Dad’s first beer

My Dad told me a story recently, about his first beer as a young man. This would have been in the early 1960s. He was off work with Laryngitis, bored and with nothing to do he started exploring the locality on his motorbike, probably a Triumph or a Norton, although it could have been a… Continue reading Dad’s first beer

Great tit (Parus major)

I was lucky enough to spend a week skiing in Austria over half term, it’s a beautiful part of the world and I am always grateful of simply being in the mountains. In the mornings I would poke my head out onto the balcony to look at the weather on the mountain, or to report… Continue reading Great tit (Parus major)

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Categorised as Travel

I am a morning person

I like the morning, and when I look back throughout my life I think I always have done, it just never really occurred to me like it does now. The bedroom in our current home faces east so we get the full on morning experience, especially this time of year when the sun rises over… Continue reading I am a morning person

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Categorised as Romance

A few days in hospital

Although I’d never stayed in hospital before and only ever had a passing need for their services, I’d always admired and supported the NHS and everything it stands for. Stupidly, I’d always imagined a hospital ward to be a Holby City-esque world of chatting nurses, bowls of grapes and happy endings. I didn’t imagine that… Continue reading A few days in hospital

Can you do me a favour?

I hate this expression, it fills me with fear and dread of what is going to follow. A favour is a request, probably unreasonable, by someone who wants something and either doesn’t want to pay for it or can’t be bothered to do it themselves. A favour is different from someone asking for help, help… Continue reading Can you do me a favour?

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Categorised as Society

The rise of the birthday Buzzard

A few years ago we started calling my Dad “The Buzzard”, due to his bald head, beakish nose and general birdlike appearance. As it turns out we were referring to a Vulture which is more bald and Geoff Coleman like in appearance, rather than the Buzzard, which is well feathered European bird of prey. However… Continue reading The rise of the birthday Buzzard

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Categorised as Lost it

19, Paul Hardcastle

I first heard this record round my cousin Paul’s house in Ipswich after it was released in 1985. Paul was a townie and a casual, unlike me and my brothers who where from a rural village in Essex. Never as well dressed, we were as unlikely to wear electric blue cords or Fila tracksuit tops… Continue reading 19, Paul Hardcastle