Blog

07/02/2017

You’ve been there haven’t you? In the checkout queue at your local supermarket. You will already have taken care to stack the items in the trolley in accordance with the Feng Shui Principles of Optimal Utilisation. Carefully, you remove your objects from the trolley and onto the conveyor belt. You have a pattern, an order, to guide you. Large, bulky items like detergents and washing powders, tissues and household cleaners, these are first on the belt. Then food stuffs that are…

07/02/2017

Rod Thomas, aka Bright Light Bright Light, electro-pop singer and ambassador of Pride Cymru and Localiving, has dedicated his time and energy to running 5k for 5 days from 20th to the 26th February 2017 to help raise money towards the charity that hes not only passionate about but also proud of supporting, Pride Cymru . Rod quoted, I grew up in the south wales Valleys where social media wasn’t a thing, and culture different from your own was really…

07/02/2017

The Welsh Camerata is delighted to return to St John the Evangelist, Cardiff on 25 March. The concert is made up of music from some of the most important composers of the 17th century, working in the north east of Germany. The biggest piece is Heinrich Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien (funeral music), the first requiem written to German texts. It was performed at Henry II of Reuss-Gera’s funeral, which Henry himself had carefully planned, commissioning Schütz to write the music to…

07/02/2017

It is half-term and The Boss has taken The Girl on a road-trip. It is their first trip away together without me. They are visiting Nanna and Grand-dad in Yorkshire; a four hour journey interrupted by a pit-stop at Tamworth services for lunch. The Girl phones and tells me that she ate sausage, chips and beans and her mother had an omelette. Thelma and Louise they aren’t! The Girl, my daughter, who is ten years old and happens to have…

07/02/2017

I am of course fully up to speed with the Interweb thing as you might expect (that is a lie because the current Mrs Nolan is a wiz at such matters).  Well, you don’t keep a certain kind of pet and make animal noises yourself, do you (I’m dead!).  Anyway, I internet-bank and every Monday morning at 06.30 my bank sends me a text message with my balance on it.  It’s a cool facility but I don’t think the LOL…

07/02/2017

Seasons Felicitations fellow seekers of truth. I need to share my latest escapades with you.  To begin at the beginning:  Unlike some one million car drivers in this country, we have car insurance and have “fully comprehensive” cover at that.  Recently the windscreen of the Nolan limousine decided to call it a day whilst we were hurtling down the M4, carrying the precious cargo of Sainted Mother-in-Law and her Daughter, the current Leader of the Opposition.  I phoned the insurers:…

07/02/2017

I have always been hugely impressed by the skills and vision of Lancelot Capability Brown, the famous English 18th Century landscape architect.  It occurred to me that it would be a great plot for a comedy series if he had a less well known alcoholic distant relative, Totally Incapable Brown, possibly Scottish, who leaves a series of landscaping disasters across this green and pleasant land.  Note if you will the natural water feature below by way of example. Of course,…

07/02/2017

I must confess to having dipped into and out of the recent Olympic Games coverage but from what I saw and have since seen with the Paralympics, I confess to being blown away by the dedication and talent of this special group of people.  However, not all of us share this view.  In a recent evening out with the current Mrs Nolan (who is in training for the Triathlon, or Cage Fighting or something), we repaired to the local hostelry,…

07/02/2017

Once upon a time, the current Mrs Nolan and I decided to do some missionary work in Clevedon in the West Country.  This being the first Holiday Weekend after the schools broke up. Well true to form, the clever people who decide such matters thought it would be a good wheeze to close the old Severn Bridge thus transforming the new one into a modern ten-mile, traffic jam.  Congratulations.  Having been blessed with cat-like reflexes I did a quick recalculate…

07/02/2017

One of the little-known stories to emerge from the recent consumer frenzy that was Christmas, was the plight of the bell-ringers of York Minster.  It seems that in late October last year the 30-strong bell ringing team was summoned at short notice and were abruptly told they were being sacked. The reasons for the move were given as health and safety and risk management.  600 years of chiming ceased.  The Governing body then tried to recruit replacements from local churches…