Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir is, as you know, what The Avengers is called in France. Rather long-winded and goodness knows what it is called in Germany.
I hung around SE Asia in 1989, based in Singapore. Inspired by one of the funniest travel books I have ever read, Into the Heart of Borneo by Redmond O’Hanlon, I spent a long weekend in Sarawak. It was published only six years previously, in 1983, so not much had changed.
One of the pleasures of being in France is getting to know the region; its flora, fauna and vineyards. No sign of a hoopoe yet but plenty of vineyards.
Today’s post is an homage to Robert O’Byrne, The Irish Aesthete. I had the pleasure of meeting Robert in Ireland last weekend; my sister asked him to a merry dinner.
My fishing book does not mention the tarpon I hooked on the Belize River. It kept jumping out of the water and on one of these leaps I lifted the tip of my rod and the dead weight broke the line. It does mention a catch in Ethiopia.
It’s red pin time again. The Owenduff meanders through peat hags in Co Mayo towards the Atlantic. There are clumps of rhododendrons in blossom along its banks. A few scruffy sheep mooch about. The country looks devoid of any human habitation but on inspection there is a sprinkling of small houses.
So long – I’m going west into a Wi-Fi-free area, taking this gadget with me. Just eight inches and with rugged good looks it will turn me into a barista anywhere there is hot water, if Security don’t think it’s a bomb. We meet again towards the end of next week.
The chairman of MP Evans (see many previous posts) did an MBA at the Henley Business School on the Thames near Henley, natch, in the late 1980s. My mind resolutely refuses to grapple with anything serious but retains trivia and I recall the first exercise he was set at HBS.
Bath featured here a few days ago. I went to see the Bruegel/Brueghel exhibition at the Holburne Museum. You might think I went to Cherbourg from the picture above.
Old Etonian actor and good egg, Moray Watson, died earlier this month aged eighty-eight. He was an excellent supporting actor, often stealing the show. As he got older parts weren’t so easy to come by and he started doing one-man shows.