My wife and our 10-year-old daughter enjoy eating sushi. There’s a locally-run place nearby, not part of a chain, where they go at least once a month. For various reasons Thursday has become a regular sushi evening for them. I have never joined them, partly because I do not believe that sushi constitutes a proper… Continue reading “It’s not a meal, it’s a snack”
With the exception of last Monday’s Anniversary Day I kept off the beer for Lent. Over the Easter weekend, while planning which pubs to visit on Easter Sunday, I asked the following question of various friends and family members: how can you tell, at a glance, whether or not a pub is rough? I appreciate… Continue reading Pubs with pool tables
The Channel 4 show “Countdown” was, famously, the channel’s first programme when it launched in 1982. It has been broadcast almost every weekday afternoon since then, well over half of my life. There have been various times in the last 30 years when I have been able to watch it live but until recently I… Continue reading Early morning “Countdown”
Happy Easter to you. We’re all back on the chocolate. As every native English speaker knows, the word “chocolate” has two syllables. It’s chock-lit, or chock-luht, or even chahk-lert, never choc-oh-late. My brother and I were discussing this last week when he was over for the 20th Anniversary of my mother’s death. He has lived… Continue reading Word of the week: chocolate
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of my mother’s death. I wrote about the anniversary a year ago, in this piece. This year we followed a slightly different pattern to previous years. We prepared for the anniversary by planting some flowers the day before. It was the first time that my children have helped out with… Continue reading Another Anniversary Day
Five years ago today I read this article (“The Insider’s Guide to Cancer Prevention) in the Guardian’s Saturday edition. I am glad to see that it’s still available online. It’s worth a few minutes of your time. Reading it prompted me to make one small daily change in my life. I am now nearly the… Continue reading Five years of aspirin
JOMO: the joy of missing out. Last night I decided against a late-night celebration of St Patrick’s Day and was fast asleep before 10pm. I didn’t even have a symbolic beer to celebrate Ireland’s national saint. As I mentioned last year, in this piece about giving things up for Lent, St Patrick’s Day has become… Continue reading JOMO: no beer on St Patrick’s Day
Tony Blackburn is back on BBC Radio 2, our radio station of choice. I am very pleased about this. He’s on for an hour on Friday nights at 7pm and on Saturday mornings between 6 and 8am, broadcasting live. For the latter he has taken over the “Sounds of the 60s” slot from Brian Matthew… Continue reading Tony Blackburn
My post from January (“Every pub in my postcode”), which reported that I had drunk at least one pint of beer in every pub in London W4 at some point in my life, was inaccurate. It turns out there are two more bars that I hadn’t considered, both in the new development opposite Gunnersbury station.… Continue reading Every pub in my postcode (postscript)
Do you remember loom bands? They were quite the thing in the summer of 2014. Children all over the UK and Ireland were busy making rings and bracelets out of tiny rubber bands. My daughter was seven at the time and, like most of her classmates, spent much of her leisure time working on them.… Continue reading Loom bands
The Compartments 