21 June 2021

Royal pictures become a hanging offence

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Minimalist décor the only answer. Forget hanging pictures on your walls. At least one of them, or even a mere detail, is sure to offend someone. And you never know who or when. They will suddenly take offence, plead harm is being done, or demand reparations for some long ago act or words. Hardly a… Continue Reading

16 June 2021

Brain dead defib vandals and other puzzles

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Unfathomable. Incomprehensible. Only a few hours after footballer Christian Eriksen was brought back to life thanks to prompt on-field action with a defibrillator, youths broke into a Sussex football club and vandalised the life-saving equipment there. Why? Such behaviour is almost beyond belief in what we like to think of as a civilised society. On… Continue Reading

4 June 2021

Feeling the heat in an offensive world

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MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN: well, Noel Coward got that right. Out comes the sun and thousands of Brits head for surgeries, pharmacies and A&Es in search of treatment for its unwelcome side-effects. NHS stats show that over three days close to 30,000 of us visited its website for information on heat-stroke and heat exhaustion. So,… Continue Reading

29 May 2021

So why not turn the damned things off?

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THERE can be no excuse or support for the extreme racial abuse that is incessantly directed at footballer Marcus Rashford, MBE. No justification or excuses can be made for such base, thuggish and uncivilised behaviour by one human being against another. And even more so when the puny and unsustainable reason seems to be that… Continue Reading

28 May 2021

Really, is this is what happened?

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They took their time: much more than they should. But at long last, the trustees of the National Trust have accepted the resignation of chairman Tim Parker. Or was he pushed as the person ostensibly overseeing a succession of decisions that have alienated many loyal members and seen the dismissal of hundreds of dedicated staff,… Continue Reading

25 May 2021

Bits ‘n’ bobs, this ‘n’ that

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  Think I’ll stay home.  To travel to Portugal, you need a passport valid for at least another six months, a certificate proving you have tested negative within 72 hours of departure, proof of a booking for a test in Portugal, a copy of your passenger locator form, proof of booking for a Day 2… Continue Reading

10 May 2021

Definitely not ‘appy, Jan

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Wow, what an app. Thanks to Aziz Acharki, Unsplash

EXCUSE the aspirated headline. My apparent descent into Cockney lingo has its reasons. As does the punning use of this Australian phrase that was rapidly popularised after being given birth by a Telstra television ad in 2002. As explained by the Urban Dictionary, it is now used when someone “is pissed off” at another person,… Continue Reading

3 May 2021

The lights are on but no one’s home

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Now where was I. Picture - Rad Cyrus, Unsplash

SOMETHING’S not right. I already had my suspicions but chose to ignore them. Now I fear that is no longer possible; recent events have convinced me so. Time to face the fact: incidents of going into another room and not remembering why you did so are commonplace in one’s more senior years. At first, they… Continue Reading

4 March 2021

Pot holes and regrets; a road map to dubious freedom

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Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #10 REMEMBER those bruising, knuckle-skinning, foot-tripping days of yore; every man and woman (and all in between)  for themselves; no holds barred as the doors slid open and the mass hurtled forward at the opening of the Boxing Day sales? Or the elbow-shoving, back-pushing skirmishes as … Continue Reading

15 February 2021

Marmite Markle strikes a blow for letter-writers

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memoir

AS a person of interest, Meaghan Markle usually rates way down the list of those spotlighted celebrities who engage my attention. Almost off the scale; at the lowest end. As I feel she is considered by most people apart from those sad sacks to whom all gossip is more precious than oxygen; the mainstay of… Continue Reading

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