Which Beatles album covers can you visualize right now? A few of them can be classed as Universal Knowledge for people over a certain age, and they are an occasional source of quiz questions. Here’s an example from a recent edition of “The 100k Drop”: “Which member of the Beatles wears a blue military coat… Continue reading Beatles Album Covers, seeing and observing
How are your teeth? From my experience, the range of answers to this question is directly linked to age. People of my generation (born in the 1960s, give or take a few years) are likely to still have most or all of their own teeth, but with some combination of fillings or crowns, maybe even… Continue reading Our first appointment for 2019
This week’s word covers Irish sport and geography (provinces and counties), from the starting point of Leinster. If you live in Ireland, or have spent enough time there, or follow the Irish sporting calendar, there might not be much new information here for you, but that still leaves at least 7 billion people who might… Continue reading Word of the week: Leinster
Unless you actively avoid all mention of sport, in newspapers, on TV and radio, and otherwise going about your daily life, you will have heard of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. These two footballers are generally regarded as the best of their generation. They play for rival teams in La Liga (the top league in… Continue reading Lionel Messi and me
Monday night’s World Cup game between Spain and Morocco was more dramatic than we expected. (We’re dealing here with the Football World Cup, currently taking place in Russia, in case you’re not following it too closely.) Morocco took the lead, twice, and Spain equalized in the final minute to make it 2-2. At one point… Continue reading World Cup viewing, with distractions
Last night, for the first time in over a decade, I attended an evening performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre here in London. I have been to many matinees there over the last ten years, but nothing with a start-time later than 4pm. The play that prompted me to miss every minute of Spain’s 1-0 win… Continue reading “The Two Noble Kinsmen”
Umbro is a company that manufactures sportswear. I occasionally wear their products: short-sleeved shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies. As noted in this piece, I am not committed to any single sportswear brand, though I am rather partial to a bit of Adidas. All of the Umbro clothing in what we can laughingly call my wardrobe was… Continue reading Word of the week: Umbro
Last week, for the final time, my wife and I attended a primary school sports day for one of our children. Our 11-year-old daughter starts senior school in September, so this was the last time that we will cheer her and her classmates on while they throw bean-bags and compete in obstacle races. More than… Continue reading Boys and girls, a 2018 sports day story
For over 50 months, until two days ago, I was in a very small minority of mobile phone users: people with Windows phones rather than iPhones (Apple) or Android devices (Google). As I noted in this piece in 2016, just after my last upgrade, it felt like I was supporting the underdog, “the little guy”,… Continue reading Farewell to Windows phones, and reflections on address books
If you have been watching “A Very British Scandal”, the BBC drama which concluded yesterday evening, you will know that Rinka is the name of a dog, a Great Dane shot dead in October 1975. According to the drama, and the John Preston book on which it is based, the gun was fired by Andrew… Continue reading Word of the week: Rinka
The Compartments 