Nitrous oxide and four crowns
‘Now, I would advise you to go home and to sleep for as long as possible. Take some paracetamol and try to go to sleep, it will be the best way to deal with the pain.’ Feeling that I had been punched repeatedly in both sides of the face, I went to the reception. The smiling young woman looked up. … [continue reading …]
We have wintered it out
After his poetry collection Wintering Out was published in 1972, a comment from Seamus Heaney on that violent and turbulent year was reported in the Cork Examiner, “If we winter this one out, we can summer anywhere.” Some forty-eight years later, as Covid-19 closed down society, Heaney’s words became the most popular meme in Ireland. The words have expressed the … [continue reading …]
Pirates did talk like that because that’s the way they did talk
I am very disappointed. International Talk Like a Pirate Day which falls in September each year is one of my favourite annual observances. However, last week National Geographic magazine cast doubt on the sort of meaningful exchanges that mark the day. In an article titled, . .”Forget ‘walking the plank.’ Pirate portrayals—from Blackbeard to Captain Kidd—are more fantasy than fact“, … [continue reading …]
Heathercombe Brake School Photographs
There are 679 (or thereabouts) photographs here. Some of them are duplicates and some of them are in random order. Paul Pope sent me a zip file in 2014 and I have been meaning to sort and upload them ever since. To have digitized these from prints to computer files must have taken many, many hours. They are nearly all … [continue reading …]
The old scams seem to work
There can be few people with email addresses who have not received at least an occasional email that seeks details that would allow the sender to defraud them. The “Spanish Hostage” scam is the oldest approach used (thus named because when it began two centuries ago people wrote letters claiming to be held hostage in Spain and promising abundant reward … [continue reading …]
The cycling nights have arrived
It was not so much a bicycle, more an amalgam of bicycles, a frame from one, wheels from another, parts gathered from various places. Its improvised nature meant it was not as valued as much one that had arrived shiny and new. Once it was stolen, its absence prompting a telephone call to a local police station, where a pleasant … [continue reading …]
A Sermon for Sunday, 22nd May 2022
‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you.’ John 14:25 Professor Sean Freyne, the New Testament lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin used to divide the Gospel of John into two books: the book of Works (Chapters 1-11) and the book of Words (Chapter 12-21). The miracles that John recounts in Chapter 1-11, are seen from … [continue reading …]
The old hatred
This morning, I lent my copy of David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count to a colleague. It is a brilliant piece of polemic against the antisemitism of supposedly progressive groups (antisemitism from elsewhere has tended to be a given). Once, in school, we tried to understand this strangest of prejudices. ‘Mr Poulton, why did people hate the Jews?’ We had been … [continue reading …]
Giving away a record
The red Dansette is safely installed. All I need now is a rack for my many dozens of 7″ singles. Some of the singles could be placed in a bag and taken to a charity shop. I would have no intention of ever playing them. Records like Terry Jacks’ Seasons in the Sun might go. It wasn’t just miserable, there … [continue reading …]
See Emily Play
The nurse changed the date. “Today is 1st May.” “Good morning, Emily. How are you this morning?” 1st May? Oh no, it would be so boring. Standing outside for hours and then a dinner where there would be very long speeches. All those old men and all those toasts. “Daddy, do I have to go today?” “Of course, we must … [continue reading …]