Three things have occurred recently that are noteworthy and are all indicators of my age. For a while now I have observed people paying for things using their phone and rather irrationally it has always irked me. Young people in the main and fewer people of my age who I notice have a smug air…
Just like sun tans, holiday romances and/or friendships rarely endure. They’re usually things of their time and place and they can’t easily be replicated or prolonged. Although not always, as happened to us some 18 years ago on a disappointingly cold all-inclusive holiday in Turkey when we encountered a couple with four very young children…
There is probably an adage with the gist that it’s valuable to try something new and for many and obvious reasons: new lessons, experiences, awakenings, synapses, self-esteem, novelty, awareness… And so it is this month when I visit the Old Bailey – the most famous court in the land with one of the world’s oldest…
I am aware that people can develop a phobia about opening their mail. Old school mail I mean, the stuff that comes through our letter boxes although I expect that this fear applies to electronic mail also. I understand this phobia or anxiety. Despite my frequent email culls, rather unhelpfully my inbox keeps a tally…
To North Wales this week for a much needed break after lockdown. Or is it? I do need a break – but only in the showbiz sense of the word and given my light workload over the last eighteen months, the last thing I need is a rest. A rest from what exactly? Resting? Six…
Since Sean managed to do what all comics dream of – to leave the circuit behind them – I did not know Sean as well as many comedians, never appearing on any TV shows with him. But I do go back to his very early career and I would like to share a fond memory…
Professions (jobs) come with fairly defined hierarchies. The best paid (rock stars, entrepreneurs…) The most esteemed (surgeons, judges…) The most worthy (teachers, carers…) The most admired (sports stars, actors…) The bravest (soldiers, deep sea divers…) And the most difficult? (bomb-disposal expert, stand-up comedian…) No doubt, you can add your own profession/job to the above and…
The Olympics is always welcome in my world even if just as a life marker. Every four years, it can be used as a kind of punctuation mark and life checker. But I like my sports also and I particularly enjoy watching events I only see at the Olympics. Sports like fencing, possibly one of…
The Scottish Highlands are staggeringly beautiful but add in the unseasonably sunny weather and when London is deluged in rain, I must count my blessings for our stay-cation as they are known in our Covid world. I am a writer of sorts and one who happens to be travelling but this does not make me…
The stress of going away. We’ve all been there. A unique feeling of general anxiety and occasional terror. Passports, turning the oven off, enough pairs of underpants, deodorant, water-proofs? Do you think it will rain? We’re going to Scotland. It could be cold… Sun cream? Like most people, our trip is the first in two…
