“Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness the world affords.” Samuel Johnson The above proffering from acclaimed 18th century scholar Doctor Johnson, whose grasp of the English language is mooted by many, including my colonic irrigation therapist Niahm, to’ve been unsurpassed for over 250 years. Despite his amazing insight into…
Tag: History
Vignette For Generations Hence
Wednesday 6th January 2021 – The United Kingdom is back in COVID lockdown for the third time since the global pandemic breached our shores last March. Today’s blog, like numerous other of my narratives in the past nine months, written with one of its objectives that of informing future generations of life on Planet COVID…
Love At First Sight
On Sunday, my mother will reach the grand old age of 80. A milestone she’s reached with her rose coloured glasses firmly intact; along with her viewing life events from a baseline of positivity. This despite more than her share of episodes where serendipity and karma have proved the most capricious of suitors. Mum (Maggie)…
The Spoils
Yesterday it was spectral to witness aerial news footage, which I assume was recorded by drone (or perhaps an incredibly strong pigeon), broadcasting prevailing scenes at Venice’s St Marks Square and nearby canal system. Clapping eyes on such a historically significant city, whose iconic architectural canvas is now bereft of human colour, drove home (if…
Making Unwanted History – Part Two
Yesterday, I afforded my readership a narrative titled Making Unwanted History – Part One. Within this piece I suggested the stark times consequential of China’s alleged opening of a COVID-19 Pandoras Box will most probably feature as the biggest existential event any of us will ever experience. This unwanted accolade of living with a coronavirus affected…
Making Unwanted History – Part One
The stark times faced since China allegedly opened a COVID-19 Pandoras Box will feature as the biggest existential event any of us will ever confront. The whole sorry episode eclipsing all other historically significant life events we’ve experienced, or will experience. I’m no historian, but I’d posit there can’t have been a global disaster on…
Light At The End Of The Tunnel
On Sunday, my Canadian odyssey continued unabated, when I moved east from Newcastle village, Ontario to Brockville, Leeds county. My new residence a family home, also in the province of Ontario, a few hundred yards north of the St Lawrence River. A vast waterway on the Canadian/US borders which from the side I stand gives…
The Second Miracle of Headingley
Prior to World War II (WWII), World War I (WWI) went by the moniker of the Great War. For a conflict which bore absolutely nothing great about it, a misnomer on the most grotesque scale. Calling it a war is even questionable in some commentators eyes. After all, the obscenity of some warfare strategies employed between…
Odyssey
Relentless precipitation is this morning’s meteorological guest in Leeds 15. Consequently, I’m witnessing a Zeusian deluge akin to that written about in Genesis, where Noah, his family and two of every animal (apart from the snargle) avoided drowning by boarding an ark. The snargle a species of wild cat, which folklore journals could run as…