I’d a rare break from writing yesterday. Leaving casa Strachan at 7.30am and not getting home until 11.00pm rendering opportunities of putting pen to paper nigh on impossible. My destination the city of Nottingham – Robin Hood’s manor, domain made famous by Brian Clough, home of Boots the Chemist and place my late dad served his National Service in the 1950’s. My odyssey, though, wasn’t to cross swords with the […]
I’m penning this offering accompanied by the BBC Radio Leeds commentary of the Leeds United v Rotherham United. The voices of commentator Adam Pope and ex-Leeds player Noel Whelan my self-inflicted distraction to the writing process. As you’d expect this following of events at Elland Road handicaps my focus and concentration. Attempting to write a narrative when your completely distracted is a new experience for yours truly. When I endeavour […]
“I’ll give you a clue, he won the medal while riding a horse.” Well-meaning words from the question master to myself and team mate. His attempt to assist our floundering efforts at answering his question “At what sport did Sweden’s Anders Garderud win a gold medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games?” It was the early hours of a morning circa 1990, five men sitting at a wooden dining table […]
Scene – Outside a public house on Low Fell, Gateshead in 1982. A winter’s night when….. Actually, I’ll leave it to the sinister voice of Vincent Price to paint the picture…… “Darkness falls the land. The midnight hour is close at hand. Creatures crawl in search of blood, to terrorise the neighbourhood. Although you fight to stay alive, your body starts to shiver. But no mere mortal can resist a […]
I’m inspirationally impotent this morning. Consequently the last twenty minutes have been spent gawping gormlessly at the taunting chaste page in front of me. If you want a more descriptive image of my visage, think Irishman in a maths exam*. * Only joshing my Celtic cousins! Bereft of a epiphany for today’s blog topic, I fill my time picking at my beard. Sadly, this hapless grooming not aiding in producing […]
It’s ‘A’ level results day. Up and down our green and pleasant land, thousands of apprehensive students will be tentatively opening envelopes, hoping their academic efforts have achieved aspiration grades. As they rip into brown envelopes with thumb, letter opener or (if overly enthusiastic)hammer and chisel, thoughts of how future academic and career paths abound. A predominant number of the ‘A’ level examined seeking marks to fulfil entrance criteria of […]
Yesterday, I took an impromptu trek to the Junction 32 Retail Outlet, Castleford. A drive I embarked upon with aspirations of acquiring new clothing to improve my sartorial elegance this autumn. Not to mention continuing my vain charade believing I’m not a middle aged man and am ‘with it’ fashion wise……. Although, me just using the expression ‘with it’ will have blown that charade out of the water regardless! This […]
