We escaped to Windsor on 13 March 2020, thus starting our own lockdown ten days before Boris told us all to ‘stay at home’. Today is a Day of Reflection and I have decided to focus on some positives. After a year that has been tough in so many ways for millions of people, I know I run the risk of coming across as a self satisfied old git, but what the hell, that’s probably not a bad description. So, […]
Read more of "One year and ten days"The sandstone cliffs were increasingly unstable with large areas cordoned off. Notices warned walkers to stay back from the edge and to keep dogs on leads. Beneath the cliffs there used to be a sandy stretch of beach, once popular with sunbathers and fossil hunters, but gradually the beach had disappeared under unsightly heaps of carboniferous limestone. The dark grey boulders had been trucked in from quarries in the Mendip Hills and painstakingly placed on the beach by Dave and […]
Read more of "Short story: The Contest"I hadn’t seen her for over 30 years − until last night that is. I’m afraid her sudden reappearance after such a long absence feels, well, ominous. Hence this note. Just in case. I didn’t believe she’d left me at first. I just carried on with my life, keeping busy, trying to get it back on an even keel, expecting her to turn up sooner or later. And now she has. She was always secretive, never one to explain herself. […]
Read more of "Short story: To Whom It May Concern"I’ve completely adapted to being an introverted recluse, perhaps not surprising after nearly a year. When I go out now for my permitted one hour of brisk walking I’ve not only become adept at avoiding people, I have started to relish it! I treat people as aliens, spotting them from afar and giving them a wide berth. This often involves striking off across a rough field or, even more perilous, stepping out into the road while the aliens saunter along […]
Read more of "Self-isolation: Day 346"Bare trees branch forlornly Blood vessels feed a dirty cotton wool sky And smoky clouds are passing by. Maggie read the words again then, after polishing her reading glasses on her apron, she looked at the questions that followed: 1. What does ‘branch forlornly’ convey to you? 2. Why do you think the poet uses blood vessels as a metaphor for ‘feeding’ the sky? 3. What do the descriptions of the sky tell you about the weather? 4. Assume these […]
Read more of "Short story: The Aspen Tree"He was the last person you’d suspect of having itchy fingers. Having led a blameless life, a yellow skip outside the pub, a mile or so from the vicarage, unexpectedly unsettled him. The Reverend William Stenning, affectionately nicknamed Father Bill by his flock, was a large, rotund man, bald, in his late fifties, with a kindly face and twinkling eyes. At a recent jumble sale, a couple of parishioners running the second-hand bookstall had showed him a picture of Friar […]
Read more of "Short story: The Obsession"Boris Johnson’s government have become famous (well, more accurately, infamous) for over-promising and under-delivering. They are also spectacularly good at trotting out idiomatic (notice how close the word ‘idiomatic’ is to ‘idiotic’) expressions such as Priti Patel’s recent claim that the government have ‘consistently been ahead of the curve’. I’ve been having fun collecting metaphors and/or idioms (the ‘and/or’ is because I’m not 100 percent sure I understand the difference) whilst listening to government briefings. Here is a small selection. […]
Read more of "Metaphor or idiom?"A few days ago I received a text from my GP surgery inviting me to phone to book a Covid inoculation. This was simultaneously a delightful surprise and a shock. Fancy, with the miraculous vaccine barely having reached these shores, being summoned so early. But might it mean, in addition to being over 80, that they (that’s Boris and co) have me categorised as vulnerable? Perhaps they mistakenly think I’m already in a care home? As a half-full person […]
Read more of "Day 276: V Day"To give him his due, Algernon was the first to admit that he was an arrogant sod. An only son, born into a wealthy family, brought up in a stately home with a flag flying from the tower, schooled by a private tutor, waited on by servants − he had led a charmed life. When he was ten years old he inherited an endowment from his grandfather who was accidentally shot by his gamekeeper. The inheritance was generous and […]
Read more of "Short story: The Artist"Ah, the joys of Lockdown 2. Each small adventure is magnified into an Adventure. I had occasion to visit the local Post Office with an urgent package. This calls for some careful planning. Get out my credit card, my mask (and a spare in case the elastic breaks), a disposable plastic glove so that my unprotected fingers don’t have to touch the keypad to get back in, oh, and the package too of course. Than off on a perilous […]
Read more of "Day 242"I see that meetings are getting a bad press again. A new survey has found that nearly a million people spend half their working week in meetings and that at least a third of that time is wasted waiting for late-comers. Waiting for late-comers is crazy; it punishes the people who have taken the trouble to arrive on time and fails to inconvenience those who haven’t. Indeed, waiting for late-comers actually trains people not to arrive on time; why bother […]
Read articleWe escaped to Windsor on 13 March 2020, thus starting our own lockdown ten days before Boris told us all to ‘stay at home’. Today is a Day of Reflection and I have decided to focus on some positives. After a year that has been tough in so many ways for millions of people, I know I run the risk of coming across as a self satisfied old git, but what the hell, that’s probably not a bad description. So, […]
Read blog“So far as other people are concerned, you are your behaviour”