Lewes Bonfire On My Doorstep
Bonfire came to my home town of Lewes last night – the roads were closed to motor vehicles and opened to a wonderfully sprawling and anarchic crowd of fire wielding Lewesians in a ceremony that has given Lewes the most…
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Why should I have to be ill on Bonfire Night? It so unfair!!
Sometimes I do believe that there are large interfering and ironically spiteful gods up there preordaining our fates. They must be very bored at the moment because they have decided to turn their mischief onto me. How else would they…
I go to see a speech therapist who knows how to swallow
Verbal communication is one of humanity’s greatest achievements – it has taken us out of those caves into the miraculously advanced societies of today and also given us a lot of juicy gossip. Where would we be without it? I…
Sono Inglese
The Czech Republic hasn’t been so important in European affairs since the appalling days of Nazi and Soviet aggression. Now though, it is in all our headlines for gentler reasons. It looks like the final hurdle to the ratification of…
November arrives in a spirit of calm
So I made it out of October in spite of all those bad feelings about revisiting my brain haemorrhage and the events that surrounded it a year ago. The day of the actual anniversary, 30th. October, was marked by a…
Going on show with my poetry
At almost exactly this time last year, 10.20 am, I wrote an email and opened a couple of others – all of them unremarkable. I only remember that because it is the last record of any activity here before a…
Where’s democracy now in Europe?
I love politicians as much as the rest of you. They are, as we all know, mostly dedicated public servants with a mission to make the World a better place. Well, I guess some of them are like that but…
The healing powers of poetry
I have been in poetry-mode for some time now. It all started a year ago just before my brain haemorrhage. Yes folks this is brain haemorrhage week as far as I am concerned because on the 30th. October it will…
Is Horace trying to tell me something?
There is a damp patch in the kitchen which calls out to me most days. It is singing, in a mocking tone, something like this: “I’ma gonna cost you money!” It was right of course – money and disruption. I…
Looking demons in the eye
Patient cure thyself. I think that is the right cliche but I often get my cliches in a twist. This sounds mad I know but today I begin the last week in October remembering that a year ago it was…