Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

My universally accepted blood is now in a fridge at Whipps Cross A&E. The best part of donating is getting the text to tell you where it will be used.

While the choir rehearse, the old historian is found in the library. It’s a really lovely, well equipped space. Nice comfortable chairs. A cafe for later. A good selection of English language novels. (Do you get arrested for posting SR books?). And guides to living in Germany in every language but…

Do you think CSL would have approved?

Was upset to have missed out on the chocolate cake. The penalty you pay for talking too much to strangers at dinner.

This chap is Hercules. He had many labours, but he was never sent out to buy a firm feather pillow for Gareth to sleep on for the next 5 nights. Such a princess.

Nuremberg is a big place. 30 platforms at the train station and ours is… 21 - a long walk. The last train - up the hill to Bayreuth - leaves on time. Hurrah.

Wurzburg. Renowned for its wines?

After successfully navigating the Frankfurt S-bahn from the airport which our ICE train decided was close enough, we are finally in our overnight stop hotel. 3 hours later than planned. German efficiency. Too late to eat. Herbal tea and some cookies. Going to need a proper breakfast tomorrow.

We are moving. Hurrah. Life on German railways can be hell.

Hmm. On a DB ICE train that has been stuck at Koln for an hour. This is normal I’m told. Perhaps Germany needs a government that can ensure the trains run on time…

Today’s musical treat is the Hertford Chamber Choir singing a “little mass” in the royal cathedral of St James in Brussels. It’s a baroque wonder. So light. A bit echoey according to Lady H.

Brussels, your pastries are lovely, you’ve built a clean pedestrian friendly centre, but dragging two wheely cases over your cobbles (however pretty they look) up hill to the royal cathedral is HARD work!

Messing around with clocks every year "so it's safe for kids to walk to school" is yet another casual widespread acceptance that people driving cars won't do so safely

And finally I loved this depiction of the 1830 revolution in Brussels. The way the light falls on the anguished parents. A bit of history I didn’t know.

Lots of apocalyptic stuff that makes our present levels of chaos look tame.

There are some absolute bangers in the Brussels art gallery. Louis David hangs opposite possibly his most famous painting.

I’d often wondered what Zadok the Priest who anointed Solomon looked like. Never pictures him in a Viking hat though. (In the Royal Art Gallery, Brussels). A couple more incoming.

I have seen some strange things in churches. But a reliquary and shrine to the the “blessed” last emperor of Austria-Hungary must be in the top five. He was a humble man apparently.

Good morning

Got to love the names of the metro stations. Brel!! Merckx!!!! Bizet!!!!

It’s absolutely pissing it down in Brussels. The storm has been through and knocked all the autumn leaves off. Traffic is shocking. We’re going out to the suburbs, on the metro, for dinner with Lady H’s oldest school friend.

If all you read was social media posts about Israel/Palestine, you might be shocked that Palestinian Arabs have a vote - and will hold the balance of power - in Israeli elections. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

If any of you are in Brussels this weekend and fancy some quite lovely FREE choral music, do come along to the Cathedral St Jacques to hear the Lady H sing.

Today we are travelling on Eurostar avec all the world.

Councillor launches a campaign to get a dangerous junction reengineered (outside the arts centre - host to kids dancing, knitting and book clubs, blood donors etc.). Facebook car warriors do their thing. I comment about their entitlement. And someone puts me right. Reply admined. Normal day.

Some good news (from the National Crime Survey, h/t frasernelson.substack.com/p/lawless-br...)

There’s a cricket game going on in Pakistan. Almost unbelievable scores. 430 to win! And they’re going to do it.

Busy today so I probably won’t get the chance to write about my final statue. So for now, I’ll just give you a photo of him and his splendid moustache.

Very much this. Alongside her excellent scholarship, Lucy, the RHS central team, and RHS Council do so much important work to support the discipline. Much of that work is visible but there’s so much more quietly done work going on behind the scenes that is no less vital. Congratulations Lucy!

Have we reached (passed?) peak car? In Europe at least. The age of the incredibly wasteful inefficient personal vehicle coming to an end? Hope so.