Martin in the Derby Bar, Sauze d'Oulx has read one of my books.

Sitting quietly in the Derby Bar in Sauze d'Oulx, Italy, on Saturday night awaiting the arrival of the rush, I fell into conversation with Martin who lived across the square. When appraised of my occupation he declared that he had read one of my books and it had surprised him and amused him. 
Oh what it is like to be famous!

The Derby Bar in Sauze d'Oulx on Saturday night.

The calm before the storm.

You should have seen it thirty minutes later.

It was heaving.

Old fashioned arithmetic problems by Southern Railway

Q: If a train is due to leave Gatwick Airport at 19.41 on a Sunday night to arrive at London Victoria 25 minutes later, how fast must it travel?

A: It will arrive late at Gatwick Airport, stand at the platform for twenty minutes and then crawl at 20 mph as far as Croydon East where the service will terminate because it has lost its timetable slot at Victoria Station.

Q: If a train composed of ten coaches, each coach containing 100 passengers sitting and standing nose to nose crammed up to the doors and all with suitcases, is emptied onto platform 4 at Croydon East to await another train which will already have its own passengers on board, to carry everybody to Victoria, what proportion of the passengers of the first train will be able to board the second train?

A: see below:

Triumph of design over function - Hotel Assietta

This is the headboard of my bed in the Hotel Assietta in Sauze d'Oulx, Italy.

Can you imagine gently resting your weary head against that construction? Or stirring suddenly in the night and knocking yourself unconscious on one of those timber medallions? It could serve duty as an indoor climbing wall.

But the hotel is well situated and serves a brilliant breakfast.

Does this man like railways?

Entrance to a private house in Bridge.

I see some funny things when I am out delivering letters on my bicycle...

Violets in the workplace.

One day, many years ago, I was instructed to attend a one day seminar on Violets in the Workplace. I thought it a bizarre topic but, always ready to widen my knowledge base, I dutifully trudged along to the meeting.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the subject of the seminar was not a discussion of the place of floral arrangements in a working environment but the threats of coercion, bullying and physical abuse and how they should be dealt with. 

'Violence in the workplace' is what the man had said, not 'violets'. 

Perhaps he had skipped the classes on enunciation.

As I was mowing the lawn today I decided to leave my 

wild violets in their workplace.

Filming for The One Show, BBC TV 1

Several weeks ago I spent two hours in this room at the London Passport Office 'filming' for the BBC TV's One Show.

The result was broadcast yesterday.

Don't bother to watch it.

This is the crew who filmed me.

They are more interesting than the programme.

Passport Portraits of Yesteryear no. 25

Continuing the series of passport portraits from my collection.
Peruse and wonder.

Gacesa Vikola and his wife, Margarita, are subjects of King Alexander I, monarch of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Vikola studied and then obtained an official position in the administration. These are the photographs on his passport which enabled them to visit the Colonial Exhibition in Paris in 1931. 

The exhibition was organised by France in response to the Empire Exhibition in which Great Britain had showcased all the products of its empire in Wembley in 1924. France invited all the colonial powers to take part. Britain declined the invitation.