My school career lasted exactly 40 terms. There were 6 years (or 18 terms) of primary education, then 7 years (21 terms) of secondary, and a final term after A-Levels for Oxbridge exams. I missed plenty of school days through minor illnesses, at least a few days per term with colds or even the odd… Continue reading The full extent of my truant behaviour: three lessons
We are in the middle of a heatwave here in the UK. The Oxford Dictionaries definition is very straightforward: “A prolonged period of abnormally hot weather”. I will use their spelling, one word rather than two, though the Merriam-Webster dictionary entry (“a period of unusually hot weather”) lists it as “heat wave”. I have mentioned… Continue reading Word of the week: heatwave
Which Beatles album covers can you visualize right now? A few of them can be classed as Universal Knowledge for people over a certain age, and they are an occasional source of quiz questions. Here’s an example from a recent edition of “The 100k Drop”: “Which member of the Beatles wears a blue military coat… Continue reading Beatles Album Covers, seeing and observing
How are your teeth? From my experience, the range of answers to this question is directly linked to age. People of my generation (born in the 1960s, give or take a few years) are likely to still have most or all of their own teeth, but with some combination of fillings or crowns, maybe even… Continue reading Our first appointment for 2019
Today is Day 4 of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships here in London. The following 1200 words reflect on the tournament’s popularity, and offer a few Trivia Challenges regarding the sport. These Challenges are marked with bold headings in case you want to scroll through to them directly, skipping past the other reflections and explanations. The… Continue reading Wimbledon 2018, and Tennis Trivia
Our car stereo has a button with the letters “TA” on it. It allows you to control whether Traffic Announcements interrupt what you’re listening to (radio or CD in our case). You might be familiar with the concept. The first time I encountered it in action, back in the 1990s, in a different car, was… Continue reading “Temporary traffic lights on the Redbridge Roundabout”
Back in the 1970s, when walking to school, I often passed a man who behaved in a way that was unique to pedestrians in this part of West London. He walked purposefully, carried a briefcase in his right hand, and held an open book in his left hand, not quite at arm’s length, just below… Continue reading Walking and reading
This week’s word covers Irish sport and geography (provinces and counties), from the starting point of Leinster. If you live in Ireland, or have spent enough time there, or follow the Irish sporting calendar, there might not be much new information here for you, but that still leaves at least 7 billion people who might… Continue reading Word of the week: Leinster
Unless you actively avoid all mention of sport, in newspapers, on TV and radio, and otherwise going about your daily life, you will have heard of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. These two footballers are generally regarded as the best of their generation. They play for rival teams in La Liga (the top league in… Continue reading Lionel Messi and me
There are signs on some of the busier roads here in West London which read as follows: “Dump rubbish in the street and we’ll fine you up to £400”. The text is laid out rather more dramatically than that, all in upper case, and is printed in different colours and font sizes. It’s on a… Continue reading “Dump Rubbish … and we’ll fine you up to £400”
The Compartments 