With a week to go till Christmas here are three pieces from “1000 Memories”, available as a Kindle book here (UK) or here (US). Christmas at Goodbans Goodbans was our local department store, on the High Road. It seemed big, but it wasn’t, not compared to a proper department store like Derry & Toms. The… Continue reading Pre-Christmas Memories
As this year has progressed I have talked and thought a lot about privacy and secrecy, and the difference between them. It’s been the Big Idea of the year for me. I hope that you know the difference between privacy and secrecy. I hope that the people around you know it too. The more I… Continue reading Privacy and secrecy
Last week’s piece about the word “disconsolate” made me think, briefly, of other words that sound like the opposite of something but are not. You can be disconsolate but not consolate, uncouth or unruly but not couth or ruly. It also reminded me of the word “Dystopian”, which is the opposite of “Utopian”. It’s a… Continue reading Word of the week: Dystopian
As a teenager I went to many gigs at the Hammersmith Odeon, and even went to a couple before turning 13. It was the largest cinema in the UK at the time (around 3,500 seats) and the scene of many childhood visits to the pictures, like those recalled in this piece. By the time I… Continue reading Front row seats at the Hammersmith Odeon
Disconsolate means “very unhappy and unable to be comforted”, according to the Oxford Dictionary of English on my Kindle. My 10-year-old daughter and I have been reading “The Silver Sword” by Ian Serraillier. She had been learning about the Second World War at school and chose this book to accompany her studies. We had a… Continue reading Word of the week: disconsolate
My 12 year old son has started swearing. He uses “the F word”, as I will euphemistically call it in this opening paragraph, although it’s spelt out in full further down. As I wrote earlier this year my daughter, who is now 10, has been exposed to plenty of swearing at football matches, but fortunately… Continue reading A joke about children swearing (contains rude words)
Are there people from your past that you no longer hang out with, friends or even family members who are no longer part of your life? There are a few people from my past that I now actively avoid, troublemakers and malcontents who would bring unwelcome uncertainty and, quite possibly, danger into my life. If… Continue reading Some sweet advice
For the last few months most of our local streets – not just side streets, but main routes, used by buses and trucks – have had their speed limits reduced to 20mph. When was this announced? I don’t recall anything, locally or nationally, announcing the change. I can understand the new speed limit being imposed… Continue reading Everywhere has gone 20
My current commute takes me to central London every weekday, either to St James’s Park or to Westminster in London Underground’s Zone 1. Our local station is where Zone 2 meets Zone 3. During peak times (7am-10am and 4pm- 7pm) the one-way fare is £2.90. Off-peak the fare is £2.40. My preferred working hours are… Continue reading A guaranteed way to save money
Before we were married my wife and I played a lot of Scrabble. That’s not a euphemism. We really did play “The World’s Leading Word Game” hundreds of times. That’s how it’s described on the box that I’m looking at right now, made by Spear’s Games sometime in the 1970s. The Deluxe Scrabble set that… Continue reading Word of the week: Sequoia
The Compartments 