Like many individuals, I learned many useful lessons during my fledgling years. For instance, acquiring the knowledge that possessing a double-jointed ring finger is unlikely to lead you on a meaningful career path. Another being the need to be discerning when choosing a projectile to use when skimming stones. The latter learned on a mid-1970’s August afternoon in Saltwell Park, Gateshead, during a visit there with my brother Ian. A […]
Saturday 9th June – Yesterday, during a shopping sojourn in town avec ma femme, we took a spontaneous pit stop for liquid refreshment at the Alchemist bar. From it’s lofty perch located on the upper floor of the Trinity shopping centre, this agreeable eatery/cocktail bar bequeaths striking views of Boar Lane’s splendid Georgian architecture. Aesthetics that never fail to woe my spouse into it’s chambers, along with the opportunity to […]
One of the pages within my website menu is Cricketing Yarns. A literary portal containing a series of partly fictional and unreliable tales from my club cricketing career. Although now retired, I played club cricket in Gateshead, Buckinghamshire and Leeds for over 30 years. An odyssey that started when one of my neighbours (Brian Dixon) introduced me to Gateshead Fell cricket club. A Durham Senior League outfit where I’d go […]
Wednesday 2nd May – Yesterday afternoon was spent undertaking garden maintenance at casa Strachan senior. This involved a few hours hard graft manicuring lawns, along with pampering soil borders with a much needed weed/hoeing treatment. Consequently, at around 5pm thanks to assistance from lawnmower, grass clippers, a hoe and my family’s horticultural secret (passed down through generations), the aesthetics of mater’s garden were chromatic and well-groomed. As I’m bound by […]
“Your/their hair need a right good cut!” An adage frequently delivered in my mother’s rich Yorkshire dialect since my 1970’s childhood. Mater’s way of opining that as a consequence of neglectful grooming the individual she refers to looked a”Right scruffy bleeder.”…… Whether it be a messy mullet, unkempt curtain hair, poorly groomed bouffant or a tousled chignon. Deeming that man is defined by first impressions, tidy hair was not only […]
A quarter of a century ago today my second and youngest offspring made her surprise appearance in a Bedfordshire hospital. To clarify, when I say surprise I’m referring to the fact my daughter Rachel was born a week early – Not that my wife Karen hadn’t realised she was pregnant. I can relay that observation with a degree of certainty as 7-8 months earlier my spouse informed me “Gary, We’ll […]
As a fledgling cricketer learning the game at Gateshead Fell cricket club (GFCC), it soon became apparent that certain knowledge voids about the game had to be filled sooner rather than later. Possibly the most key being awareness that two spherical objects who’d taken recent residence in my M&S undies needed protecting from the hard cork ball. A pair of body parts that had thus far reticent to make an […]
