Learn To Fear Flemish In An Afternoon

Our family is full of amateur linguists.  Dotted round we have fluent Italian, German, French, Dutch, and Japanese speakers.  Some family members dabble in Chinese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.  A few even claim English proficiency.  Many of us enjoy Duolingo, with Luis van Ahn’s great Guatemalan back story.  Some of us even pay for it.

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Two Nights At The Old Bailey Watching Movies – “Life Is Wonderful: Mandela’s Unsung Heroes”

“Life is Wonderful: Mandela’s Unsung Heroes” is a documentary film by Sir Nicholas Stadlen, former judge of the High Court of England and Wales. He captured the personal experiences of the last remaining trialists and their defence lawyers, sharing the human stories and the legal arguments used in the Rivonia Trial. A wide team of people organised a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity for participants to understand the complexities of the times and to engage with Sir Nicholas Stadlen, who had much to share that did not make the final cut. Then we had a ‘second in a lifetime’ event…

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Elfbräu

Since September, our lovely niece, my German goddaughter, has been stuck with Aunty and Uncle here in London. As she is a fan of Harry Potter and cooped up in the spare room ‘under the stairs’ (well, more accurately ‘beside’ them), she was rapidly dubbed our ‘house elf’ by those of us of the Scooby Doo era. Upon learning that she was untutored in the ways of beer (and German?!, have my in-laws some peculiar form of non-home-schooling???), naturally I resolved to educate her. Digging deep down at the back of our fifth floor garden shed (sic) I pulled out the old beer-making kit which had tutored my own children in the ways of fermentation and spoilage. Thus, in a spirit of cooped-up covid-19 entrepreneurship, a new business has been born…

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Lord Mayor’s Election – Part Deux

As previously reported, it is truly an honour, the first time since 1228, to be Sheriffs again for another year. Common Hall was held today to (re)elect the Lord Mayor. Unlike the normal 90 minutes or so of ceremony, speeches, and election, this one began at 11:45 and had about 80 physically-distanced livery company Masters, Officers, and Aldermen in the cavernous Guildhall. It took just under 15 minutes.

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A Life In The Locked-Down Days Of A City Of London Sheriff

Week 26 since UK government lockdown on 16 March – Covid-19 has meant that my Brother Sheriff Christopher Hayward and I, instead of serving one year from September 2019, have been asked to serve two, ending September 2021.  We believe this is the first time in almost 800 years (1228 AD?) this has happened.  So a summary?

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