Author Archives: Peter Ball

Yesterday was the first day of a brief work sojourn at Eastern College. I was reunited with two people who I had worked with last year: Gary Sparks and Deborah McCluskey. It’s a relatively easy job. I have to greet people as they come into the foyer and invite them to enrol for whatever courseContinue reading “Working at the reception of Eastern College”

Thank you to Paul and Gilly, David and Ruth, Archie and Meheli, and of course Valerie for the fantastic 75th birthday dinner. They say age is just a number, but celebrating with great friends makes the higher numbers a lot easier to swallow! Cheers to you all.

You know, you can comment. 😸

Val, as usual, did amazing things or had amazing things planned for the weekend of 14th, 15th, and 16th of August for my 75th birthday and my 76th year. It all started with a rather nice meal that Val put together with all sorts of wonderful things, and I had made Summer Pudding, which isContinue reading “A birthday weekend 2026”

Tonight we watched Mika and the programme The Piano on Channel 4. Amazing! The Piano hit on something truly special, largely because the chemistry and empathy between the hosts and judges never felt performative. ​Claudia Winkleman brought her signature warmth, grounding nervous amateur musicians in high-traffic train stations before they played, while Mika (alongside LangContinue reading “Tonight.”

I’m not living without air-conditioning. I wonder how I would manage. Currently, we are running the air con at 24°, and it seems really cool, but it’s doing the job. O steady hum behind the plastic grille, quiet savior of the dog days, you breathe a glacial mercy into rooms where the midday sun pressesContinue reading “I’m glad we have air conditioning.”

While visiting Martin and Donna in Keighley, today we head to Skipton Castle, which is owned by an Italian family, apparently, and has been for quite some time. There is a full day planned, doing various things, and as I haven’t been to Skipton before, I’m looking forward to it. We moved on into theContinue reading “Today we head to Skipton Castle.”

Today one prime minister  (Kier Starmer) left from the job and another stepped into the role (Andy Burnham)

After we’d been home for about an hour. We decided to go and look at plum trees in the wild and blackberries that are literally within a mile of our front door. I managed to slink away and found a bench to sit on while Val picked blackberries. There aren’t many, so there wasn’t aContinue reading “Checking for blackberries”