Bad news and good news on the roofing front. The bad news is that we had so much rain yesterday that the roof sprung a new and more serious leak. Water burst through the spare bedroom ceiling and cascaded into the living room. The good news is that, a week after the scaffolding went up, the tiling has actually begun. The two workers are a British guy called Ray and a Romanian guy that they all call Basil (actually his name is Vasil). So there's tons of heavy banging going on, bits of ceiling coming away above my PC, and ceiling lights in the bathroom giving up, but we're making some progress ......

On Monday, I blogged about the need for us to have a new roof. That morning, two guys came along in the pouring rain to erect all the scaffolding. This is what our place looks like now: What about the workers? Since then ......

Seeing pictures of President-Elect Barack Obama visiting the White House this week took me back to my own visits to this most iconic of political buildings. I believe that, since 9/11, the general public has not been ableto visit the White House but, before then, I had done so on three occasions. The first time was on 19 September 1970 when I was aged 22 and a university student spending a three-month summer in the United States. After a very short wait, I was in the White House and noted in my diary: "Saw only a few of the 132 rooms - East Room, Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room, and State Dining Room". The second time was on 23 August 1980 when I was aged 32 and on a telecommunications study visit to the USA. There was a system of timed ticket entry. It was a 20-minute self conducted...

It started at 7.45 am this morning when the scaffolders arrived. I'm told that it will take three-four weeks - depending on the weather (it's raining now - poor guys). I'm always so reluctant to initiate house repairs or improvements. It's not just the cost (which, in this case, is huge) - it's all the noise and dirt and disruption. But the heavy rain of the last few weeks has revealed a serious leak in our back bedroom. It's clear that we do need a new roof and, while we're at it, we're going to insulate the loft and be more eco-friendly. It should all be over by Christmas...

It was a busy Halloween evening. Between 5.30-7.30 pm, the doorbell rang no less than nine times as we were visited by a total of 31 local children. Fortunately Vee had bought lots of miniature chocolate bars and filled up a plastic bucket with them, so everyone went away with two items each. Here are some of the scarier visitors:...

When I was a kid (which admittedly was some five decades ago), here in Britain (at the time I lived in Manchester), this time of year meant Bonfire Night: collecting material for a bonfire, building a guy, collecting money for fireworks and then - on the night itself - the bonfire, the fireworks, toffee apples and parkin cake. By the time my son was a kid (some three decades ago), Bonfire Night was already being challenged by the celebration of the more American festival of Halloween which I guess really took off in Britain with the success of the film "ET". In those days, we had abandoned the idea of a bonfire, but I collected money from the neighbours with children, bought a special set of fireworks, and then set them off at a street gathering in circumstances which i hoped were saver...

Here in London, it snows rarely. Indeed we can go a whole winter without snow. But tonight it's snowing here. I can't remember when it last snowed in London in...

This evening, Vee and I - together with our American Jewish friend Eric - went to see a show at London's Hammersmith Apollo by the American Jewish comedienne Sarah Silverman. The British - and here I include myself - have really only just discovered Silverman. It probably started with her video called "The Great Schlep" about the US presidential race. Last weekend, she was the subject of a colour supplement profile and this weekend she was on the "Friday Night With Jonathan Ross" show (where strangely there was a lack of connection between the two). Now the tickets for the event gave no start time but stated that doors would open at 6.30 pm. I've been to the Apollo before and guessed that the event would not in fact start until 7.30 pm so we rolled up about 7 pm. However, it was 7.45 pm...

I confess that I'm an inveterate - possibly even compulsive - 'to do list' person. I think that it all started with my university studies when I kept lists to ensure that I completed all my projects on time and had a good revision timetable for exams. These days, I still do my daily 'to do' list on paper and love ticking off accomplished tasks. Each daily list includes adding a posting to this blog. I reckon that it makes me efficient and ensures that I don't miss deadlines. However, in addition to the daily list on paper, I have another six electronic lists on my iPhone (things to buy, books to read and so on). Now, my wife - she's the exact opposite. The only lists she ever makes are shopping lists and she usually forgets them at home. In the colour supplement of today's...

I confess that I'm an inveterate - possibly even compulsive - 'to do list' person. I think that it all started with my university studies when I kept lists to ensure that I completed all my projects on time and had a good revision timetable for exams. These days, i still do my daily 'to do' list on paper and love ticking off accomplished tasks. Each daily list includes adding a posting to this blog. I reckon that it makes me efficient and ensures that I don't miss deadlines. However, in addition to the daily list on paper, I have another six electronic lists on my iPhone (things to buy, books to read and so on). Now, my wife - she's the exact opposite. The only lists she ever makes are shopping lists and she usually forgets them at home. In the colour supplement of today's...

