Yesterday, with the blindingly low autumn sun necessitating a salute-like shielding of my eyes, I sat Elland Road Stadium in situ with my son Jonny. Our two East Stand seats the exact same ones we secured as season tickets during his childhood. With my now twenty-something son being only 12 years old last time we sat in these pews, the paucity of legroom for adults surprised him. Last time we […]
Along with millions worldwide, my wife and I have just observed a two minute silence, marking one hundred years since guns fell silent in WWI. The centenary of an armistice between the Allied countries and Germany – Ending a four year war which saw around 40 million military and civilian casualties. I wasn’t sure which surprised me more, learning of the sheer scale of human slaughter during the Great War, […]
Tomorrow sees the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War (WWI). To mark this occasion today I’ve decided to take a break from the status quo and write a poem. A piece of prose addressing a fallen soldier from that conflict, referencing the irony of this centenary celebration’s close proximity to seemingly fraught Brexit negotiations between the UK and the European Union (EU). Ive not written a great […]
Recently, my reading sight has diminishing to the extent that in darker lit environments I require sight augmentation from a pair of specs. This scenario applying even when I’m wearing contacts to correct my distance sight – Lenses which until recently had provided adequate magnification for close-up work. Subsequently, now when I leave the house wearing contacts lenses I tuck a pair of readers into my jacket’s inside pocket. A […]
Yesterday afternoon I found myself in central Leeds, ensconced among the Trinity Shopping Centre’s aesthetically pleasing amalgam of contemporary and Georgian architecture…… As I’d only ventured out of the house to get my screwdriver set from the garage, a situation I’d unexpectedly found myself in. Seriously, though, GJ Strachan’s afternoon was spent in our Metropolis’s ever evolving centre. Over a beer, I spent scheduled time catching up with an old […]
Now Delaney had a donkey that everyone admired Temporarily lazy and permanently tired A leg at every corner balancing his head And a tail to let you know which end he wanted to be fed…… Introductory lines of a traditional Irish folk song that late entertainer Val Doonican jokingly credited with turning him into an overnight success after sixteen years of trying. This particular tune, titled Delaney’s Donkey, a catchy […]
This week sees the eighth anniversary of a life changing event that shook my family to it’s core. A time my brood and I were ushered, or more accurately dragged kicking and screaming, onto an unwanted emotional rollercoaster sojourn. A ride with no height restrictions, or indeed any other discriminatory parameters, allowing for non-participation. My wife’s incurable cancer diagnosis blindsiding me to such an extent I felt as though I’d […]
