A measure of true friendship: when you have lunch with someone you haven’t seen for 40 years and you chat as if it was just yesterday. With @nicolettejones.bsky.social

Ms Bueltmann eloquently says what many of us who are not ‘indigenous’ Brits feel.

Well that sounds like an intriguing invitation.

Some mornings feel like a succession of chores - feed the pups, feed the horses, walk the pups, all before breakfast. But it’s worth it to catch sunrises like these.

Another beautiful Scottish morning

I guess that explains a lot

Sunrise this morning

Mist over the Abbey Burn this morning, pockets of frost on the verges.

Just beautiful. You can hear the hiss of the tyres on the road.

It wasn’t love at first sight. I liked ‘Local Hero’, but I only grew to love it over several years. Now it’s one of my top three movies. This book is a lovely read, and you can guess what I’ll be watching - again - this weekend.

My infinitely better half complains if I don’t label jars. She then complains that my labelling is rubbish. When I find a jar I haven’t used for a while, I begin to wonder if she has a point.

Please, take a moment to read this. Like @sturdyalex.bsky.social, I no longer feel that this country is the home I have known almost all my life. bestforbritain.substack.com/p/my-place-o...

When it rises this well, I’m always slightly worried that when I cut it, I’ll find a huge bubble in the middle

You fools! By now he'll have already discarded the red rubber gloves on his head and seamlessly blended into the crowd as a common penguin!

Publication day!

An example of how inflation figures often fail to reflect reality. The toilet roll on the left is from a multi-pack bought early this year. The other was bought last week. The pack has increased in price by 3%. But the newer roll is 25% lighter.

Yup.

At a time when so much discourse is dark and negative, this is worth a read.

Gavin does a magnificent job with the hedges

I must have skipped the medical school lecture about ‘mitochondrial challenges’. Still, managed a working lifetime as a doc without coming across it …

For all those saying that AI will revolutionise medicine: be careful what you wish for.

All authors: please take a few minutes to do this. A quick check will show you if your work has been stolen (it probably has been), and a few more minutes will pass your details to the class action lawyers. You may achieve nothing. Or you may add to the pressure on AI companies to behave better.

Increasingly, this is how the UK makes me feel. I don’t know if it’s always been that way and I was fooling myself, or if things have deteriorated. Perhaps both.

I’m a bit ambivalent about re-enactment, but if you’re going to do it, at least try to get the details right. The Romans would never have used those colours on their vehicles.

It’s still an extraordinary feeling to get a physical copy of my newest book. I struggle to believe that this is the fifteenth. It’s been quite an adventure.

Is there no end to the depravity that we immigrants have committed?

The moment on our recent tour when we found the exact spot where a Second World War photo was taken.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... The BBC feels compelled to apologise because someone said that a xenophobe was … xenophobic?

Truly, we live in the Age of Endarkenment.

A padded cell in the KGB building in Vilnius, with a leather straitjacket. ‘Prisoners who resist or are violent may be subject to the use of handcuffs or a straitjacket. In the event of a prisoner committing an attack … as well as in the event of an escape from custody, weapons may be used.’

chelseaheritagequarter.co.uk/chf/into-the... Into the Reich - Chelsea Heritage Quarter I hope to see some of you there.

A superbly written article from @eastangliabylines.co.uk

As an immigrant myself, I fully endorse this. Don’t say they don’t mean me. The racists will happily interpret it as meaning anyone who has skin of a different colour.

Well … I guess he earned a good tip for excellent service.

These AI engines have hidden (or in the case of Grok, not so hidden) biases. Don’t feed them.

Occasionally, I find myself slowing down as I approach the end of a book. For reasons I will enlarge on in another post, I’m improving my French and decided to read some French novels. Nearly finished this; I’m completely captivated by the characters, and I don’t want it to end.

My parents were also immigrants who worked hard to give their children chances they hadn’t had. I worked hard to build on the start they gave me. But @marina-purkiss.bsky.social is right. No amount of hard work gives that success now. I’d be happy to pay more tax - if those richer than me paid too.

I have had the good fortune to read this prior to publication. It’s an excellent balance of strategic, operational, and tactical description, with a cast of memorable characters presented with a deft touch. Burma isn’t a theatre of war I know about, but this was a great read.

Wetransfer users will have received an email advising of changes in terms of use; they will have carte blanche to use your content as they wish, including to train their AI. I will not use them now. Alternatives include wormhole.app and swisstransfer.com. I have no vested interest in either.

This little piece of history needs to be better known. @normagraham.bsky.social and other Canadian friends, why haven’t you told me about this?

I have just sent the draft of ‘Warsaw: A City At War’ to my editor. It was a rather different project, particularly because it’s a collaboration with my amazing daughter Lottie Taylor. Her contribution has, I think, raised the standard hugely.

Those sheep are about to be richer than their wildest dreams

You just know he’s going to commit suicide by shooting him self multiple times or develop an irresistible desire to test the laws of gravity.

Perhaps the most laid back, zen animals on the planet.

Hilaire Belloc once wrote, ‘I can’t remember the place, I can’t remember her name - but the wine was Chambertin.’ This is one of the more expensive bottles in the rack, but just lovely. Rack of lamb being prepared.

Unusually, a recipe stolen from a novel.

What is it with Russians who are seized by a strong desire to test the laws of gravity, usually after a disagreement with the boss?

Post a song from the year you turned 12 youtu.be/DtVBCG6ThDk?...

We have a family tradition that you need to swear at the yorkies or they won’t rise (e.g. rise, you buggers). It looks like I was fairly profane.