, “Good morning. May I see you passport, sir?” the reception at JFK is as though one is a felon being processed for a period of incarceration. Not all New Yorkers are like this, of course. The servers in restaurants are typically helpful and charming. Then again, the servers in NY restaurants rely on tips. Perhaps they should stop paying the US immigration officials, and make them rely on tips?

It was 4^th July, so we planned to go to Charlie’s girlfriend’s roof terrace to watch the fireworks. But it was raining. So we didn’t. Being 4^th July – Independence Day – the New York Times back page reproduced the whole of the Declaration of Independence of 1776. Including

Brexit on the Track

Lewis Hamilton Unrepentant

Just a few days after the Brexit decision by the voters of the UK, German driver Nico Rosberg attempted to run English driver Lewis Hamilton off the track in the Austrian Grand Prix.  It was on the last lap, when the faster Hamilton was overtaking the slower Rosberg. Rosberg’s brakes were already damaged and the result of the collision was that Hamilton won the race and Rosberg limped home 4th with his car even more damaged.  As I write this, the stewards are considering whether to further penalise the German for his poor behaviour.

The Austrian crowd booed Hamilton as he took his prize.  Unsurprisingly, Hamilton was