Today Vee and I drove over to Oxford to see our dear Chinese friends Hua & Zhihao (and their new teenage lodger Jiayu). They live close to the city centre so, after a home-made Chinese lunch, we walked around to Oxford Castle where we found a photographic exhibition called "Earth from the Air". Now, five years ago, I saw this exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London and I blogged about it here. Since then, the photographs have been all around the country and the Oxford exhibition opened this week and will run to January 2009. The work consists of some 120 pictures shot by the French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand. They are a stunning collection of photos and present a powerful ecological message. The exhibition is organised by wecommunicat8 and I spoke to Chris Bridge who...

This seems like a good question to pose on a Sunday in a country that still professes to be largely Christian. I think that humanism should be given equal weight in schools to the various religious faiths and there is currently an argument on precisely this...

For the next few days, Vee and I are hosting a visit by a couple of her relatives from the Czech Republic (Vee is half Czech on her father's side). The problem is that these relatives don't speak any English and the little Czech we know we learned 20 years ago when the country was still Czechoslovakia and Communist. So we needed some visual entertainment and we found it in buckets down at the Thames Festival. There was an incredible variety of ethnic food outlets, craft stalls and street entertainers. And, for once, the weather was fine. Our son Richard and his wife Emily live close to London's South Bank, so we though we'd call them on the mobile and see if they were around. We stopped to make the call, looked up, and there they were - how cool is...

"Lady Elizabeth Hatton was the toast of 17th Century London society. The widowed daughter-in-law of the famous merchant Sir Christopher Hatton (one-time consort of Queen Elizabeth 1), Lady Elizabeth was young, beautiful and very wealthy. Her suitors were many and varied, and included a leading London Bishop and a prominent European Ambassador. Invitations to her soirees in Hatton Garden were much sought after. Her Annual Winter Ball, on January 26, 1662, was one of the highlights of the London social season. Halfway through the evening's festivities, the doors to Lady Hatton's grand ballroom were flung open. In strode a swarthy gentleman, slightly hunched of shoulder, with a clawed right hand. He took her by the hand, danced her once around the room and out through the double doors into...

Officially it's the last day of summer but, here in London, we've had thunder, lightning and heavy rain. It's looks as if this August will turn out to have been the wettest in the UK for a century - but I still believe in global warning. Spare a moment though to think about the victims of Hurricane Gustav. As I write, it's tearing into the western-most part of the island of Cuba which I visited on holiday earlier this year [my account...

The Conservative blogger Iain Dale has started a meme which invites those other bloggers who've been tagged to explain what they were doing on five key dates. I have been tagged for this meme by former Labour MP Harry Barnes, so I guess I'll have to rise to the challenge - although I won't inflict the meme on any other bloggers. In fact, in responding to this meme, I have a head start on most bloggers because, long before I had a blog, I had a diary and I have in fact recorded a daily entry for the past 47 years. So I can check the dates in the diaries. This is what I recall: Princess Diana's death - 31 August 1997 It was a Sunday and Sunday morning for me always means the "Observer" newspaper - but at breakfast time it had still not been delivered. My wife called our newsagents and...

Just over a week ago, I returned from a short holiday in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuanian and I quickly wrote up an account for my web site. Over the Bank Holiday Monday that we had in the UK today, I have added 52 photos to my account (I took just over 200 in all). Check out the account and photos...

This morning, the post brought us our first Christmas catalogue - the price of ordering and sending charity Christmas cards each year. The organisation concerned is Amnesty International - an immensely worthy body, but one that I would rather waited a while before encouraging us to order things for the Christmas season. After all, it is still 129 days to...

This morning, the post brought us our first Christmas catalogue - the price of sending charity Christmas cards. The organisation concerned is Amnesty International - an immensely worthy body, but one that I would rather waited a while before encouraging to order things for the Christmas season. After all, it is still129 days to...

I'm just back from a six-day break with my sister Silvia. It was a short holiday in the Baltic States visiting Tallinn in Estonia, Riga in Latvia and Vilnius in Lithuania. This brings the total number of countries that I have visited to 52 - you can find the full list here. I'll be writing up a full account of the Baltics trip here - but first I have to check out those 525 e-mails (much spam and scam no doubt) that have arrived in my...

There'll be no postings on this blog for a week or so, since I'm off now on a short holiday in the Baltic States visiting Tallinn in Estonia, Riga in Latvia and Vilnius in Lithuania. I'll write up an account for my web site on my return. Meanwhile please look through earlier postings on this blog and feel free to look around my comprehensive web...

