Drapers' Almshouse Teaparty 2007

Tea for the residents of the Drapers' Almshouses at Drapers Hall. Click on the heading to hear us singing 'Daisy Daisy'

The House of the Rising Sun

Photo Jim Goldsmith
Back in 1967 again - driving home from the White Horse in Droxford took exactly 4.5 minutes - the time taken for Eric Burdon to sing The House of the Rising Sun on a primitive battery-powered disc player on the back seat of my car....

Click on the heading for a Google Map of the route - though I actually took Watton Lane to avoid the rozzers...not because I'd been drinking because in those days I only drank coke!

Click on the link below to hear Eric Burdon again...

Spring in London

London's magnolias spell spring as do the exuberant double petal plums that seem to colour the air around them. But the fallen camellia flowers show that they can flower earlier - some even in winter.

Japan in Spring

The plum blossom comes out about a month before the more famous cherry blosom, but many Japanese prefer its more restrained beauty. This was at Kitano Tenmangu

Cliveden

Another favourite place. Click on the heading for the story of the Profumo affair which began here...

Favourite Food

Beautiful Japanese food! I had already eaten the cod (in the yellow bowl) and was starting on the rest. Tofu came later on a brazier, but my favourite tofu skin - 'yuba' - can be seen here bottom right. Delicious!

Favourite Music

Thomas Tallis - Spem in Alium

This was one of wolfiewolf's earliest favourites, which he used to play with his brother Piers on an old gramophone. With thanks to a friend, Nigel of the Thomas Tallis Society and to Zenera for showing me where to find this amazing music site

A Good Year

A favourite film

A similar place - lunch in Sausse

The Snow Country

The first line of this marvellous book is perfect:

'The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country'.

Yasunari Kawabata

Favourite Places - Hotel Bristol

Another of my favourite places. The Hotel Bristol in Paris