A visit to Harrods

My daughter Charlotte and I decided to check out Harrods today. Mr. Al Fayed was waiting there to greet us. The dummy looked so real it was spooky.

Photos of Stogs from 1966

I was able to scan these photos from an old Olavian magazine. The quality isn’t great but they give a good idea of how the school looked in the 60s.
This is the west wing of the building, where the gym was located (about my least favorite place!)

Clowns gagged by red tape

Photo that appeared on the BBC website
To a visitor from the Third World like myself, one of the most salient aspects of life in Britain today is the incredible amount of regulation that exists. Costa Rica has a lot of well-intentioned laws on the books but absolutely no means of enforcing them. That is not [...]

The pillar box and Costa Rica

What is the unlikely connection between the pillar (post) box almost opposite Mum’s house and Costa Rica?

The answer is Victorian author Anthony Trollope (see here), whose novel “The way we live now” has been a favorite of mine for many years.
Trollope spent years working for the Postal Service and is credited with introducing the world-famous [...]

In a land of dolts…

In 1966, a photo of an old document was published in the school magazine. The document contained a list of names of famous alumni, put together in the 18th century.

The following text was printed underneath the photo, by way of explanation.

Richard Wright dead at 65

I’ve listened to a lot of Pink Floyd this year, more than usual, so I was especially saddened to see that founding member Rick Wright had died. It would be great to see the rest of the band do a concert in his memory but its seems very unlikely.

(Photo from Wikipedia)
PS: Yesterday I listened to [...]

Traje típico and Independence Day in Costa Rica

This is a photo of my granddaughter Laura wearing the traditional outfit of Costa Rica, which is used for folk dances and on special occasions. Tomorrow is Independence Day in Costa Rica and there will be parades and other commemorative activities.

Love at first sight

Old school magazines lent to me by friend Alan have been my bedtime reading for the past few weeks. They have proven to be very useful for clarifying many points related to school life during my years at Stogs. I came across the following article about the first school trip to Spain in which I [...]

Old photos of the Thames

My friend Alan sent me these beautiful old photos of the Thames. Not sure where they are from.

This is looking south to north, towards Cannon Street Station (the bridge is a railway bridge). The two towers are famous landmarks. The glass roof of the station was removed to save it from German bombs in WWII [...]

The London skyline

I’m still about as busy as I have been since I arrived; hence the lack of posts. But yesterday I was able to get to the British Film Theatre (South Bank complex, next to Waterloo Bridge), where I watched Badlands (read about it here). Then I had a long walk east along the river, all [...]