I suspect that the films of Wes Anderson are a bit of an acquired taste— a bit like Marmite. I find them fascinating as much for their visual appeal as their storylines, but I can imagine that others would find that not to their liking. Like other “cult” directors Anderson has been given the Design …

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On the hottest day of the year so far, I made my way up to London to pay a visit behind the scenes at Shakespeare’s Globe on an organised tour. Not One, Not Two but Three This isn’t, in fact, the first Globe (how could it be?), but the third theatre on the banks of …

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I forgot to post this when I posted about the walk itself but I thought it was still worth showing.

It’s been a long time since we have done a leg of the Thames Path. Too long in fact. It was eight months ago that we did the last leg ending in Shillingford and made the bold statement that we would aim to be in Oxford by the end of the year. What happened? Life …

Continue reading "Thames Path – Day Fifteen – Shillingford to Abingdon"

It’s the time of year once again for the Reading Walks Festival. This year we are booked on to four walks which was the most that interested us and that we could make. There is some repitition from previous years and walks that we had already done which limited our choices. Two Rivers (and a …

Continue reading "Reading Walks Festival, 2026 – Walking the Historic Holybrook"

A while back I had the opportunity to visit the Mini factory in Oxford. Actually it isn’t a “factory” but a “plant” in the same way it’s no longer an “engine” but an “ICE” and a “chassis” is a “platform” but I digress. Today I had the chance to visit the Morgan Motor Company factory …

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I said in yesterday’s post that I was able to cross off not one but two items from my bucket list. This was because we managed to squeeze in a trip to the British Library on our way back from Highgate Cemetery. The British Library is the largest of its kind in the world holding …

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Having so recently talked about my bucket list it’s nice to report that I have ticked another one off the list (actually it was two but that’s a story for another day). This time it was Highgate Cemetery, somewhere that has long been on the list. Margaret Makes It Highgate was opened 1837 when the …

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I wasn’t aware of Crossness until someone that had been showed me some pictures of it and I decided to add it to my bucket list of places to visit. Crossness Pumping Station is a former sewage pumping station that played an important part in the eradication of cholera in London in the 19th century. …

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I’ve had the Handel Hendrix House on my “bucket list” for quite a while now and had never quite got round to going, so when my local U3A said that they were organising a trip there, it was a great opportunity to tick it off the list. A Tale of Two Houses The Handel Hendrix …

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I’m an increasingly active member of the Woodley and District u3a, part of a network of local groups for retired people. Like many other u3a‘s ours has groups on a diverse set of themes and activities. One of these groups is called Out and About and organises trips to interesting places, such as to the …

Continue reading "Royal Hospital Chelsea, London"

I seem to have developed an unnatural fascination with the work of Alfred Waterhouse, famed architect of the Natural History Museum in London and, as it turns out, many fine buildings in Reading too. For my Reading Guide project I’d visited some of the buildings for the Interesting Architecture page and also created a summary …

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A while back I decided to walk all of the Inner Distribution Road (IDR), Reading’s least glamorous route. As a follow-up I decided to tackle the iconic number 17 bus route. Running just under seven miles from the water tower in Tilehurst to The Three Tuns, in, er, where is it exactly? (Earley, apparently, on …

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I’m on the V&A mailing list. Normally it’s only of passing interest but when I opened one and found that they were running an exhibition featuring the work of Aardman Animations I was there and booked tickets. Hold on a Minute… When I originally booked the tickets, I hadn’t realised that the exhibition was actually …

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The underpass to Katesgrove, specifically the stretch beneath the IDR near County Lock, has had a series of murals installed in it, and I was keen to see it. What apparently used to be a somewhat grim, graffiti-prone passage has been turned into the Time Travel Tunnel, unveiled earlier this month (February 1, 2026). A …

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