For the last three consecutive Saturdays, I've started the day in a city centre hotel giving a short speech to consumers selected by Ipsos MORI for a deliberative research project on behalf of Postwatch, the consumer watchdog for postal services. Two weeks ago, it was Edinburgh; last week, it was Sheffield; today it is London. And next Saturday? No work this time. I'll be in Talinn in Estonia on the first leg of a three-centre break which will then take me to Riga in Latvia and Vilnius in Lithuania. I might check out the odd post...

The author Michael Carr has stated that: "All kids are gifted; some just open their packages earlier than others". I was reminded of this comment this week when I received some news from my younger brother. We were three kids in Manchester in the 1960s. My sister Silvia and I both did well at a school and went on to do degrees at university. Our younger brother Ralph struggled academically at school and eventually became a postman. Later though, he took his degree and then his MA and then his PhD - you can check his credentials here. He has just become a professor at the University of Salford. Well done, our...

This morning, I left the house at 5.30 am and I was not back until 9 pm. This 15 and a half hour day was occasioned by a trip from my home in London to the offices of the Scottish Consumer Council in Glasgow for a series of interviews to appoint the Scottish Director of Consumer Focus - the organisation that, on 1 October, will take over from Postwatch, Energywatch and the National Consumer Council. It was the first time that I've used the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport - a huge, gleaming affair. I only had hand luggage but I was assured that the baggage handling problems of the first couple of months have now been resolved. Since I became a portfolio worker - largely serving on consumer bodies - some six years ago, almost all my meetings and events take place in London. But the...

Many thanks to those of you who have been kind enough to compliment me on the travelogue which I've written for my web site on our recent trip to Israel. I've now added 43 photographs to the narrative, so check them out here....

In Britain, it is a Bank Holiday weekend and Vee and I have been seeing family and friends. We spent a day visiting my half-brother Chris and his partner Janine who live in a village called South Wonston just outside Winchester. They took us to Portsmouth, somewhere we haven't been for years and years, and the area by the water has developed out of all recognition. The location is now dominated by a structure called the Spinnaker Tower. This amazing 170 metre high construction was opened to the public on 18 October 2005. The elegant design and its name is taken from the main sail of an ocean-going yacht. The cost of the tower was £35M and, although some locals have complained about the high cost, much of it came from the Millennium Commission as well as Potsmouth City Council...

I send out a motivational "Thought For The Week" to over 1,000 people around the world which has underneath a brief note of recent additions to my web site. This weekend, I sent out my 400th thought. Underlying these thoughts are my personal values and my personal philosophy which encompass difference and diversity, fun and friendship, optimism and openness, trust, tolerance and teamwork, creativity, learning and growth, a commitment to reason and critical thinking, an interest in other countries and cultures, and a willingness to embrace change and new experiences. If you share at least some of these principles, then you should find these thoughts illuminating and, on occasions, hopefully even inspiring. One of my friends once called my circulation of Thought For The Week "a...

Usually the responses I receive to my web site material are very positive, but the Life Skills page on "How To Be Happy" - a fairly lighthearted set of ideas - has attracted an uncharacteristically vituperative e-mail as follows: "What planet are you from then? You should never advise anyone to be happy through having a child, that is the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard, as for the rest you must be a typical upper class gimp. but overall your ridiculous ideas did make us temporarily happy by laughing at them. so thank you." I always respond to comment unless it is totally aggresssive and this was my e-mail back: "Most people appear to find these tips helpful so I'm intrigued by your response. On the one hand, there seems to be a certain amount of anger in your reaction,...

It is exactly a year ago today that I started at Postwatch, the consumer watchdog for postal services, where I am the Chairman of the Greater London Region and a member of the national Council. Coincidentally I spent all today at Postwatch Headquarters, next to Victoria station in central London, where I chaired two meetings. The morning meeting was a Greater London Region workshop with local authority representatives. The main items discussed were the Government's plans to have 2,500 post offices closed between summer 2007 and the end of 2008 and Royal Mail's proposals to introduce zonal pricing for its bulk mail services. The afternoon meeting was with the Royal National Institute for the Blind and Talking Newspapers to review Royal Mail's service for the blind and partially...

Hi, I'm back from a week's holiday in Israel. Vee and I went there with our very good American Jewish friend Eric - who lived there for 18 years - and his teenage son Yonatan. We rented a car and Vee did all the driving, so we were able to see varied parts of this contrasting society and meet lots of Eric's interesting friends. We started with visits to the holy city of Jerusalem, the ancient battle scene of Masada and the weird floating experience of the Dead Sea. We then travelled to the North where we twice called into the kibbutz on which Eric & Yonatan used to live, saw the Sea of Galilee and went up to the Golan Heights overlooking Syria. The last section of the trip was Tel Aviv where we visited a couple of historic museums, an art gallery and the next door ancient city...