How are you coping? If you feel you are coping, that is? As I noted to a friend, I veer between manic activity and shameful indolence on a daily basis. At first, upon seeing my wife spend all day seated at the dining room table in one videoconference after another, I experienced a bout of…
It’s a fortnight since I wrote my last blog on - you guessed it - Coronavirus. Which certain persons close to home have suggested was alarmist, depressing, over-reactive etc. But it wasn’t hard to guess that where Italy led we would follow - even if we are still a few paces behind. If I sound…
Last week I visited Arrowe Park Hospital (A.K.A. Coronavirus Central) with my father, who'd been sent for an X-ray. Our visit was enlivened by the sighting of a rat making its way swiftly and confidently along the corridor. Eventually the poor wee thing was cornered and forced to surrender to overwhelming force, i.e. a woman…
As mentioned in a previous post, I joined the British Library in January 1986 and left in March 2015, retiring at the age of 60. So that's more four and half years ago (I haven't lost my razor sharp wits) and it won't be long until I am 65. I have restrained myself from writing about…
“What popular song includes in its lyric: losing my hair, Valentine, birthday greetings, bottle of wine, 64 and Wight?” If you don’t know, there’s really no hope for you. That day, for me, has finally dawned. The Fab Four Once you're south of 21 it becomes difficult to distinguish one birthday from the next unless…
Jools Holland's Hootenanny closed, as ever, with the simple ditty that gives this piece its title. (As regards the show itself, I didn't enjoy it very much. Very few plums among the duff. George Ezra? Please explain his popularity because I don't get it. Who buys this stuff? Even the Teletubbies' songs were more interesting.)…
The Wight Stuff 