My son has a dose of the shingles. I’m not sure how he got it. It’s not the kind of thing that normally affects someone of his age (he’ll be 17 next week). So far nobody else in the family has caught it. I have had shingles twice in my life, once in my 20s… Continue reading Word of the week: shingles
The phrase “panic buying” has been back in the news in recent weeks. During the first lockdown, in the spring of 2020, the phrase was used often to describe the amount of toilet roll people were buying. Supermarket shelves across the globe were emptied of the stuff. Eventually some of the shops here in the… Continue reading Panic Buying
In a couple of recent posts on this Blog I have been revisiting some of the first gigs that I attended. As mentioned in this one (“More about 1970s gigs, and a correction”), I have created a list of the first 38 that I went to, from November 1974 to late December 1977. It appears at the end of this piece, along with photos… Continue reading My first 38 gigs listed (1974-77)
Here’s another news story that passed me by in 2019: the capital city of African nation Burundi has changed. It is now Gitega, which was the seat of the Kingdom of Burundi until it was abolished in 1966. The former capital, Bujumbura, is still the economic capital and centre of commerce. Like many other facts… Continue reading Word of the week: Gitega
My recent memories of a gig by Cado Belle at the Music Machine, recorded here, have prompted me to make a list of the first 30 gigs that I attended. The first dozen or so are as fixed in my memory as my 8 Times Table. They’ve been there for 40 years and haven’t gone anywhere yet. I could recall them, in order, without any difficulty, but I… Continue reading More about 1970s gigs, and a correction
In addition to its daily Obituaries page, the Guardian publishes a series called “Other Lives” two or three times a week. It is introduced online as follows: “Obituaries pages traditionally describe and celebrate the lives of the great and good, the famous and infamous. There is another type of life that deserves noticing: people less in the… Continue reading Colin Tully RIP and Cado Belle at the Music Machine
ULEZ is an acronym that has been in use for a while here in London. It stands for Ultra Low Emission Zone and dictates the cost of driving through various parts of the city. Currently it applies to vehicles in the Congestion Charge zone, which covers the West End, the City of London and a… Continue reading Word of the week: ULEZ
I return to the subject of pronouns, something I wrote about in this post back in 2016. In case you need a reminder of what pronouns are, there are explanations in that earlier piece. You might receive emails these days from people who specify their preferred use of pronouns, typically he/him, she/her or they/their. I… Continue reading UK #1s that contain multiple pronouns in their titles
I continue to read very little. At the start of the year, I wrote this piece about “Reader’s Block”, prompted by Nigella Lawson using the phrase in a feature called “Books That Made Me”. I have read the odd book since January but am mostly out of the habit. My 14-year-old daughter has been making… Continue reading “The piccalilli was the lurid colour of jaundice”
Here’s a set of phrases I use often: “My work is done”, “Your work is done”, “His work is done”, and so on. As you can see, it involves any possessive pronoun followed by the words “work is done”. I use it to describe the conclusion of mundane tasks (watching a TV programme, finishing a… Continue reading Word of the week: Confirmation
The Compartments 