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 opposite bank views of northern New York State. I’m staying with a family I’m acquainted […]
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 1914-1918 were little short of serving troops up as cannon fodder. Less a war, moreover […]
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 fast backwards as it could forwards. An evolutionary ‘gift’ which meant that, without possessing eyes […]
Thursday turned out to be a fairly unremarkable day. My existential contributions confined to penning a daily narrative, along with chauffeuring Mrs Strachan senior for her weekly food shop at the White Rose Shopping Centre. Nightfall saw the day’s quiet ambience, which had brought a serenity and inner calm to my erstwhile troubled soul, sadly acquiesce to sporadic outdoor noises of boom, boom. A seemingly endless cacophony which deeply annoyed my wee […]
Like many with a penchant for putting pen to paper, I often use artistic license in my prose. Fictional elements included aimed at incorporating humour, or merely to enhance the readworthiness of a otherwise dull anecdote. Additions required when GJ Strachan’s cascading of his monochrome lifestyle needs a dash of colour. It’s fair to say, as with numerous individuals, my real existence isn’t interesting enough to sustain a purely factual […]
There’s few things that rankle with a Yorkshireman more than defeat by sports teams representing the House of Lancaster. Witnessing Lancastrian ‘troops’ returning west over the Pennine Hills with a battle victory lodges in their trachea like a carelessly swallowed wish bone. Yesterday evening was a perfect example of this disenchantment by players and supporters of the white rose county’s cricket team. Despair manifesting from the sight of seeing Lancashire […]
Yesterday afternoon, as my wife and me slowly ambled up Calverley Street towards our destination of Leeds Museum, she pointed out this was her inaugural tour of the building housing our city’s historical artefacts. “It’s not mine. I’ve never been before!” I joked weakly. She smiled disingenuously, called me an idiot for what definitely wasn’t the inaugural time, meanwhile continuing uphill towards the former Mechanical Institute building. A few years back […]
