This earlier piece, about my childhood enthusiasm for London Transport, could have been written anytime in the last 20 years. It recounted a week that I spent with a schoolmate, just before my 11th birthday, travelling the length and breadth of the London Underground. What prompted me to finalize and publish it was hearing the… Continue reading “You’ve got to hide your love away”
Like many of my classmates here in West London I had a childhood enthusiasm for London Transport. I started primary school in the 1960s at a place that was a 3-minute walk from home, through an alleyway. We didn’t have a car but even if we did it would have taken longer to be driven… Continue reading A childhood enthusiasm for London Transport
My Uncle Jimmy has been on my mind recently. I mentioned him in this piece about “The Gambler”. He died nearly 11 years ago, early in 2007. He was my mother’s brother, four years older than her, and had joined the Merchant Navy here in the UK after leaving Dublin. Our relationship was different from… Continue reading Uncle Jimmy and a trip to The Emperor
My parents were both born in Ireland in the 1930s. They moved to London, separately, met here and were married in the 1950s. In the years that followed they had three children: my older brother, my younger sister, me in the middle. As the 1970s began the three of us were all at the same… Continue reading 1970s Date Nights
Earlier this year, on an episode of the ITV quiz show “The Chase”, Bradley Walsh told a brief anecdote about Winston Churchill and the orange-based liqueur Cointreau. The story, as I recall it, was that when Churchill was in his 70s his doctor told him that he wasn’t eating enough fruit and vegetables and needed… Continue reading Word of the week: Cointreau
Back in the 1970s we often heard the word nostalgia in the following one-liner: “Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be”. Etymologically that turns out to be true. The word is derived from the Greek “nostos” (return home) and “algos” (pain), so it used to mean homesickness (like “Heimweh” in German), or a longing for… Continue reading Word of the week: nostalgia
When drafting “1000 Memories” I wrote two pieces about the high jump. The first, about how my father made a pair of high jump stands one summer, when I was nine years old, made it into the Kindle edition. The second, about my Uncle Paddy’s visit that same summer, didn’t make it. Both pieces are… Continue reading Two memories from the 1970s about the high jump
The Ashes begin tonight. If those words mean nothing to you, let me try to explain. The England cricket team begin their series of five Test Matches against Australia, in Australia, at midnight tonight. The trophy that they are contesting is called The Ashes, also known as the urn. The first game is in Brisbane.… Continue reading The Ashes Conundrum
Last Saturday I stayed up late watching “The Chase”. For once “The Chase” in question was not the ITV quiz show hosted by Bradley Walsh, which has had plenty of mentions on these pages this year (starting with this piece), but a movie from 1966, starring Marlon Brando. Brando has also had plenty of mentions… Continue reading “The Chase” (1966)
Most of the words published on this Blog have been drafted on a Mac Book Pro which, all being well, will celebrate its fifth birthday early next year. It has had its troubles, mostly related to hard drives, documented in this piece from last year. In September the charger started playing up. The thin white… Continue reading The price of things (November 2017)
The Compartments 