My wife has just informed me that our washing machine is “On it’s way out.” From this announcement, delivered in her distinctive County Durham lilt, I’m assuming she opines the appliance’s working life is coming to an end……. My spouse isn’t informing yours truly the washer is heading into town for a coffee with his good friend Arthur the refrigerator. Before I go on, I wanted to clarify that obviously […]
Twenty eight years ago today I became a father for the first time following my son Jonny joining the cast of this reality show called life. A rollercoaster of a gig that my boy has thus far weathered relatively well, arriving into adulthood as an engaging and grounded young man of whom I’m very proud. Never short of a whimsical putdown or a quip at his dad’s expense, Jonny is […]
Tuesday 29th May – This morning, I’ve revamped the look and feel of my website https://strachan.blog – A fiddly task where customising the site to my aesthetic requirements isn’t ordinarily achieved without significant trial and error. I liken the process to that of attempting to ‘wind up’ my adult children. That a strategy of antagonising them until they ‘bite’ at my mischievous jibes. Like the process for procuring the website […]
Friday 25th May – At the moment, any free time I have seems to involve responding to GDPR emails. The senders of these mandatory communications include social media giants like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the entities whose distribution lists I reside upon, along with utility service providers. Due to upcoming regulation changes, I’ve been inundated with requests to state my preferences into how my personal data is utilised. In one […]
Tuesday 22nd May- Today’s itinerary includes a visit to a Leeds oncology unit for my wife’s monthly treatment, along with an out of town shopping centre sojourn for mater’s weekly comestibles. From my perspective, this roughly translates to me spending an hour writing in a hospital waiting room. Followed by attempts to further bolster my mother’s self-confidence – Still not as robust as the family would like for dealing with […]
Sunday 6th May – In Friday’s narrative The Last Ship I penned a parody review of Sting’s theatre production of the same name. A thought-provoking drama infused with music manifesting from the creatively fertile mind of the ex-Police frontman. Within the monologue of this offering I omitted to mention that during a former life Sting taught at the Newcastle school where a few of my cricketing mates studied. I don’t believe […]
Saturday 14th April – Yesterday evening, with vocal chords smoother than a Casanova pick up line, sharp clothing smoother than the escalators on the Piccadilly Line and soul refrains smoother than a Hollywood bikini line, US jazz singer Gregory Porter hit first direct Arena, Leeds. Actually, hit is probably too strong a word – Gently pawing the West Yorkshire audience into submission with debonair jazz standards a more apt descriptive […]
