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
It’s two days late I know, but a belated Happy St Patrick’s Day to you. In Ireland you still have a few hours to commemorate the national saint on this Bank Holiday Monday but the rest of us are done for another year. The next time that St Patrick’s Day falls on a Saturday will… Continue reading Grand Slam
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
I have 21 first cousins, a brother and a sister. This means that, including me, my generation (the children of my parents, and their brothers and sisters) consists of 24 people. What do you think about that? Does it strike you as a big number, as a Goldilocks number (just right) or rather on the… Continue reading Cousins: 40s, 50s and 60s
Here’s another weather-related piece, begun while there was still snow on the ground in our corner of West London, but finalized when the temperature had returned to its more familiar level for this time of year. Two days ago I wrote about having the right sort of clothes for our recent cold spell, and yesterday… Continue reading “When you walk through a storm”, and “The Blizzard”
Some years, during the season of Lent, I make regular visits to the graveyard where my mother is buried. In those years the grave will be made ready for her anniversary, on 10 April, without too much of a rush. Other years, like last year, we only plant new flowers a day or two before… Continue reading Fell asleep, passed, lost, slipped away
There’s a well-known scene in the first “Home Alone” movie that has stayed with me since I first saw it in the 1990s. It’s when Kevin (played by Macaulay Culkin) is at the supermarket on his own. It includes him saying to the woman at the check-out, “Ma’am, I’m 8 years old. Do you think… Continue reading Another Ash Wednesday
This is a mostly biographical piece about fluctuations in body weight. It was prompted by something the actor-comedian Greg Davies said when he was a guest on the Chris Evans breakfast show on BBC Radio 2 one Friday last July. As I noted in this piece, those Friday morning Chris Evans shows have an entirely… Continue reading “Never heavier”; reflections on body weight
Last December I concluded my piece about our Boxing Day pub crawl with the words, “Mission accomplished. Same place, same time next year.” As planned, we began another pub crawl this year at the same place (George IV) and same time (2pm, 26 December). Once again the starting trio consisted of me, my brother and… Continue reading Another Boxing Day pub crawl
The Compartments 