28 June 2021

Get set for National Eternal Optimism Day

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EVERYONE ready? Got your Union flags close to hand for some frantic waving? At least for 45 minutes. The bunting dragged out from storage to drape between houses? And hang there limply for days long after, a sad reminder of what might have been. The fridge cleared to make space for the packs of beer?… Continue Reading

28 June 2021

Get set for National Eternal Optimism Day

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EVERYONE ready? Got your Union flags close to hand for some frantic waving? At least for 45 minutes. The bunting dragged out from storage to drape between houses? And hang there limply for days long after, a sad reminder of what might have been. The fridge cleared to make space for the packs of beer?… Continue Reading

6 April 2021

A vividly evocative tug at the heart-strings

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Book cover There Was Still love

RARELY do I find a book having such a deep and personal impact as this moving and tender story. Its effect lingered long after the final word had been read; reviving cherished memories, plucking at the heartstrings. Poignant moments from earlier days were relived, reflected upon with a mixture of sadness and joy. The details… Continue Reading

12 March 2021

Murder and mayhem in hilarious crime fiction debut

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Book cover Richard Osman The Thursday Murder Club

NAH, it can’t be that good. Surely not. Must be because its cover has a celebrity’s name taking top billing as the author. Another example of vanity publishing, selling by popularity rather than content. Probably ghost written too. Isn’t that how it goes; win the public’s heart through the telly or sport then cash in… 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

18 February 2021

Whingers galore and hardship hell, isolated in the Oxfordshire wilds

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Yellow school bus

Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #9 NO doubt the nation’s heart has gone out to another victim of the pandemic. Fortunately it is Random Acts of Kindness Week (yes, really) and help may soon be on its way to this poor soul. There are likely numerous others in much the same… 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

12 February 2021

Criminals galore lurk in lockdown bedside library

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Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #8 Feb 2021: THE Pisa-like bedside tower of books looked like toppling before I got around to recording some of its content. It was only thanks to some extended sessions of lockdown reading that it has been whittled down to a less perilous height. Sadly it… Continue Reading

31 January 2021

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

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Doomed depression image

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… Continue Reading

29 January 2021

Dealing with the nitty gritty on hoes and dykes

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plymouth-hoe-tower (from Historic UK)

PERHAPS this blog post should come with an advisory caution; like those that precede some of the raunchier dramas screened on post-watershed TV. A warning about bad language or offensive dialogue. Displaying an awareness of some readers’ fragile sensibilities.  Guarding against young minds being led down sinful paths; the elderly shocked into losing a grip… Continue Reading

27 January 2021

Happy fat makes deadly fat and an easy Covid target

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Wild horses can't change us by Mikael Kristenson courtesy Unsplash

  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… Continue Reading

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