Here in the UK, we have been living in lockdown for nearly seven weeks. There is no live sport on TV. The BBC and ITV are raiding their archives. We have had snooker classics on BBC, and ITV are about to show the entire Euro 96 tournament (football) on one channel or another. Yesterday the… Continue reading “The world’s a big place”
When did you first use a cashpoint? When did you first insert a bank card into an ATM (“hole in the wall”) and withdraw cash? For me it was some time in 1983, when I was a student. It involved using my new NatWest Servicecard, which was separate from my cheque guarantee card. Before that,… Continue reading Two things that we didn’t do in April 2020
In search of family viewing, and after a false start, we watch “Breaking Away” (the 1979 film directed by Peter Yates) in memory of my father. Last week’s ITV drama “Quiz” was a real treat. It was based on events related to the quiz show “Who wants to be a millionaire?” nearly 20 years ago… Continue reading “Breaking Away” and “feel-good” movies
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
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
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 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
Yesterday was Mother’s Day here in the UK. As usual it was celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, also known as Laetare Sunday in the Catholic church. Back in 1997 it fell on 9 March, and it was the last time my own mother was able to celebrate it. A week ago (in this piece… Continue reading Mother’s Day 1997, and where we are now
For at least 20 years Monday has been Quiz Night. Since the start of this century, when there were far fewer quiz shows on TV than there are now, “University Challenge” on BBC2 was one weekly show that I never missed, either live or recorded. The recordings were always on video. There was no iPlayer,… Continue reading Monday Night really is Quiz Night
Before you read on, be aware that this piece contains many rude words, or rather the same curse word repeated many times in different forms. If you are sensitive to such things, or are under 13, please stop reading now. If not, continue to the next paragraph, after these photos of the CD cover and… Continue reading Album of the week: #3 “Norman … Rockwell!” (Lana del Rey) [contains rude words]
The Compartments 