Friday 6th April (Part Two) – I’ve arrived in Newcastle. With two hours to kill before I meet my brother Ian, I’m yet again Starbucks in situ, Americano with milk nestling in front of me. Opposite from the café is the imposing stone building which, amongst other functions, is the entrance to Newcastle Central train…
Tag: parody
Jolly Hockey Sticks
Friday 6th April – I’m sitting at Leeds train station penning this prose – Awaiting the Newcastle bound locomotive to meet mates from that metropolis, nestling on the River Tyne’s north eastern banks.. People watching and waiting for my Americano coffee to reduce to a temperature that won’t result in third degree tongue burns, I…
“I Only Need A Few Bits, Gary”
Thursday 5th April – Took a brief morning sojourn to the out of town White Rose Shopping Centre for mater’s weekly comestibles. Outside a cloudless teal sky at last paraded a golden sun after the long awaited baton change from winter to spring. The latter having lots of catching up to undertake on the season…
Stealth & Commonwealth
Wednesday 4th April – Today, as I put pen to paper the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony from the Gold Coast, Australia, is playing out on the TV. As I start this paragraph six people (three men and three women) dressed in all white suits, not dissimilar in look to Hopkin in the 1970’s TV series…
A Crime of Fashion
Tuesday 3rd April – Ordinarily I’m loathed to proffer judgemental comment on the sartorial elegance of anyone. After all, I’m hardly the dedicated follower of fashion written about by Kinks frontman Ray Davies in 1966. A fact I can relay with indisputable surety with the knowledge I was only three years old when the song…
Yearning To Stop The Gurning
Easter Monday – As I write, I’m plagued by jaw bone discomfort – A self inflicted facial injury, the consequence of my long-term grinding habit. As the act of grating the jaw makes me gurn, it’s a tick I thankfully only carry out in the privacy of my own home. Gratifyingly, I don’t undertake this…
All Fools Gold
Easter Sunday – It’s April Fools Day. As a result we’ll have a day littered with inane pranks, silly stories and tiresome practical jokes…… In other words, it’s business as usual dans maison de Strachan. I find some practical jokes quite funny, such as the prank an acquaintance plans involving the filling of hollow Easter…
A Crossword With Phil Collins
Easter Saturday – Plans for a venture into Leeds for lunch are up in the air at the moment. While I scoff on a bacon sandwich, strategically fried to negate the smell of Good Friday’s fried cod, my wife Karen and me are in two minds whether getting wetter than a frogman’s pocket** for the…
Mum, Have You Seen The Clearasil?
Good Friday 2018 – The diva daffodils that adorn my garden borders have finally made their fashionably late entrance. At last deciding to ‘go for it’ after losing patience waiting for this capricious weather to warm up long term. Yesterday, a wag on social media likened the current erratic weather behaviour to that of a…