Last year I had a realization regarding conversational recall, and wrote about it in this piece (June 2019): I am no good at medical chat. Or, more accurately, I do not retain information about other people’s ailments, diagnoses and medications. This would be a problem if I were in the medical business, but I am… Continue reading Word of the week: BRAN
Coronavirus will probably turn out to be the “Word of the Year” for 2020, not just here in the UK but worldwide. It may well become the Word of the Decade. The word Corona on its own has two meanings for me, both recalling the 1970s. First of all, Corona was a soft drinks brand.… Continue reading Word of the week: Corona
My father died over the weekend, around 6am on Saturday 18 April. He was 89. It was 23 years to the day after my mother’s funeral, an event I have written about more than once in these pages, including this piece from 2018. May he rest in peace. He died peacefully in the care home… Continue reading Word of the week: orphan
The word “Zoom” has acquired a new meaning for many of us over the last month or so. It’s the name of a video conferencing App or, to quote from its own website, “Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and… Continue reading Word of the week: Zoom
At this time of year my son suffers badly from hay fever. In the early spring there’s something in the air in our part of London that plays havoc with his eyes and nose. It started 11 years ago, when he was four. He left nursery one day with his eyes all swollen and red… Continue reading Word of the week: Loratadine
Last month our washing machine broke down. It wasn’t worth having it repaired so it had to be replaced. While we were waiting for our new machine, we had a few days without one. The last time this happened was in 2006, just after our daughter was born, around the time of our son’s second… Continue reading Word of the week: Laundrette
Earlier this month I attended a very enjoyable Reunion Lunch at my old school. It was the first time I have been back for such an event. I have attended all four of my old college reunions – I wouldn’t miss one of those – but since leaving school at the age of 18 I… Continue reading Word of the week: journal
Over the weekend Watford beat Liverpool 3-0 in the Premier League. It lifted them out of the relegation places, to the undoubted delight of their fans. Liverpool remain 22 points clear at the top of the table, still on course for their first league title for 30 years. In a preview on Saturday one of… Continue reading Word of the week: Invincible
Here’s a picture of Connector, a childhood toy that we were given back in the 1960s. As I recall, it was a joint present for my brother and me. Our birthdays are two days apart, so bigger gifts like this were usually given jointly rather than to one or other of us. As the box… Continue reading Word of the week: Connector
As you may have noticed, eSwatini is the new name for the African nation previously known as Swaziland. This BBC Country Profile tells us that it is one of the world’s few remaining absolute monarchies, and that the change of name was announced by its king, Mswati III, in 2018, “a move critics said was… Continue reading Word of the week: eSwatini
The Compartments 