Ockham’s (Occam’s) Radio

October 28, 2013

Tweet Less is More Minimalism, The KISS Principle - Keep it Simple Stupid – all jolly good things to hear but not expected on a grey windy Saturday at Rishforth in Yorkshire. It’s another gathering of old men who are fascinated by radio but the low power (QRP) sort where 10 watts is plenty and even better […]

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Our National Shame

October 20, 2013

Tweet Are you lonesome tonight? Elvis Presley’s April 1960 recording of Lou Handman’s tune with lyrics by Roy Turk from 1929 might have been OK when you were young, but then you still had most of your life in front of you. Fast forward a few decades and the emotions from being lonesome or lonely are more […]

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House of the Rising Sun

October 14, 2013

Tweet A Gathering of Old Men? And not an anorak in sight. It’s October again and time for the 2013 RSGB Convention in Little Horwood and a chance to meet fellow radio hams face to face whom you usually contact over the airwaves or if you want to be really old-fashioned, via the ether. Modes include: […]

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The Bitter Taste of Coffee

October 5, 2013

Tweet How Many Cups have you drunk today? As the second most traded legal commodity on the planet, the answer is more than one for many people. Once known as The Wine of Araby and having been banned in many places over the centuries, it now employs 125 million people worldwide, with 80 per cent being […]

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Angels get Desperate? Vintage 3Cs Community Meeting (3Cs Diaries #16)

September 20, 2013

Tweet All that Money to Invest and nowhere to go? Hosted by lawyers Nabarro at their offices in Theobalds Road, it is the penultimate 3Cs Community meeting of the year. With Angels’ Den founder Bill Morrow as first speaker, you know that you are in for an interesting talk where for example, under “Past” in his […]

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Cancer IFA Case Study (#02)

September 11, 2013

Tweet I get a Referral Guy has been diagnosed with abdominal cancer and given 12 months to live. Married with three children, one just a few months old. Chemotherapy due to start soon. Good job with huge Death-in-Service benefit which will pay off the mortgage, but little in way of savings. Five bits of pension including […]

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Helping your Parents if they get Cancer

September 9, 2013

Tweet The Flip Side of Better Health Average life expectancy at birth for men in the UK is now 77 and 81 for women and to show you how confusing statistics can be, the most common age for men at death is 85 and 89 for women (note the same 4 year gender difference). In the […]

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A Successful Failure

August 29, 2013

Tweet What did you do in the War, Daddy? We go to school, we grow up – among stories of our forebears which for baby boomers like me, may include stories from two World Wars. Stories which are often about mistakes as well as the tragic. Most memorable from the English side of my family is from […]

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The Best Thing since Sliced Bread?

August 18, 2013

Tweet It’s Time to Frack In case anyone hasn’t noticed, we are in a depression, the worst for maybe 100 years according to the Bank of England. UK energy price inflation is much higher than mainland Europe. We have an ageing population and a low birth rate meaning that more and more oldies have to […]

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Full Circle

August 12, 2013

Tweet I’ve been here before The proudest day of a Dad’s life – his daughter’s wedding day. We are gathered in Llangollen, North Wales and my youngest daughter’s wedding is tomorrow, but something haunts me. First and only time in North Wales is a Geography “A” level field trip when lectures mention the possibility of […]

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