I’ve been slightly delayed in penning this essay. A self-inflicted inconvenience consequential of me, on taking my seat at the coffee shop which’s become my habitual lieu l’ectriture, misguidedly carrying out a system update on my laptop. This action rendering me unable to use my device for twenty minutes, resulting in a frustrating time during which any aspirations of waxing lyrical were denied me. Instead creating a period of white […]
Despite being the 10th December, there remains a paucity of Christmas spirit within yours truly’s capricious psyche. Apart from ordering a few presents online, thus far little has changed from my usual day-to-day pre-festive season existence. This afternoon, though, I’m hoping decorating a Christmas tree at my East Ardsley abode will be a catalyst to negating this scrooge-esque behaviour. This relatively simple task hopefully manifesting conscious awareness of what the […]
Despite a huge indifference towards dining at the unappetising looking General Election buffet table, on Thursday I’ll join fellow UK citizens in selecting an unwanted ballot box ‘dish’. Unappealing fare which’ll no doubt riddle us with indigestion for the next five years. Above is my poetic attempt at conveying, due to the uninspiring options available, my complete lack of enthusiasm for the task in hand, I liken the contemporary ballot box […]
On opening the Strachan advent calendar door number four this morning I was greeted by the souls of the oppressed. Although affable enough souls, particularly when you take into account the terrible suffering they’ve endured, I’m beginning to hold misgivings about investing in Torture magazine’s festive calendar***. Todays’s bestowal as equally disturbing as the Fingernails of No Return which yesterday laid in wait from behind the calendar’s door number three. It’s […]
It’s Wednesday morning and I’ve just returned home after transporting two family members to Leeds Railway Station. This convivial twenty minute sojourn by car undertaken to a backdrop of tunes from the musicals on Apple Music; anthems predominantly taken from the movies La La Land and The Greatest Showman. Award winning contemporary musical refrains from the prodigious pen and creatively fertile minds of American songwriting duo Pasek and Paul. Exposure […]
Since July’s swapping of my residential post code area from LS15 to WF3 I’ve been lucky enough to have travelled to Scotland, Wales and Canada. In the process meeting some fabulously positive, engaging individuals whose company and generosity of spirit has been the very antithesis of the toxicity and negativity that for decades had hung around my neck like a millstone. These new encounters shared with ‘real’ people; many who’d […]
Being on the outskirts of the town where he was born and raised, I ventured to see the coast front statue of late entertainer Eric Morecambe. The man christened Eric Bartholomew, who later took his hometown moniker as his stage name. Along with comedian Les Dawson, entertainer Ronnie Barker, and former Leeds United footballers Billy Bremner and Allan Clarke, the Lancastrian sits amongst a small cluster of childhood heroes. Five […]
