England's only dedicated Ice Curling Rink near Tunbridge Wells in Kent

Yesterday was the hottest April day for nearly 70 years, with the mercury soaring to 29.1C (84F) in St James' Park in London, so naturally - in the evening - we went curling near Tunbridge Wells.

It can't be explained in terms of cause and effect.

Turn on HTTPS for your blog

I just turned on Https for nickbrowne.coraider.com as explained in https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/6284029

I was amazed google could offer it on a domain it didn't own.

Maybe that  is why it isn't working.

Update:
It is now.

Greatest UK boxer of all time?

Jeff Mayweather asks some of the guys inside the Mayweather Boxing Club who they think the greatest boxer to ever come out of the UK was

Lots of love here, from people in the know, for Joe Calzaghe - whose signed glove sits near me in the office as I type.

When they built you, brother, they broke the mold

John came back with me from Cardiff on Sunday as he had to attend a course at the Chancery Lane office on Monday and Tuesday. He is going straight back on the train from Paddington after it finishes this afternoon.

It's been fun.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord

When I am back in Cardiff I take mum and dad to six o'clock at St Joseph's. The Archbishop was there this weekend. Mass these days though, as Vincent Vega would say, "it's just...it's just, there it's a little different."

Here is Dave Holmes in Esquire, on being thrown off the beat by little changes.

I can still recite the Nicene Creed from memory: “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, of all that is seen and unseen ..."

It’s a declaration of the Catholic faith, and if you are a kid in church with his parents, it’s a signal that the Sign of Peace— the seventh-inning stretch of the Catholic Mass—is moments away. Your freedom is imminent.

My father had a special cadence during the Creed, especially in those final few lines, each one building on the last, like he was ticking items off a to-do list. Upspeak, before we had a word for it:

We believe in one Catholic and apostolic church?

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins?

We look for the resurrection of the dead?

And from that peak, he would descend:

N’ the life of the world to come Amen.

It got on my nerves when I was a teenager and everything your parents do gets on your nerves. Once I moved away and was only going to Mass with my folks a couple of times a year, I’d lean in a little bit so I wouldn’t miss it. It was like a good old song, and his version was my favorite.

Now he’s gone, and the Creed has all sorts of new words in it. Now you’re supposed to bow your head at certain points; There’s choreography. Pope Benedict changed it more than a decade ago, and I’m always a step behind. “And with your spirit” catches me off guard every time. All us other twice-a-year Catholics can identify each other when we all say: “And also with y…oh.”

I hear you brother.

AND WHY THE HELL DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF? PART II

I've been in Cardiff since Friday and I'm due to eat with Ben and John in Corleone tonight.

This means that heroic measures will be required to get through my weekly organic fruit and veg box before the next one arrives.

It seems to me that Romy Gill's red lentil dhal with wild garlic will  inevitably form part of this mopping up exercise.

What have I become?

AND WHY THE HELL DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF?

I finally managed yesterday, at the umpteenth time of asking, to climb out of my pit and get to the 6;30 am class at Wimbledon Hot Yoga. I have pretty much got 6:30 on Thursday dialled in as I go with Kevin from round the corner and I know he will be outside my door at six prompt.

If I manage to get along to Elite Fitness at 10 o'clock this morning, that will be three in a row. Could Thursday, Friday, Saturday be the new paradigm?

McSweeney's

I’M A WOMAN ON VACATION DOING YOGA AND WHY THE HELL DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF?

LAUREN TOUSIGNANT

It’s 6 AM on the third day of my vacation in this Instagram-perfect corner of Southeast Asia but instead of sleeping peacefully I have stretched myself into I don’t even know what shape and I am miserable.

All I wanted for this much-needed trip was to lie on a beach and then take a boat to another beach where I would lie out some more and drink 300 Pina Coladas and then take another boat to another beach and eat and eat and eat and lie out again. But after seeing so many dumb stock images of beaming women doing the pigeon pose in the middle of lush mountains or secluded beaches, I convinced myself that, “Yes, that could be me,” and booked this fxxking sunrise yoga class.

Read on ............

So the last shall be first

Back in 2012 we  watched Annie Last, Debs' niece, in the London Olympics (see Icons passim).

Yesterday England won their first ever Commonwealth Games medals in women's mountain biking as favourite Annie Last took gold ahead of team-mate Evie Richards on the Gold Coast.

Hoorah! Someone other than Callum or Paapa to write about plus Laxt/First wordplay aplenty.

Sign of the Times

The New York Times:

After ‘Hamlet’ and ‘King Lear,’ Where Else Can Paapa Essiedu Go?

LONDON — No one from the Royal Shakespeare Company was sure if Paapa Essiedu would have time for an interview recently. He was busy rehearsing the title role in “Hamlet” while also preparing for “King Lear,” in which he is playing Edmund alongside Antony Sher.

Both productions were about to travel to the United States: “King Lear” runs through April 29 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and “Hamlet” arrives at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on May 2. But eventually Mr. Essiedu was able to find a time to talk, between the cool-down from one play and the warm-up for the other. He wasn’t being difficult; this was just how it was.

Daily Mail:

Chelsea U18s 4-0 (7-0 agg) Birmingham City U18s: Jody Morris' side reach seventh successive FA Youth Cup final after comfortable win

• Chelsea's youth side were 3-0 up from the first leg away from home last week
• Callum Hudson-Odoi scored two goals either side of Charlie Brown's strike

Writing here feels like keeping a scrapbook about these two lately

Rumspringa

More footage of  Ben and Ray.

It is a pity they are in Florida rather than Pennsylvania.

Given the Abraham Lincoln face furniture Ben is sporting he could have pulled on a frock coat and gone undercover with the Amish completely undetected.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumspringa

Thinking out loud

We won the quiz at the Antelope in Tooting last night, which means we will have a £50 bar tab for next Monday. My brother John will be up for that.

Ben doesn't land in Heathrow on the way back from Florida until Saturday morning which means he will be too jet lagged to play rugby on Sunday morning.

That, in turn, means that I can drive back from Cardiff later than usual and I can give John a lift up to town. If the weather is OK though, I think we should try and get to SW19 in time to catch The Steve Whalley Band on the bandstand and promoted by the Apprentice at 3pm.



Thence to Corleone for dinner (Ben will come) which is open from noon until 10pm on Sundays.

Tender Loving Scare

Anyone who tells you that the TLS protocol upgrade is not causing any problems with e-commerce behind the scenes is fibbing.

Thanks for listening.

Ryan Reeves

I think that over the last year or so I have learned more from Ryan Reeves' YouTube channel than almost anything else.

Start with the Early and Medieval Church History playlist.

It is s bit more rigorous than our scripture lessons in St Illtyd's with Brother Luke.

apt to be very sporting and unpredictable

I watched the Cardiff Wolves game in the Standard last night. City lost 1-0 after squandering two penalties in extra time. Not a dry eye in the house.

I'm off to Kempton Park this afternoon if you have got any tips.

Sky Sports think Callum may get his first Chelsea start against West Ham on Sunday. If that happens I will be in the Standard again at half past four.