EVERY day I am confronted by a very visible and irritating triple reminder of one of the more regrettable recent errors of my ways. A stark and unavoidable footnote to a rash and impetuous decision. One that was needlessly expensive but which I am condemned to live with unless I spend yet more money. They…
It was only a few days ago that I suggested many of the words and phrases that have already become lingua franca during the recent global crisis were sure to be well in the running for selection as Word(s) of the Year. Place your bets … Since then we have heard (imagined) cries of “stop…
THERE is something to be said in favour of being an introverted loner at times like this. While all about us fret and fume about the enforced home confinement wrought on their lives by Covid-19, the true loners simply plod on regardless. ‘What’s changed?’ we ask. Situation normal. All’s well on the home front. Far…
NEVER fall asleep in bed holding a book and a hot drink. The book gets wet and you get woken very suddenly, and painfully. Lesson learned
As one who is forever wary of book cover blurbs, I approached this much-praised offering with even more caution than usual. Look at those blasts from high-status reviewers: Mind-bending, Unputdownable, Masterful. Surely hyperbole gone mad. There are six more pages of them inside, all of them in the same OTT vein. An enormous pinch of…
Having so far remained free of the horrendous effects of Covid-19, I will however admit to suffering what might be considered a supplementary impact. Not the sweaty feverish three days with a headache and sore dry throat and the accompanying anxieties; they lingered a bit too long for comfort but thankfully eventually moved on. Immune…
WHAT is it about apostrophes that is so difficult to understand? Yes, I am well aware it’s a question that has been asked hundreds of times before. But we remain none the wiser – certainly not those who scatter them hither and thither like seeds on the wind. Nor those who teach them, either, it…
You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, sang Joni Mitchell. And right now I am hoping that will be the case. Hoping that when Covid-19 testing eventually filters down to the masses, my current concerns will prove justified. That I was not giving in to hypochondria. That tests provide late confirmation of what…
You’ve gotta love what the Aussies can do to the English language. No time was wasted Down Under in adapting linguistically to the present crisis. A sample of the latest OzSpeak: “Me boss tested posi for the ’Rona so now I’m in iso. Popped down to Woollies for some sanny, but it’s been bloody magpie’d.”
THE elderly man flicked through the pages of the newspaper. Back and forth. Flick, flick. Stopping occasionally to re-read an item, perhaps check a headline, looking for meaning, for answers. Finding none, only confusion. What first appeared as imperatives could also be seen merely as advice, open to interpretation. An either/or situation. Toss a coin….