It is better to give than to receive! A well known phrase and one that chimes with me. To be able to make someone happy, or to cheer someone up is a wonderful thing to experience. And especially so when giving someone a gift which is unexpected and outside the norm of Christmas, birthday… An…
I wrote last week about the strain of writing a blog and what to write each week. In truth I exaggerated this ‘strain’ for comic effect because in most cases, something occurs to me and I don’t have to push too hard. As happened this week in fact and concerns the reaction to last…
Given 2020 to date… …with all my work cancelling, being confined to the house for extended periods and with little to do (no gigs) – plus three of our boys have flown our nest, leaving just three people in-residence plus our beloved and ever popular (and no trouble) Tessa. You might think that…
My English is fluent and practically perfect. My written English is less good but it still serves me well. My English proficiency is a highly prized skill because the English language makes a decent claim to be the earth’s primary language. If Aliens ever do arrive, the attempted introductions are most likely to be…
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan does it a lot. David Beckham too and Joseph Gordon Levitt. A whole raft of show-biz types in fact and including on occasion and to my horror, my eldest son. I refer to pulling a certain face for the cameras. Ben Stiller called it Blue Steele in his…
Walls play a significant part in our lives… Pink Floyd’s famous wall needed another brick. The last election to become the President of the United States of America hinged on a wall that doesn’t even exist. China has a great wall that can be seen from space (apparently). And Berlin is defined by a wall…
We live in hierarchies and we all know where we stand, right? Tallest? Best looking? Wealthiest? Funniest? Most successful… What we do for a living; from the vaunted professions down… we are all workers with our names either on our shirts, our desks, the office door or finally on the building itself. …
This is not an easy post to write. I feel a need to write with some haste but with great care also because the tone needs to be correct: arresting yet affirming but not mawkish. An important post; I make no apology that it is longer than my usual fare. You will understand why soon…
At university, I was a keen supporter of charity shops but not for philanthropic reasons. Just that I was skint and I needed clobber and no matter how musty or ill-fitting. I don’t even recall ever considering the origins of such wares. That I was often wearing clothes of men who had died. Donated by…
Who is your favourite actor? This is a question we have all been asked and probably struggled to answer. It is an impossible question perhaps and particularly so for me, since it requires me to choose between two of my sons who are currently treading the boards. It is also a question…
