A bit about me...

This weekend I managed to get some mountain biking done in and around the villages where I live.

I am lucky enough to be in West Berkshire, right on the border with Oxfordshire, and therefore have access to some great biking areas.
These take me from along the river Thames in Pangbourne, up to the lovely Whitchurch and Whitchurch Hill, to Woodcote, Goring, Streatley (again finding the river Thames) and back into Lower and then Upper Basildon, before returning to Pangbourne.

I am not a huge watcher of  TV, but I did follow the BBC's The Classroom Experiment with interest, and not just because of the delightful Miss Overbury, but also with a genuine feeling the the teaching of our children is not as good as it could be.

A great programme I urge you to watch is Downton Abbey. Yes I know it is a period drama, but dont be put off...this is a good one. What is more surprising is that its on ITV, a channel whos standards have been famously low. Great location (Highclere Castle here in Berkshire) great cast, fine writing and performances from all.

Its true that 1 particular lady in the show gets my attention more than she should, but I can't help it, she reminds me a great deal of a lady I have known for some 5 years, and have helped through her transition from unhappily married to happily single. She knows who she is and that she will always remain close to my heart.

On a different note, I had the good fortune to win the lottery this weekend.
Ok, so it was not the top prize, but a welcome win afterall. I got 2 numbers and both stars in the Euro Lottery...but somehow still only won £15.10 . I cant help thinking that something is going wrong with lottery prizes. Sure the headline of possibly winning £80m is attractive, but wouldn't the lottery companies get more people buying tickets if the chances of winning anything were better..? And surely £15.10 is not fair recompense for 2 numbers and both stars ?
Why not limit the top prize to £10m (enough I think for anyone) and raise the lower prize levels to a minimun of £50 ?

For my readers in the US, the Euro lottery is run throughout europe and is separate from our National Lottery here in the UK. Both though are suffering from reduced ticket sales but have decided against improving the odds of winning.

In my next blog, I will try to tell you more about me, my travels, museums and art.

MK