May 6
Phew. That was quite the show, and to think they skinnied it down. I bet the queue for the Abbey’s loos goes right around the block.
I thought Charles could have cracked the odd smile and after 70 years of practicing you’d think he would know his words off by heart. The prompt cards were a little unnecessary, but again we do know how to pull off a bit of pomp and ceremony. No one does it better or with more grandeur.
Please click for moreThis such a sad tale.
Ex-Addicks defender Richard Rufus has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years at Southwark Crown Court for fraud and money laundering. (more)
Please click for moreWith Hurricane Fiona battering Bermuda last week, Hurricane Ian has wrought devastation across south west Florida moving across the state bringing rainfall measured in feet, and is now heading back into Charleston in Georgja for second dibs.
Those of you that read these pages regularly will know that we have a house in Sarasota, Florida, which is between Tampa and Naples on the Gulf Coast. It has been another worrying week.
Please click for moreI have lived overseas for 19 years, but I was never prouder to be British than yesterday. I am a (South) London boy and the world’s best city was resplendent as the country and the world stood still to witness the first state funeral in almost everyone’s lifetime.
It was an emotional yet beautiful spectacle as the world watched every tiny detail so perfected that not even the biggest budget or best film director could recreate. The Queen meticulous to the end as every rehearsed and planned aspect was executed perfectly. Real life theatre showing history being made. It was a wonderful tribute to the most loved sovereign.
Please click for moreThere has been many days or times when I had wished I could be in London, walking its streets taking in the moment. July 7th, 2005, the opening of the Olympic Games in 2012 to name two.
I am no royalist, but today is another one of those days where I am kicking my heels at home with all the TV’s on.
Please click for moreWhat a very sad moment in history. I feel a quite numb if I’m honest.
She was for generations as the world changed for better or worse all around us, the only true constant in our lives. I like many other millions have only known life with her as our Queen. It will be so strange now.
Please click for moreHow was your Platinum Jubilee weekend?
I have never been much of a royalist, although after living in America you get to appreciate the pomp and pageantry and how jealous Americans are of it. My overriding thought this weekend was that no one could do it like we can.
I do always remember my dear Nan though when stoking the coal fire she would casually stare up at the Queen Mother on TV and say to no one in particular “I’d look that good if I’d never done a days work in my life.”
Read moreSaturday’s home game against Ipswich will be played at 12.30pm on the same day to avoid HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.
The biggest adversity the world has seen in many a generation. I truly hope that you are all staying safe and healthy.
A crazy and worrying time, harrowing for some, as the Coronavirus or COVID-19 sweeps every little corner of our world taking no prisoners. A global pandemic, only previously in the deep imaginative minds of movie writers, scientists, historians and risk officers. Now part of all of us, every day, every minute.
I’d like to add my condolences to Leicester City fans and the family of their owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha who died in such terrible circumstances yesterday after the end of their home game with West Ham United. It is yet unknown who else was in the helicopter when it crashed just outside of the Walker Stadium.
This news spread widely yesterday and has now appeared in the national press of two current Charlton players arrested and subsequently appearing in court in Ibiza over an alleged rape attack on a teenage British holidaymaker at a hotel earlier this week. A third older man
Last summer we spent a week for my birthday in the volcanic Caribbean island of St. Barts, or Saint Barthélemy (St. Barths) as the French call it in the French West Indies. Miami is 3.5 hours away and St. Barts lies 160 miles east of Puerto Rico and immediately south of the French and Dutch shared island of Saint Martin, where we flew into to jump on a noisy seaplane for a 15-minute journey across the water to St Barts. The flight is not for the faint hearted but there is the option of a boat, which takes slightly more than an hour.
The island has a jet-setting reputation of photo shoots, paparazzi and huge homes owned by billionaires that mostly sign idle. The haunt monde reputation began in the 1950’s when David Rockefeller bought two plots of land, including one on Gouveneur Beach. That move compelled the Rothschilds to follow and they arrived with a suitcase of cash and developed an estate in a coconut grove nextdoor to the Rockefellers. Today the Rothschild property is the Hotel Guanahani & Spa.
The island certainly has an air of chic. A mixture of St-Tropez sophistication with Caribbean laissez-fare, but the island doesn’t come across as pretentious. Just over 9,000 people permanently live on St. Barts, although around 200,000 tourists visit the just over 9 sq. miles during it’s summer months.
I have had a tremendous summer of travel, but my head spins when I think about where I have been and some of the absolute sadness and tragedy that many of these places have had to deal with, and how lucky I’ve been to miss some of these awful events.
Outside the rattling of the windows has been replaced by the lullaby of the tree frogs as Nicole moves away from us and although the island is still under storm watch, driving around tonight you’d never know this place got battered all day by 125 mph winds. Bermuda really is a resilient little country.
Where we live the back end of the storm after the eye passed over around midday was no where near as bad as the first lashing we got. The east end of the island nearer the airport, Hamilton Parish and St George’s if you know it appeared to fare far worst. I think the airport and the causeway connecting it to the rest of the island sustained damage.
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Rain is swirling outside like a Catherine Wheel firework as gusts of wind are now close to 100 mph with the eye still two hours away but with the wall of the eye just approaching us now.
Nicole’s eye is 50 miles wide, which is twice the size of the island, which will mean a very surreal experience when it moves over us. The weather nerd in me is looking for way to seeing that in about 90 minutes.
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Chicago Addick 