52 days ago
As we drive back from Chester we pass over the small trout river Alyn which flows into the Dee a few miles downstream from us. By yesterday afternoon it had already burst its banks. The Mrs texted through a flood warning for the Dee and by the time the kids and I got home the waters, normally a good four or five feet below the old orchard, were lapping at its edges.
120 days ago
Sharestock is looming. The date is September 7. The lawn is getting into shape. A team of helpers led by my two eldest daughters are lined up as are the speakers. All we need now is you! For what, I increasingly think, will be my last ever show.
224 days ago
I start with my medical issues and seeing the very efficient Shipmans in Chester. Mind you old Harold was very efficient too. Then it is onto Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI), Cellular Goods (CBX), Reabold (RBD), Procook (PROC), Mercantile Ports & Logistics (MPL) and the fraud Supply@ME Capital (SYME) and what the FCA should do next.
225 days ago
As of today just under half the seats for the third Sharestock event on 7 September are now booked. If you have been before you know why but this year’s event will be bigger and better than any yet. Here is why you should make sure you have a seat HERE today.
484 days ago
I was in Chester the other day, at the grittier end of town to pick up my lawnmower. The kids and I decided we needed to do a mini shop so went to the local Asda, a rather down at heel place. The highlight was my two-year-old Jaya insisting she wanted to get the 2 litres of milk and carry it. She promptly dropped it and the plastic container broke spreading milk everywhere. The staff were most understanding. Elsewhere I could not help notice what you see below.
560 days ago
The Coronation weekend is over but as I drive around the villages around Wrexham and Chester I am struck by how much of the celebratory bunting and flags stay up. Even here on the Welsh side of the border, the red white and blue of the United Kingdom cannot be dodged. My Indian born parents-in-law, old enough to have been born under British Rule, still fly their Union Flags as do so many others. But for years flying such flags was expressly frowned upon by the liberal establishment that runs the media, academia and most of the political class.
820 days ago
It s just 16 days to Sharestock and I bought the big tent for it yesterday!. It will not just be about shares to short. Peter Hambro will talk about gold and how to play it. Chris Bailey will talk about making money from long only value investing in a bear market and 3 CEOs will face a 15 minute grilling from me, including Optibiotix boss Steve O’Hara and Cathal Friel of Open Orphan. But the short sellers presenting are legends.
915 days ago
On June 11, myself and seven other rogue bloggers will walk the 34 miles from Winchester Cathedral to Woodlarks. I can now say that I will complete the walk after yesterday’s training effort of 23 miles. But that is three weeks away so now is a great time to sponsor me HERE. To encourage you to donate, let me tell you about the pain of yesterday and show you the reason: the cows, or bulls as they were advertised.
918 days ago
She is not for the avoidance of doubt, the 4th Tory MP in as many weeks finding themselves in a sex scandal. I am not allowed to say who the latest one, an alleged rapist, is but five minutes digging on the internet will let you know who it is. Sarah Atherton’s shaming is all to do with football.
935 days ago
The Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks walk is looming. It is June 11.34miles. And my training to date has been poor. So, at 6.24 AM I set out for a little stroll as you can see below.
I am doing this to raise cash for an incredible charity. As you enjoy my real suffering below please do make a donation HERE
1003 days ago
Later on I have a few snaps of the River Dee at the Hovel itself but first a few from last night and this morning from the 1300s bridge about 1000 yards downstream over to the infidels in England. First a couple from yesterday looking downstream on the Welsh side.
1024 days ago
I have abandoned the young mums group on Tuesday’s as I just seemed unable to make any small talk with alll the other primary carers. It’s partly down to my own lack of social skills and partly down to the fact that I was the only person in the room not to have certain shared experiences as a young mother. Instead I am starting my training for Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks with a weekly walk with Jaya on my back. To date I have been doing two and a half miles every day and that will continue. But now, Tuesdays and one weekend day will see a longer bonus walk.
1047 days ago
After the Dee silted up near Chester the main port moved down river to Parkgate. Eventually it silted up too and Liverpool became the departure point for Ireland. Had this all happened today the BBC and others would shriek on about man made climate change but 200 years ago folks just knew that God played his little jokes on nature.
1064 days ago
Just 30 yards away is the border with England and while folks in Wales are a respectable lot, the infidels over on the other side of the River Dee, in Cheshire, are a strange lot. Meet Claire Goodier aged 60 from Chester who has been found guiltry of having sex with an Alsatian Dog. So how will she fare in a women’s prison? I am sure you can guess where this is going….
