Eric’s tour of duty

Not all the recipients of our Christmas news know about Eric, but it’s probably time for them to find out. (Flat) Eric is nearly 7 now.  He is yellow, and has a fluffy body with long arms and legs.  His chief features are his smile (very wide) and his (rather small) quiff.  Eric is related …

The roar of the surf – on a five second loop

It sounds like something you create on a synthesiser, but this was actually the sea around the island of Ischia, in the bay of Naples, where we started our main holiday of the year in October. As the water is less affected by tides than it is around the UK coast, the swell was pretty …

Rock and men from Microsoft

No, it wasn’t my joke, but our other Festival treat was seeing Bill Bailey, the comedian, in concert at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.  The EICC tends to be used for big conferences, and Bill started his set by asking whether we were expecting a PowerPoint presentation… Having seen Bill on TV in Black Books …