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
Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of the season of Lent. I have just copied that first sentence from the post I wrote last year, “Things to do in Lent”, and am tempted to copy the whole piece and just change the references to specific dates and seasons. In 2016 Ash Wednesday fell on 10… Continue reading Ash Wednesday
Earlier this month I wrote about the phrase “I remember when this was all fields”, as part of this piece. I have lived in the same part of West London for my entire life but do not remember when it was all fields. I do, however, remember when we had record shops, video rental stores… Continue reading Where have all the petrol stations gone?
There hasn’t been a strike by local refuse collectors (or bin-men as we used to call them) for many years. I can’t remember the last one in our corner of West London; 30 years ago, maybe more. Occasionally in those intervening decades there have been strikes elsewhere in the UK and they will make the… Continue reading “The rubbish is piling up in the street”
Last year I wrote a few “Coincidence Corner” pieces, light-hearted reviews of the themes, stories or references that recur if you keep your eyes and ears open, no matter what you read, watch or listen to. If you’re not finding “coincidences” it might be a sign that you’re not reading, watching or listening to much… Continue reading A few little coincidences for January
Yesterday I noted how a replacement vehicle that was supplied by our garage earlier this month came with barely enough fuel for our needs. It got me thinking about the other two occasions when I have nearly run out of petrol. The last time was when we bought our current car, in 2008. It has… Continue reading More about running out of petrol
Have you ever run out of petrol? (Or, as our American friends would put it, have you ever run out of gas?) I haven’t, and have only come close to it three times, including once earlier this month, when we had a replacement car for a few days. Our car was having some work done… Continue reading Running out of petrol
Yesterday, at around 5pm, I had a pint of beer in the only pub in my part of London that I had never drunk in before. In my piece about our Boxing Day Pub Crawl I mentioned that there are only two pubs in my postcode that I had never been to. As of yesterday… Continue reading Every pub in my postcode
In the 1980s there were six different pubs called The Blue Posts in Central London, all within a mile of Piccadilly Circus. I discovered the first, in Rupert Street, one Saturday afternoon. I had arranged to meet an old school-friend to see a movie at one of the big theatres on Leicester Square around 3pm… Continue reading The Blue Posts
£50 notes are back. For as long as I can remember they have been unwelcome in shops and restaurants. They were prone to forgery and, frankly, how many cash purchases justify breaking into a fifty? I still apologize for using a £20 note if what I’m paying for costs less than a fiver. (This reminds… Continue reading £50 notes at the cashpoint
