Since the autumn I have been revisiting Narnia. Does CS Lewis’s imaginary world, first described in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, count as Universal Knowledge these days, especially for the generations brought up on Harry Potter? As a child I read the seven Narnia Chronicles more than once and have been re-reading them… Continue reading Narnia and Hogwarts
[There are over 1,000 words in this post] I am a big fan of the “Desert Island Discs” archive and recommend it to everyone. [NOTE: the link in the last sentence, which previously took you to the “Find a Castaway” page, is now broken; this link will take you to the new Home Page for… Continue reading “Desert Island Discs”: the year so far
How many changes would you make to increase your chances of a long and healthy life? Would you eat oily fish (sardines or mackerel for example) twice a week? Maybe you already do. Would you drink more water and drink less beer or wine? Again, maybe you already have the balance right there, keeping your… Continue reading Oily Fish
January’s earworm (“Keep yourself Alive”) has been displaced. The song that’s on my mind constantly these days is “(What’s so funny ’bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?” The first version that I heard, well over 30 years ago, was this one by Elvis Costello, where he spits out the words in an appropriate post-punk manner. I… Continue reading February’s earworm: “Peace, love and understanding”
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of the season of Lent. It falls earlier this year than most. The New Moon began this week, taking us into the Chinese Year of the Monkey. Happy New Year to you. As it coincides with the start of Lent this (Chinese) New Year might be a better time… Continue reading Things to do in Lent
Last month I received a Questionnaire, an NHS GP Survey, through the post. I dislike Questionnaires very, very much and rarely fill them in, but decided to fill in this one. It struck me that it was worded to make it difficult to say, simply, “I am very happy with my GP and have no… Continue reading Questionnaires
You know Jenga, the game where you build a tower out of wooden blocks and then try to remove one block at a time until the whole tower collapses. The word means “build” in Swahili, as I learnt last year from this article featuring the inventor Leslie Scott and Alan Hassenfeld from Hasbro. I assumed… Continue reading Word of the week: Jenga
I like New Zealanders. I have met many of them over the last 40 years and can’t recall any that I didn’t like. Friends from work and school have landed up in New Zealand and are living good lives, from what I can see. I have spent many hours in conversation with Kiwis but still… Continue reading Kiwi pronunciation: pigs and pegs, badges and barges
The picture below shows a selection of my pocket diaries going back to the 1970s. There’s an unbroken run going from 1979 to 2001, available any time if I want to check the dates of holidays, meetings, gigs, exams, Film Festivals, and very occasionally how I was feeling about things. I saw Lou Reed at… Continue reading Diaries: old, new and in between
