ONCE upon a time, when I was young and carefree, I ran away from home with my toothbrush, a bottle of milk and some biscuits raided from the larder. I slipped round the corner to my friend and stayed there all day, both of us setting up home in our secret place beneath the trees…
I HAVE just told my grandson – he’s aged 5 – that he should be a publican when he grows up. Now you might think this is self-interest, that I might hope to get the odd free drink when I’m visiting. But in fact, I’m making the suggestion in his own best interest. Turns out…
MY FIRST memory of watching TV was as a 9-year-old boy in June 1953. Along with 27 million other people in Britain, the family and many of our neighbours were watching the coronation of Elizabeth II on a small black and white screen. I think Dad had bought the TV especially for the event. It…
ONE OF THE many attributes of eminent neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks was his celebration of life – even when he knew he was dying. Sacks (pictured) died last Sunday at age 82. Earlier this year he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and wrote in the New York Times of how “this does not mean that…
IT’S A MARKETING ploy as old as Moses and his Ten Commandments. You can’t possibly stay healthy / stay fit / enjoy yourself / progress your career / do anything at all without doing these 100 / 50 / 25 / 10 things which somebody else has determined are must do’s for you. The Top…
LIKE MANY Baby Boomers and pre-Boomers I grew up learning the order of our planets with a little ditty: Mum’s Very Edible Marmalade Jam Sits Nicely Upon Plates. Of course, that was back in the days when there were nine planets, before the star scientists decided to downgrade poor little Pluto. That’s why I’m glad…
I KNEW I had finally retired, really retired, when I took my suits and ties to the Salvation Army. By then, I had had three or four tries at retirement. It didn’t come easily. I missed work. I missed the routine of getting up and dressing up to go to work, to socialise, to talk…
THE health warning recently attached to wearing skinny jeans sent me scurrying to my wardrobe to check for any such hazardous apparel. After all, I am a contemporary of Mick Jagger and he seems to have been wearing skinny jeans for ever. It turns out I do have some trousers I can no longer get…
WHAT is it about West Australian drivers that they crash into houses at the rate of about two a week? It’s not as if they are driving through an English village where the houses front straight onto the road. These are suburban homes with a front garden in residential streets where the speed limit is…
NOW that an Australian is coaching the England cricket team, I can look forward to the Ashes series starting in July in the UK. As a Pom Down Under for more than a quarter of a century, I have always supported English sporting teams against the rampant Aussies. It’s cost me a few bob as…
Booming Marvellous 