memoir
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Marmite Markle strikes a blow for letter-writers

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…

Doomed depression image
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Good news on books, jabs and theatre to fight BBC gloom

Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #7 Jan 2021: I HAVE been on a bit of a downer. Today, however, I am showing a degree of positivity by using one of the slightly less pessimistic of the several D-words available to describe the recent state of mind and body. Yesterday the temptation…

Wild horses can't change us by Mikael Kristenson courtesy Unsplash
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Happy fat makes deadly fat and an easy Covid target

  Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #6 Jan 2021: THE stable door is now shut tight. Bolted and barred. Triple locked and with no sign of a key or code. And unoccupied. The horse it once contained, an unruly beast at the best of time, seized its pre-lockdown moment and is…

Covid emeregency. courtesy Mufid Majnun, Unsplash
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Deniers living in a world of fiction and horror movies

Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #5 Jan 2021: WHAT is it that they don’t understand? Are the almost 100,000 deaths so beyond comprehension that they believe them to be a total fiction? Do the BBC’s recent series of excruciating hospital scenes unnerve them so much that they dismiss them as some…

Bras and knickers come before books
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Bras and knickers come before books

Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #4 SO many Covid conundrums to confuse and ponder. The more our masters attempt to clarify, the murkier the restrictions become. How far from one’s home is “a reasonable distance” yet close enough to be accepted as an exercise zone? Precisely what qualifies as an “open…

Celebratory cuddle as picture in the Daily Telegraph
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Cuddles for goals but not for grandma

Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #3 04 Jan 2021: THOUGHT for the day: money does not buy brains. Nor can it buy common sense, or consideration for others or the community at large. Shell out zillions but there’s no guarantee the recipient will be transformed into a truly mature and responsible…

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Resolving not to make a resolution

Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #2 02 Jan 2021: SAME old, same old. Here we go again. Back on the media roundabout as the familiar format for each year’s beginning is once more regurgitated. Not even all the shifts in lifestyles forced upon us by the pandemic’s restrictions and changes can…

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Adrenalin overload, excessive effort and a hangover haze

  NOW here’s a weird, even disturbing, thing; my trusty Garmin records a hilly four-mile run around the city where I live. Yet I have scant memory of it ever happening. How can this be? The watch tells of a continuous jog with every second accounted for. By contrast, my memory presents me with a…

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Patients need patience: the doctor will (not) see you now

DOCTORS must be loving this new world order. The one where they filter enquiries to such an extent that they are rarely bothered with having to deal with patients face to face. Those nuisances (once known as patients) are kept firmly at arm’s length; or an aggravating (Dial 1 for …) phone call away. Barriers…

The daily struggle: depression or pushups
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The daily struggle: depression or pushups

MOSTLY  I tend to ignore the endless flood of social media challenges nominating me to participate in the latest “Ten of …” lists. My main reason is an abiding suspicion of all posts that come without an identifiable source. Their origins are hidden deep beyond the “friend” who is suggesting I spend ten days naming…