“How much is a threepenny lolly?”
“Sixpence”. My brother had brief career as an ice cream salesman. He did quite well. Continue reading “How much is a threepenny lolly?”
“Sixpence”. My brother had brief career as an ice cream salesman. He did quite well. Continue reading “How much is a threepenny lolly?”
What we do for information these days is a measure of how far we have come. I’m not going to call them good old days as they simple were n’t, but back ‘then’ new equipment came with an instruction book, which all God fearing men used to ignore completely until the thingy was done and it did not seem to work. The arrogance of knowing how to put stuff together was something I was born with, just as well they never let me construct anything that carried people, like a car or a plane. Dongle had a different meaning back … Continue reading First find your dongle…
It’s the obvious thing to do, cook a few cheap sausages that have been festering in the sun for a nano second on a barbecue that’s as hot as hell. Obvs. Continue reading Blistering hot day, get out a fire!
Ear are tinstructions fot First form uv Wigan Pie Chi. Translation from the above is: Here are the instructions for the first form of Wigan Pie Chi, a North West of England form of the art where the tongue stays firmly in the cheek. Fettling is local parlance for fixing stuff, and these excersizes will fettle you. Enjoy. The passing of the pie ( Passin tut pie ) Stand with arms by your side, knees slightly bent, head up straight as if looking over someone’s shoulder at a Rugby league match. You should be wearing a shell suit or something … Continue reading Pie Chi and Fettling: A short introductory illustrated Guide to the Wigan Form of the Art.
So perhaps we might give it a rest as our present weather seems to stay the same every day. Hours of unbroken sunshine every day has been the recent norm. Recent Norm sounds not unlike a nickname that you get on an early American TV Sitcom. He’d have had a catchphrase that would be adopted by the public, or at least that public that watched TV, which unlike these days was a large percentage. Remember “What do you think of it so far?” the answer: “Rubbish!”. A catch phrase that only people of a certain age would understand these days … Continue reading So British to talk about the weather.
My mother gave me a fruitcake to give to the French. She’d arranged the trip for me with a friend who worked at the local girl’s grammar school. I was to be the only boy amongst thirty 16 year old schoolgirls going on a French exchange to Paris. Sounded reasonable to me, I might learn a thing or two. I did and it wasn’t all French. To put this in context I was a boarder at the local all boy’s grammar school. My contact with any girls at all was minimal. Our school did no such sort of exchange with … Continue reading Dark chocolate and a baguette.
I’m on a plane as I write, so this is a risk, as is all travelling. On my way to Italy on a walking holiday and this small section of writing may well be lost as I’m doing it on the plane with no internet, so rather depending on the local hardware. I’m not a natural at travelling that is, in fact I’ve been one the reluctant traveller of late, seeing no glamour in it whatsoever. We took the bus to Heathrow and that was only ok in retrospect. The fact that we had seats helped, but there’s something very … Continue reading … and a six foot Italian Tawny Owl.
I took a trip to London yesterday to meet with old college friends. We all went to what was then Manchester School of Art, when many thing seemed to be in black and white. Getting the photo up of us (I’m behind the camera on my phone) into the edit mode of my iPad now, I knew I’d have to lighten up the image a tad but there’s one feature in the editing suite that simply says warmth. There was more warmth in the occasion than I can possibly relate here. Our aim, if there was a ‘brief’ , was … Continue reading Edit: Warmth?
This is a rare event these days, but magical when it happens., and just too good to keep to myself. This was filmed yesterday evening in a carpet of wild garlic up on the Cotswolds. Continue reading Lifting the spirits…
Graham first met him as a 12 year old. Both keen on football Graham was playing at school in the yard one day when this bespectacled small chap rose gracefully to head the ball towards him. He’d just moved to Cleethorpes from Fleetwood, there’s a clue in the geography here. His father was a Seine net fisherman originally from Denmark who sailed bravely away from the Nazi advance into his own country into the friendly shores of Blighty where we kindly put him behind bars for a while, just to make sure he wasn’t a spy. Eventually working from Fleetwood, … Continue reading Dave Christensen
Mike came to help me carve out Henry yesterday. It was a great afternoon out in the sunshine at the Folk in Gloucester, spot of lunch then a chip or two carving stone. You find out a lot about people if you walk or carve together. I had no idea that Mike was an expert in packing a suitcase, but then I wouldn’t. He’s a legend in his own lunchtime back home where he has the ultimate knack of packing. perhaps he should be called a Packing Knacker. No. This is his first time carving and to be honest he … Continue reading Knowing where the spaces are.
When I went for an interview with a lady called Ruth Gill at a huge ad agency in London back when stuff was in black and white and the London tube had wooden escalators, she asked me at the end of the interview what my hobbies were. My reply was ‘ I haven’t got the job have I?’ She was gracious in her reply and said she was sorry ‘No’. I think she used the question to fill the gap after the more serious questions and what’s more she was not remotely interested in what I did in my spare … Continue reading Gill by the River.