I reckon I have written more than 250,000 words here, a bagatelle compared to Chips Channon whose fifty or so volumes of diaries run to more than three million words.
Arts Council England (ACE) doled out the dosh on Tuesday. There’s plenty of it – about £400 million each year. Poor folk, who should know better, chip in £71 million by fecklessly buying lottery tickets.
The sermon last Sunday at The Royal Hospital was about baptism. The Chaplain (I prefer padre) recounted that he had been to where John the Baptist baptised Christ in the Jordan.
Trevor was in the offing until his retirement in March and now Alistair has taken his place. They are brokers at Investec and lurk discretely in the background, like Jeeves.
When I drove more my motorway cruising speed was at least 85 mph so I had to keep an eye open for jam sandwiches as they were called. (Police cars were white with a red stripe.)
I have been to two artists’ studios this week. Sir John Lavery lived at 5 Cromwell Place from 1899 – 1940. To remind, he was born in Belfast and died in Co Kilkenny in 1941, aged eighty-four. In between he was painting in London.
Last year the first day at Queen’s was a wash-out (Anyone for Tennis?). It’s a different story this year with weather so warm that I dispensed with a tie and even considered shedding my coat.
Time for an update on Kiva, a charity that arranges small loans to people in eighty-four countries. Small loans but they add up to almost $1 billion. You can see some of my loans above.