There is a significant difference, as I discovered last week, between the meaning of these two phrases. I think that it is no exaggeration to say that I have been down with the worst cough I have ever experienced. The constant hacking at my lungs left me feeling weak and without the ability to engage … Read more
Every now and then my wife looks at the accumulation of my art work and asks what she is expected to do with it all should I die first. I do see that she has a point, as I have been pretty meticulous in keeping my work, including stuff which (in retrospect) is unlikely ever … Read more
In one of his novels in the “hitch-hiker’s guide” series Douglas Adams introduced us to the “total relativity vortex” which (if I remember it correctly) gives the person who looks into it the experience of understanding everything in relation to everything else. Not surprisingly, the consequence of this is not one of reflective understanding but … Read more
Do you know that poem by W.H. Auden? “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone”…. I encountered it first at grammar school, and the occasion sticks in my memory chiefly because of the vigorous disagreement about it between my English teacher and myself. I suppose it’s not too late to acknowledge the fact that … Read more
This week is a curious exception to what I normally expect of my pattern of activity. There is absolutely no pressure to do anything in particular. This is not to say that I am without things to do. After all, this week sees the annual “Masters” snooker tournament. Apart from this there are routine maintenance … Read more
For some months now my wife and I have been discussing, off and on, the fact that as we get older we will need to face, eventually, the prospect of moving house. Fond as we are of our present home we have to face the fact that it is not a place in which to … Read more