An Irish bar in West London. Early evening. We have just heard that Shane McGowan (singer, songwriter, founder of The Pogues) has died. A friend wants to raise a glass to him. My son and I meet him, and one of his neighbours. We have met before, many times, here and in places like this.… Continue reading That Steve McQueen quote from “The Magnificent Seven”
Some time ago I wrote about my “Computer Museum”, a collection of hardware stretching back for 35 years. I have got rid of most of it. It all took up so much space. I backed up all the files as well as I could and learnt how to remove all the hard drives. They are… Continue reading My first 40 years, in Lyrics
We have reached an age where very few of our friends still have two living parents. I’m talking here about friends of our own age, people we were at school or college with, people born in the 1960s. We have younger friends, born in the 1970s, who became parents at the same time that my… Continue reading A lack of grandparents
Four months have passed since the last funeral I attended. You can read about it here. Last Wednesday there were two that I wanted to attend but they were happening simultaneously in different parts of London. I set aside most of the day to spend time at the commemorations and their aftermaths and brought my… Continue reading A double funeral day (November 2023)
A fourth reflection on the 10,000 photos that I can access any time In three earlier pieces (click here for the most recent one) I have reflected on the 10,000 photos that I can access any time. They are either personal to me or were sent my way, as prints or digitally. I have broken… Continue reading 10,000 Photos: Part 4, 1986-2004
2 November is the Feast of All Souls. Britannica.com offers us this: All Souls’ Day, in Roman Catholicism, a day for commemoration of all the faithful departed, those baptized Christians who are believed to be in purgatory because they died with the guilt of lesser sins on their souls … Roman Catholic doctrine holds that… Continue reading A Reading for All Souls
My daughter turned 17 earlier this month. In the days leading up to the big day I told her about how I spent my 17th birthday, or more specifically the evening of that day. I don’t recall much about the morning or afternoon, a regular Friday at school at the start of my second year… Continue reading What I did on my 17th birthday
I return to the subject of messages on London’s public transport system, specifically the Underground (or Tube if you prefer). Back in 2017 I wrote about it in this piece (“Reporting anything unusual won’t hurt you”), reflecting that clear instructions are generally better than oblique statements, and recalling the signs that were printed on carriage… Continue reading “Items trapped in the doors cause delays …”
Things have been rather quiet on this Blog in recent months. It happens from time to time. I aim to have no more than a five-day gap between each post. I fell behind this target earlier in the year. In May I “back-filled” several months’ worth of pieces, going back to 2022 and explained the… Continue reading Three months to catch up on
Earlier this year I wrote a piece about the Oscar winners that I have seen on the London stage. I counted up a dozen, 11 I had seen in London and one more (Jeremy Irons) in Stratford-on-Avon. Since writing those words I have found another theatre programme: “Antigone” at the Barbican, a production I saw… Continue reading A 12th Oscar Winner on the London stage
The Compartments 