If you’re in Britain, you should definitely listen to this week’s episode of The Choir before the iPlayer version expires in a week. It’s called ‘The American Sardinians’: In January 2011 four Americans, under the name ‘Tenores de Aterue’, shared their home-grown passion for Sardinian singing with a video performance on YouTube. To their amazement [...]
Andrew and I are reading listening to Howards End right now. It’s my favourite novel. It’s my 7th or 8th time going through it, but I always learn new things. It’s Andrew’s first time, and he’s enjoying it too, though he says it’s a bit slower going than the Hunger Games. Who would have thought? [...]
Yesterday Andrew and I celebrated the 6th anniversary of the first time we met. We tend to celebrate just about every date we can remember from the progression of our relationship: meeting (18 May) first ‘date’ (7 June), the infamous surprise (15 June), moving in together (11 Jan), going steady (11 Feb), engagement (13 March), [...]
I was reading Ian Jack’s LRB review of Ken Livingstone’s memoirs and this passage caught my eye: “Two years later [in 1972], the electors of Norwood voted him onto the Greater London Council. This gave him an income of £2,000 a year, which meant that he needed no other job”. What a difference 40 years, makes, [...]
Ten years ago yesterday, I begin my first visit to England. It was my last year at university, and I came to visit my friend Lauren (who was studying abroad at UCL and living on Gray’s Inn Road) and my friend Allison (who was studying abroad at Girton College, Cambridge). To say that I enjoyed [...]
As I mentioned last week, we’ve moved offices. And (joy of joys) I can see the entrance to (and the roof of) the British Museum from my desk. Well, I’ve thought of something to do with this amazing opportunity: I’m going to go through the hundred objects in the BBC Radio 4′s fantastic 2010 series [...]
We moved offices over the weekend. The new one is absolutely amazing. Here, for example, is the view from the gym. It’s a 22 minute walk from our flat, which is pretty great. I can even see our block of flats from my desk. And St Pancras. And the roof of the British Museum. Possibly [...]
Once or twice a year, I find myself in Dublin for work. It’s a nice enough city. Like Amsterdam, the hotels are (on the whole) disappointing, but the Guiness is good and I enjoy both the compactness of the city centre and the weather. Also, the food in our office has improved dramatically in recent [...]
“Same as I want every day,” I say. “Six hours of uninterrupted reading, a large Charlie Bigham fish pie and a glass of prosecco the size of my head for dinner, world peace, last night’s Chelsea Lately on Sky+ and bed by nine. I don’t suppose I’m going to get any of those, though, am I?” Worth [...]