Oliver Phillips blog from Watford Observer
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting WO to 80360, or email us
Oliver Phillips »
New Orleans: one of my favourites in the US
Posted on 2:31pm Friday 25th May 2012
I WOULD add New Orleans to the likes of San Francisco, Memphis and Charleston as US cities to which I would happily return, along with such as Plymouth (Ma) and Asheville (NC).
Oliver Phillips »
Bubba Gump is crossed off the wish-list
Posted on 11:55am Monday 21st May 2012
THE first complete day in New Orleans, I achieved a number of aims. I had a pot of gumbo (meat and sausage gumbo). I also had a mint julep and finished off in the evening with catfish and pecan – the nuts offsetting the distinct but slightly muddy but far from unpleasant taste of my first-ever Mississippi catfish.
Oliver Phillips »
Who needs Mardi Gras in Spring when a September night is madly busy?
Posted on 8:30pm Thursday 10th May 2012
WE had thought about going to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Well, that was the original intent but after seeing the French quarter in New Orleans on an autumn Friday and Saturday, we realized that would have been madness.
Oliver Phillips »
Travelex. Let our card increase the strain of your holiday
Posted on 1:36pm Thursday 3rd May 2012
RELAX and let Travelex take the strain while on holiday. That is what the blurb suggests but the Cash Passport provided by Travelex did not enable me to relax. Far from it: it caused considerable aggravation.
Oliver Phillips »
I pulled into Nazareth, I was feeling 'bout half-past dead
Posted on 2:40pm Thursday 26th April 2012
WHEN I read the news, my mind went back to the late 1960s, when so many rock groups seemed to have bizarre names as the psychedelic era held sway and, whether they called themselves Curved Air or Tangerine Dream or Plastic Tomcat, they wore clothes to evoke the Technicolor kaleidoscope of the those fused sounds.
Oliver Phillips »
Pigs in blankets - way to go
Posted on 9:47am Monday 16th April 2012
PETE looked at the waitress after we had all ordered and said: “I’ll have pigs in a blanket.”
Oliver Phillips »
Strike cost me a 36-hour round trip to Paris
Posted on 7:40am Tuesday 10th April 2012
OFTEN I am amazed at how travel arrangements seem to fall into place. We plan to travel to the UK, catch a ferry from Calais at 2.30pm French time and we are sitting in a pub near Banbury with a pint of Old Hookey in front of me by 6pm English time.
Oliver Phillips »
The Law of Sod is still haunting me at every turn
Posted on 3:41pm Friday 30th March 2012
SOME years ago, with the help of a large mechanical digger and the passing of some 200 euros in notes, I obtained the outline of a pond, some 7m x 3m and over one meter deep. There was quite a lot of remedial work to be done as the digger arrived on a wet day and spent no more than an hour and half digging on the sloping Folly.
Oliver Phillips »
Our chances of a quick house sale are blighted by EDF
Posted on 1:30pm Friday 23rd March 2012
WE benefited from the depressed housing market when we bought the house in St Amans-Soult, near Mazamet in The Tarn. We know that our old house, which was worth six figures a couple of years back, is unlikely to fetch much more than half that amount.
Oliver Phillips »
Ex-pats embrace some of those Arab values
Posted on 1:30pm Thursday 15th March 2012
IT is not just the ex-pats Brits but Europeans and Americans who enjoy the culture of Dubai particularly in respect of bringing up children. It was interesting in conversations with daughter Abbie’s friends and neighbours, how much they value the stricter attitudes handed down by the rulers.
Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here.
