Sometimes I wonder if we’re little more than the sum total of all our likes and dislikes. If that’s the case, it would explain why we doggedly hang onto our preferences even if we no longer prefer them. For instance, it took me years to realise that I don’t actually like wine. I’ve been drinking…
WLTM hopeless and selfish family
I do love those emails that arrive from very rich people living abroad who are anxious to transfer a portion of their huge wealth to me. I’m full of admiration for their creative background stories and charmed by their idiosyncratic use of the English language. And naturally I’m flattered that I’m the chosen one.
The Common Sense Committee is now in session
We all know that feeling of disbelief: yet another study is reported with results so obvious that a four-year-old and its pet cat could have held a quick consultation and come to the same conclusions. However, I do have sympathy for both the researchers who’ve conducted the study and the media outlet that publishes it….
Venturing out
Such excitement: last weekend we got on an inter-city train and went to Birmingham, travelling 106 miles from home! That’s the furthest we’ve been in nearly a year. We stayed in a hotel for the first time since last March and I was feeling both excited and nervous about the whole thing. It had been…
Growing older by stealth
It has struck me recently that age creeps up on you without your knowledge and certainly without your permission. In fact, I have just increased the magnification of this page by 10% because it was all looking a bit impressionistic. Ten per cent here, ten per cent there and before you know it you’re looking…
Hay days
The good news is that the Hay Literary Festival has just started, but the not-such-good news is that it’s online for the second year in a row. Online has many advantages – think of all the people who can now watch the events if they choose, while before it was limited to those who could…
Save me from the news
We have a newspaper delivered every day. I know, how quaint! I love getting the paper, but I have only limited interest in the news. Nearly all of it is bad and I find politics boring and too slow-moving to hold my attention for long. Harold Wilson, the British Prime Minister, is credited with the…
Misleading my readers
I know it’s hard to believe, but I have, in the past, been accused of inaccuracy. I prefer to think of it as artistic licence, but there has even been mention of suing me under the Trade Descriptions Act. I think it was a joke. I am forced to admit, however, that you would find…
Is gratitude the answer to everything?
Sometimes I feel like I’m reading the same article over and over again. I’m sure you know the one – it’s written by an expert and gives advice on how to solve one of the many health problems we all face. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s guidance on how to live longer, protect…
The impossible dream
I don’t know if you’ve seen the video of the tap-dancing physiotherapist and his elderly patient, but it’s rather lovely. The young man, who is helping his patient recover from a hip operation, learned that she had always been a dancer and decided to incorporate tap dancing into her rehabilitation. She has taught him a…