PARIS, on the way south we had stayed for a couple of days in Paris. Sophie’s friend had told us of an hotel in the Rue Du Caire, the red-light district, which was closer to our budget than most. Being on a B&B basis we had to take our meals elsewhere. We tended to buy… Continue reading Memories Of France
Civil Engineering as a Profession
I realise several things. Having been employed in six different fields, and each time I applied having only a vague idea what the work involved, I believe young people are still in the same predicament. Did the soldiers joining, and more, their wives, ever think of them fighting in Afghanistan in extreme conditions? Do young… Continue reading Civil Engineering as a Profession
Discipline As A Concept
I have had to exercise discipline on others, I have been the recipient of it being implemented in almost every form, from lines to a leather belt, and more than anything I have had to exercise it on myself, often unsuccessfully. I therefore believe punishment in any form is transient, and in excess is self… Continue reading Discipline As A Concept
Sunday Special No 1
Garden Design I am not trying to compete with those brilliant people who run gardening programmes both in the press and on television, but as I have remodelled and rebuilt gardens on at least six different occasions I would like to pass on some of the problems I had to deal with and the solutions… Continue reading Sunday Special No 1
The Library and PT
The Library I have already described the way we lived in general, with me doing most of the catering for our mess and the E Boat problems. How we were provided with German speakers whose sole purpose was to listen through the hours of darkness for the officers on the ‘E’ Boats, communicating in German… Continue reading The Library and PT
Life As We Lived It In Livingstone, N Rhodesia.
Indecent Exposure And The Rest I was in receipt of or witnessed discipline in the severest sense. The business of the witch doctor being arraigned for ritual killing could have been a case in point, but the first instance and the most frightful was to do with ‘indecent exposure’ and, if I had known of… Continue reading Life As We Lived It In Livingstone, N Rhodesia.
Design and Invention
Both are faces of the same coin, derived through necessity. We all design and invent, it is natures way of progress, but what I wish to lay before you are the difficulties, snags and problems in designing and inventing for profit. My own experience. So you can evaluate the advice, in short I quote my… Continue reading Design and Invention
Chauvinism Exposed
I can’t remember, but I don’t suppose that the word chauvinism featured very much in the vocabulary of the man in the street, in the 30s and 40s. There used to be a silly story, which had more truth than humour, about an Italian who was asked his views on life, and he answered ‘… Continue reading Chauvinism Exposed
You’re No Use To Me
As Part of the Newcastle training we had to learn lathe work, forging and bench work at the Metalwork classes, a re-run of my Matriculation syllabus. This was an opportunity for me to relax. One day I was working on a lathe when I found a note complaining that the machine had been left dirty.… Continue reading You’re No Use To Me
An Unpleasant Phenomenon
Am I wrong in Thinking we are having our pockets picked day and daily, in every sphere? Take Computing, what with broadband, the vast Internet and the improvement in artwork currently available on the home computers, it is a new and wonderful world, but expanding at an unnecessary rate. I wrote novels, on the BBC.… Continue reading An Unpleasant Phenomenon