I’ve just dropped my car off in Whitkirk for its annual Ministry of Transport test (MOT). Following a meander down the road to Crossgates shopping centre I’m cafe in situ, as I commence this prose; my trusty a laptop and Americano coffee, Yesterday’s narrative Anniversary Stoicism told of how the day would’ve been my parents 59th wedding anniversary. During that essay I also briefly alluded to the fact 1st October was the date […]
Yesterday evening I watched a recording of a BBC Four broadcast of the John Wilson Orchestra from the Royal Albert Hall; a performance forming part of the 2019 Proms season. The Gateshead-born conductor’s orchestra treating their audience to a selection of music from Warner Brothers movies. John Wilson was educated in the same Low Fell alma maters of Breckenbeds Junior High and Heathfield Senior High as I was. That being […]
I’ve felt physically drained over the past few days. Witnessing this constant rain seemingly bearing the same energy depleting qualities which Samson experienced after a trip to the barbers. The Nazarite’s flowing locks, which initially attracted him to his beau Delilah, the fabled source of his immense strength. Their removal rendering him vulnerable to enemies, as well as less inclined to respond positively when his barber asked him “Something for […]
Yours truly is sitting on the bed in casa Strachan’s spare room as I commence this monologue. My current domain, the smallest of the three upstairs chambers gracing my humble abode, which doubles as a man cave and occasional panic room. Its use as a panic room ordinarily manifests from a need to hide after forgetting to record cable TV shows for my wife. Either that or from incurring her wrath […]
As a consequence of its sloping physical geography from the east Gateshead area of Wrekenton down to the Team Valley, my childhood home at Low Fell was ‘blessed’ with a back garden bearing a 25% (1 in 4 in old money) incline. The late 1960’s Leech built three bedroomed semi-detached, purchased by my parents at that time when relocating from Leeds, coming complete with a huge clay soil hill as […]
As I recall, the Low Fell library was built-in the early 1970’s. Progress of its construction at the corner of Durham Road and Chowdene Bank something I witnessed during games of football on adjacent grassland on the cusp of a small dene. A near neighbour of the Thomas Wilson WMC. A club I’m told was named after an acclaimed Low Fell based poet. I didn’t ask the person who informed […]
“Mrs Dragons, Stanley’s spoiling our skipping game!” An oft heard piece of tittle-tattle aimed at my mum during her patrols of the Oakfield Infant School (OIS) playground in late 1970s Gateshead. Her role as dinner nanny at the Low Fell nursery exposing the Leeds lady to the regular telling of tales, in particular other pupil’s disclosure of a young pupil called Stanley’s mischief. Mrs Dragons, the moniker bestowed upon my […]
