Now that January has finally arrived and we can leave that terrible year behind us, I don’t think there’ll be much fond reminiscing about the year gone by. We’ll be cheering its passing. Still, we will remember this time for years to come and talk about it as a strange and remote period in our…
And so this is Christmas
Unsurprisingly, this year’s lead-up to the Christmas period has been unlike any other. No-one really knew what was going to happen, so people threw themselves into buying cards and presents, decorating the tree and festooning the house and garden with lights. They have done it very early and with reckless abandon in order to convince…
Age and attitude
There is no doubt that each generation thinks quite differently from the one before. I’m not suggesting that everyone in a given generation has identical views, but there is often a sort of shorthand among people of a similar age. For instance, I can’t imagine that the Queen and Dick van Dyke have much in…
Give us this day
Although not a great poetry fan, I have to admit that some of those poets knew a thing or two. Philip Larkin often has an unexpectedly sideways view of life and I have always enjoyed his lines from the poem Days: ‘What are days for? Days are where we live.’ On one level it looks…
Antici – pation
Although we’re constantly being told by those who seem to know that we should live in the moment, I think there’s a lot to be said for anticipating what’s to come as well. A lot of the pleasure of going out, seeing your friends or a delicious meal has already been had in the anticipation…
A book is in the eye of the beholder
Recently a friend asked me if I thought that the essence of a book was lost once it had been translated into another language. I couldn’t help but be impressed by how impressive some of my friends are. However, it was early in the morning (well, it was before 10 o’clock), I had only had…
It’s not easy being green
I used to be stricken with guilt about all the flying we did, but since February we have travelled only by foot, bike, train or electric car so that has made me feel slightly better about past excesses. But, still, trying to lead a green life isn’t easy – it’s full of difficult decisions, compromises,…
Doing nothing in a foreign language
Lifestyle gurus (who are these people?) are constantly telling us how to live our lives and I suppose we must want to be told, judging by the many millions of books and products that are sold as a result. In recent years this lifestyle advice has involved unpronounceable foreign words like hygge and gezelligheid, with…
Here we go again – wearier but wiser
As a second lockdown looms on the horizon, I have been thinking about what we’ll do when confronted once again with oceans of time. Specifically, what I’ll do. I do love a plan because it gives me the illusion of control when in fact I have none. During the first lockdown I was brimming with…
The plane to nowhere
Most people I know don’t enjoy flying very much. What used to be considered a glamorous adventure has become a dreary slog in recent years, at least for those travelling in economy. The airport experience was particularly bad, involving long waits, searches, frisking and the passengers’ walk of shame through the metal detector – shoeless,…