David Jenkins' weblog

Life’s too short to drink instant coffee

Category: life

  • Letter to Kyoji

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    I’ve had an on/off relationship with Japan since the very first days of my working life but today it’s only continued through a Xmas card exchange with and a letter to Kyoji Ohtake.

  • Remembering Greece

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    There was a program on BBC2 last night about Crete, the Minoan civilisation and the archaeological site at Knossos and I thought ‘I’ve been there’.

  • 5 life (career) changing decisions

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    Everyone’s life is the result of a mix of chance and decisions. You can’t do much about chance but it’s the decisions you make which map out your life. I reckon that there’s five decision which I’ve taken which, successively, have meant that I didn’t become an academic, a long term oil industry employee (and…

  • My mother didn’t have a happy life

    My mother didn’t have a happy life

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    I don’t mean that it was uniformly unhappy but after a promising start she suffered a misfortune which, despite her undoubted mental strength and determination, was to blight the rest of her life. Audrey Vickers was born in 1923 and as far as I know enjoyed a happy childhood in a stable and loving but…

  • What’s wrong with using the phone?

    What’s wrong with using the phone?

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    I know it’s already been reported that younger people don’t use the phone. It’s said that they prefer to communicate in other ways, mainly via social media and its associated messaging services. They do this because they’re all linked in and continuously online so I guess it works.

  • Leaders are only as good as their teams

    Leaders are only as good as their teams

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    The All Stars, Lensbury’s 2nd rugby team: I’ve always enjoyed sport, as a spectator and a participant. Unfortunately I’ve never been that good at it and in school, although I’d have happily swapped a few academic grades for a place on the school team, I never got the chance. However later on, first at college…

  • 5 German cities

    5 German cities

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    They’re not the most interesting German cities and this is certainly not any sort of in depth profile of them but it’s the five cities which give me good memories. It helps that I spent 13 years working in the chemicals industry in Europe and of course three of the biggest chemical companies were German…

  • 5 early starts

    5 early starts

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    It’s been a busy week and I’ve had 5 early starts. Well actually not that early but earlier than I aspire to these days.

  • 5 memorable flights

    5 memorable flights

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    I didn’t take my first air flight until my mid 20s but I’d have to admit I’ve made up for it since. It’s not something I’m necessarily proud of but in my time I’ve held gold cards with three different airline groups (British Airways, KLM and SAS) and in more recent times I’ve done interim…

  • Stent plus one

    Stent plus one

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    29 Aug 19 was the day I was wheeled into a lab in Royal Papworth. I can’t have been there for much over an hour but that was enough time for a stent to be fitted in my right coronary artery which probably stopped me having a heart attack and might well have saved my…