Recent content by George J

I agreee with this. Home listening is mostly in normal sized rooms with the usual domestic ambient noises rumbling along, be it a lorry or car on a rainy road, wind on the windows, or the fridge humming away quietly. Concert Halls usually have a quieter basic ambient level, though it is never...

The Berlingo is building credibility here. It is the easiest starting Diesel I ever have used. One-two-go or occasionally one-two-three-go, and then runs as smooth as warm. The engine must be in very good condition. As for driving it, it is actually a vehicle to make more progress than the Mini...

If things are given as gifts, then, as with the Viking remains left in Britain and dfisplayed at York, it hardly seems likely that anyone would object to us keeping them and displaying the origin etc. But there is so much that is genuinely disputed and certainly stolen during the period of Pax...

On the whole, and very much in line with Great Britain's fallen status in the world, I would say that the only museum exhibits that should not be returned to their lands of origin are those that originate in GB. Of course the Viking Exhibits in York should stay, because that is where the...

I can confirm that this is indeed a lovely cycle, at least in the sense that I have just listened to the Clock Symphony, and the music making is even finer than I remember it from when I owned the last two boxes in the 1980s. And the record is as near mint as you could hope. Virtually silent...

No pictures. It was not that sort of weekend, but Lu had a nice day on her third birthday [Sunday], but we did not sing "Happy Birthday!" I had a nice rest, and the Berlingo is an effective mile muncher. Infinitely easier to drive than the Mini One, having sufficient acceleration, a commanding...

Well after all this time, I have managed to catch the Radio set really doing its best on a live broadcast. Only three minutes of music, being the Coda to Haydn's Oratorio, "Creation." I tend to listen in subdued light, so the picture won't make much sense, but as the applause and final...

I have got the cold declining, but have almost zero energy at the moment. I am off to see cousin Patti tomorrow for a four day weekend in North Lincolnshire. Hopefully that will revive me, though I dread the drive up there. Lu is being ultra-kind. Dogs know when something a bit amiss. Best...

I have been really laid low with the most horrible cold I've had since the 1990s. Here is Lu, after making a nest in my chair [Buchanon tartan rug and Soway sheepskin] ... IMG_2605 by George Johnson, on Flickr Such a contrast to nearly two years ago when she came to me! IMG_1017 by George...

Even whole sentences can be identical for spelling and layout in Danish and Norwegian [though they sound different for sure], but the real give away is the Norwegian word "ikke' meaning "not." So the question "Er det ikke slik?" means "Is it not so?" in Norwegian means" Is it not so?" in...

No changes for fiive years, because I found exactly what I desired. The best mono quality you could get from the mono era in terms of radio at least. For mono there has never been a better speaker than the original Quad ESL, and among first generation tuners only one or two others [Quad FM 1...

Being half Norwegian on my mother's side, I grew up for the first couple of years learning to talk exclusively in Norwegian. Norwegian mew-mew! But my father banned it, and so we became an exclusively English speaking household [reasonably enough in Herefordshire]. As a young child I visited my...

A week on with the van, and I can see it as a very useful and easy to drive vehicle. Also it is significantly cheaper on fuel, in spite of diesel being more expensive than petrol. The engine is not very powerful, but has a nice torque band and none of that turbo shunt that cuts in at a certain...

Apparently Citroen Berlingo vans are a slightly worse risk than young idiots in a Mini One. But it is what it is. I have a vehicle that'll do the job and also be a nicer drive in my own terms. I have to say that the Berlingo is actually much quieter than the Mini, engine, transmission and even...

Now legally insured and taxed [VED], I went for my first tentative drive into town and up to see friends ... about four miles to get used to the new engine and gearbox, as well as gauge the width and length of it. It could hardly be more different to the Mini, and I love it. It has plenty of...