My father died over the weekend, around 6am on Saturday 18 April. He was 89. It was 23 years to the day after my mother’s funeral, an event I have written about more than once in these pages, including this piece from 2018. May he rest in peace. He died peacefully in the care home… Continue reading Word of the week: orphan
For the third weekend in a row, here are the questions and answers from the BBC Radio 2 mid-morning quiz Pop Master for the week just ended. There are 10 rounds of 10 questions, for the five days up to Friday 17 April 2020. On the radio, each Bonus Question features a brief clip from… Continue reading Pop Master questions, week ending 17 April 2020
The word “Zoom” has acquired a new meaning for many of us over the last month or so. It’s the name of a video conferencing App or, to quote from its own website, “Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and… Continue reading Word of the week: Zoom
This piece from last weekend listed the questions from BBC Radio 2 mid-morning quiz Pop Master for the week ending Friday 3 April. Here are the questions and answers, 10 rounds of 10 questions, for the week just ended (Friday 10 April 2020). On the radio, each Bonus Question features a brief clip from a… Continue reading Pop Master questions, week ending 10 April 2020
After a gap of three weeks, for reasons explained in this piece, I have chosen another Album of the week. It was the title that appealed to me: “One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This”, by the New York Dolls. The album passed me by on its release in 2006. I came… Continue reading Album of the week: #7 “One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This” (New York Dolls)
At this time of year my son suffers badly from hay fever. In the early spring there’s something in the air in our part of London that plays havoc with his eyes and nose. It started 11 years ago, when he was four. He left nursery one day with his eyes all swollen and red… Continue reading Word of the week: Loratadine
Last month, in this piece, I wrote again about the BBC Radio 2 mid-morning quiz Pop Master. That piece included links to previous Blog posts about the quiz and a couple of recent questions. Here, for the first time, I offer a full week’s worth of questions and answers, 10 rounds of 10 questions, for… Continue reading Pop Master questions, week ending 3 April 2020
What is the furthest that you have ever been from every other human being in the world? I’m being literal here, asking about geographical distance rather than anything metaphorical. Coronavirus (the COVID-19 pandemic) is still the biggest news story on the planet. Over half of the world’s population is in lockdown, and social distancing is… Continue reading Social Distancing
Last month our washing machine broke down. It wasn’t worth having it repaired so it had to be replaced. While we were waiting for our new machine, we had a few days without one. The last time this happened was in 2006, just after our daughter was born, around the time of our son’s second… Continue reading Word of the week: Laundrette
For the last six Wednesdays I have been posting “Album of the week” pieces, for reasons explained in the first of them, here. This time last week I was thinking of having a sabbatical (six weeks on, one week off), partly because I couldn’t think of a new album that I wanted to explore. I… Continue reading Album of the week: postponed, in favour of live news
The Compartments 