Like many households these days, interactive TV has an ever growing usage in the Strachan home. This relatively new concept is our latter day court jester, available to entertain our brood at a whim. Be it catching up on a current drama, listening to a wealth of good music or binge watching a favourite boxset, it’s our ‘go to’ televisual choice…
Category: fiction
It’s Good To Talk
Recently, through a variety of media channels, there has been a big drive to raise awareness about mental health. Within these campaigns, there’s been a particular emphasis on educating sufferers that it’s okay to chat about their debilitating nemesis. This strategy seen as an important step in reducing the number of people who suffer in silence. I’ve written previously of a close friend…
A Bon Voyage Dinner
Yesterday evening the Strachan brood dined out at a local Italian restaurant. We’d congregated to partake in a Bon Voyage meal for my daughter Rachel, who next week flies to Canada for an as yet unknown duration. It was an emotional evening where wife Karen, my son Jonny, his fiancée Jenny, Rachel and me shared nostalgic…
Stag Do in The Shadow of the Castle
According to the ‘On This Day’ function on Facebook, two years ago today I’d just returned home from a stag weekend in the beautiful city of Edinburgh. As becoming of a group of men hurtling, or already in, middle age it was a relatively tame affair. There was plenty beer drunk over the three days, but the nearest we…
Magnanimous Mike
Yesterday I wrote of Monday evening’s attendance at the premiere of a movie chronicling Leeds United’s successful four year period (1988-1992), under the stewardship of Howard Wilkinson. That narrative ended at the point we’d left the cinema; making the short stroll towards The White Swan pub located next to the City Varieties theatre. Once ensconced within the pub, my buddy…
Howard’s Way
Yesterday evening I attended a movie premiere in Leeds city centre. It’s the first red carpet event I’ve ever been involved in, unless you count last month when I clumsily knocking over a full bottle of rioja on the living room floor. In the company of footballing royalty, West Yorkshire dignitaries and fellow Leeds United fans, friend…
Raising a Glass to St George
It’s St George’s Day today. As I write, English people around the globe will be participating in a ‘knees up’ to celebrate the life of their patron saint. The Scots, Irish and Welsh will also be raising a glass today. Mind you, that isn’t in honour of the English patron saint, moreover the result of liking a beer as much of us Anglos. I…
Inner Tranquillity in Outer Whitby
I’m back in West Yorkshire after a salubrious break at the charming Raithwaite Country Retreat in Whitby. An early birthday treat courtesy of my little Durham born missus, this hideaway location provided a tranquillity within my soul that I’d not experienced for a long time. From the affable concierge’s greeting on arrival to the au revoir from a…
The Black Puddings Black Today, Mother!
In one of their 1970’s comedy episodes of Ripping Yarns, writers Michael Palin and Terry Jones gave us an insight into the life of a fictional post-WWI working class Yorkshire family. In an early scene of the episode set in the town of Denley Moor, one of the dysfunctional brood highlighted a curious anomaly in that mornings breakfast black pudding. Pointing out incredulously it was…