Hot Under The Collar

They say prevailing outside temperatures are currently mid-30’s Celsius here in Blighty. I’ve gotta say, though, it feels more like the steady 190C my oven blasts out when cooking corned beef hash…… Or, coming to think of it, any other dish which requires cooking at 190C! The calefaction produced by solar rays today and yesterday…

Taking Flight

Sitting at the dining table seeking inspiration for today’s literary bonhomie, I’ve my two canine buddies Zella and Deano hovering close-by; their mission to secure scraps from the lunch table. Their pitiful sad eyed look bringing to mind a bowl in hand Oliver Twist when seeking a second scrape of gruel from Mr Bumble. As…

Marcel

“The real journey of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust My second favourite Marcel (after mime artist Marcel Marceau) advocating a practical and balanced perception of events, rather than the event itself, afforded individuals greater revelation. Although I’m late to the party with this lobbying cry,…

Two Lefts Don’t Make A Right

Walking the dogs this morning set me thinking about what part, if any, the cosmos bears in how our capricious lives pan out. This pondering ignited by something as unremarkable as seeking to understand why my strolling buddies always walk on the opposite side of an obstruction (eg lamp post or park gate) to my…

Mirage

I’m alfresco as I ascribe my prose this sunny Monday morn. Amongst the immediate landscape nemesia, marigolds, a patio rose, begonias and forget me nots bequeathing yours truly chromatic views. Aesthetics which calm the soul and augment my already burgeoning amour for Mother Nature. With the clan home, bought by my parents in 1989, changing…

I Blame The Parents

In 1982 an Eton school master wrote to Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley, lambasting the 17 year old for believing it is churlish of Eton tutors not to regard him as an exception. The classics teacher’s polemic going on to inform his pater, Johnson junior also felt he should be free of the network of obligation…

Shooting The Breeze

Six days after changing from a positive to a negative COVID condition I’m still suffering from fluctuating energy levels. In fact I was so wiped out on Saturday I slept for huge swathes of the day. Only vacating my pit to eat lunch and dinner, along with a spontaneous episode where I felt moved to…

Untagged

After almost a week where my constitution experienced eddying waves of malady, I’m now testing negative for COVID-19. Despite this, though, I remain as weak as a cup of tea whose bag was stolen by a passing seagull after only a one second union with boiling water. Footnote – Incidentally, the pinched bag of which…

Symptoms

“I felt like I’d been dragged five miles along cobbled stones by a shire horse named Gloria, who, upon arriving at Wakefield cathedral’s vast wooden doors, sat on my chest as it shared a Costa latte and a natter with her equine buddy Maisy.” This inaugural paragraph of this narrative my response to a friend…