1072 days ago
I got into a cab at 5 AM at the Welsh Hovel not wearing a mask. At Chester train station nobody batted an eyelid. I changed trains at Crewe and again nobody cared. Most folks on the train to Euston were not wearing face nappies. The Heathrow Express is out of action so I took a cab from Euston to Heathrow and wandered into the building still maskless. But then I went to check in a 20kg bag full of books which I am moving to the Greek Hovel.
1291 days ago
On Saturday 29th May I will be one of the Rogue Bloggers setting off at 6 AM from Winchester Cathedral to walk the 34 miles to Woodlarks. It is a great charity and it urgently needs your help so please do sponsor it today HERE. So on Sunday I did my longest training walk yet, from my front door here in wales, along our fields, across the bridge and then on the English bank to the centre of Chester and back again. The proof that I made it to Chester is a shot of the amazing houses on the other side of the Dee a bit before my half way point.
1305 days ago
As ever, my training walks for Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks start the same way. I am aware that the actual walk is now just five weeks away and it will be a gruelling 34 miles with a 6 AM kick off at Winchester Cathedral. But I must finish the walk and ensure my fellow rogue bloggers finish too. Woodlarks urgently needs us to raise £50,000 to ensure its survival and so please do donate HERE.
1308 days ago
It was 13 days ago that I did this walk – just over 20 miles. Last week my woke snowflake daughter Olaf joined me so I did just 11 miles not wishing to be accused of breaching her human rights with an act of patriarchal oppression. The route is the same as ever: along our fields by the Dee in Wales, the Bridge over to England and then walking the English side of the Dee towards Chester and back. This walk saw me end up walking past some of the smaller houses belonging to the Duke of Westminster on his extensive lands by the Dee. It does make you think a bit about the nature of inherited wealth.
1322 days ago
The good news is that we should be up to 12 rogue bloggers for Woodlarks by the end of the weekend. The bad news is that Lucian Miers has walked the course and it is indeed 34 miles, not the usual 33, and the last 1.5 miles are all uphill, just when one is ready to collapse. And thus I must train ever harder as this walk is the most important I have ever done and I must finish.
1335 days ago
Because of the lockdown rules and because so many of its campers have immune deficiency issues, Woodlarks cannot open this year and so it has no income. So if the Rogue Bloggers do not do another walk and do not raise £48,000, Woodlarks may not reopen at all next year so please do donate now HERE. As such, we band of seven have pledged to go the extra mile. This year it is 34 not 33 miles from Winchester to Woodlarks on May 29. And I am not in great shape.
1390 days ago
While the Mrs enjoyed a late morning snooze, something that as a public sector worker she is well accustomed to, Joshua and I went walking along the River Dee where, as you can see below, the waters are rising again. The walk we did a week ago on the English side is now impossible due to flooding.
1401 days ago
It seems that one reader reckons that the lavender which arrived yesterday will be drowned by the River Dee rising as a result of man-made global warming. The water from the Dee came within one inch of the bottom of the back step of the part of the house nearest the river in 2000 at its all-time record high and in 2020. At that point, the river was, in the middle, 29 foot deep. I reckon that to reach the first lavender plant it would have to climb another 15 foot meaning that most of the house would also be underwater as would many others in the village and half of Chester and Wrexham.
1419 days ago
The smaller Peppa Pig wellies contain the feet of four-year-old Joshua. The larger wellies were a late Christmas present to myself and meant that we were able to go on a decent New Year’s Day walk together up the River Dee on the Welsh side heading towards Chester. Walking with your son does not spread Covid in the way that sledging might in the world of mad Mark Drakeford, our dear leader here in Wales.
1431 days ago
I note that Matt Hancock has a First Class degree in PPE from Oxford and admit that I cannot match his Geoff. I only achieved a Desmond from the same place in the same subject and, at the time, I remember thinking that I was jolly lucky not to have racked up a Douglas. I am pretty sure that my late uncle Christopher Booker had the same feeling after coming away with a second from Cambridge where he read history.
1525 days ago
In today’s podcast I consider my dining experience in Chester last night and then look at Carnival (CCL), Supply@ME Capital (SYME) and its jail bait CEO and the 1 question its diehard supporters cannot answer. Moving on I consider Xtract Resources (XTR), Tiger Royalties (TIR) and the loathsome spiv Jon Bellis of Novum who has now pushed me over the edge, I look at Novacyt (NCYT) and TrakM8 (TRAK), once the beau of Britain’s thirstiest share blogger
1986 days ago
I have not reported for a couple of days and I am glad to say that the waters are now receeding here at the Welsh Hovel. They have left our garden and the levels in the Orchard are down by a good foot and a half. The photos below are from Thursday and are from the area around the bridge I cross each nursery day walking Joshua off to “borstal” in England.
