April 2017 was, for me, a terrible month for sport. All of the teams and individuals that I follow fared badly. Kilkenny’s hurling team failed to make the League Final. Leeds United FC, after spending many months in the top 6 of the Championship, dropped to 7th and failed to make the play-offs. Cambridge lost… Continue reading Already a better month for sport
My subject is memory. Most of the things that I want to remember come to mind easily. Some of the things that I don’t want to remember also come to mind easily, which is a shame. Every now and then a name or word fails to come to mind and, when it finally does, I… Continue reading Cadby Hall
Today, just before 6pm, I paid a visit to our local Maplins, the electronics retailer, in King Street Hammersmith. It could be my last visit to one of their stores. The branch on Kensington High Street closed last month, the Hammersmith shop has big signs announcing its Closing Down Sale and the chain as a… Continue reading Farewell Maplins
This post is over 3 years old. Thanks for stopping by. Please follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ReillySJ) You’re probably familiar with the nursery rhyme “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”. There’s a version here with the usual first verse sung repeatedly, and then “in the round”. It has been viewed nearly 74 million times. The words… Continue reading “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, and a few extra verses
How do you explain to a child the concept of slavery? How do you explain that less than 200 years ago citizens in the UK and the USA were legally allowed to own other people, who were treated as property and not as citizens? The subject came up over the weekend, prompted partly by the… Continue reading Word of the week: slavery
If you’re quick, and can get down to the Greenwich Theatre in South East London on either of the next two evenings, you can catch a touring production of “A Spoonful of Sherman”, a celebration of the Sherman family of songwriters. Alternatively you can check out the touring schedule here and catch the show elsewhere… Continue reading “A Spoonful of Sherman”
The word “commoner” was in the news at the start of this month and has been on my mind ever since. Here’s a typical headline from the Guardian: “Royal Wedding: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle invite 2,640 commoners”. The subheading explains: “People chosen from across UK to join staff and local schoolchildren in Windsor Castle… Continue reading Word of the week: commoner
At the risk of sounding like a Grumpy Old Man here’s another minor irritation, prompted by some incompetent driving that I witnessed earlier this week. It concerns “Baby on Board” signs that some people display on the back of their cars, and the words below might be useful for anyone who has ever wondered whether… Continue reading “Baby on Board”
Yesterday (21 March) was my half-birthday. Is that worth celebrating? We didn’t notice this kind of thing when we were young but my own children do. Soon they will be 11 and a half and 13 and a half, and I can now add “and a half” to my own age. There are many months… Continue reading Half-birthdays, solstices and equinoxes
The word “spy” has been in the news a lot this month. A former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia “remain critically ill in hospital after being poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent”, in the words of this Guardian piece from earlier today. The piece is headlined “Russian spy poisoning: police release picture… Continue reading Word of the week: spy
The Compartments 