Archive For The “Getting on with it” Category

Am I bothered?

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Am I bothered?

Does everyone else of my age repeatedly get quizzed on how it feels to grow old? That’s my experience, unless I’m imagining things. “Grandpa, what’s it like to be eighty-seven?” Some things the little darlings can perfectly well see for themselves; they know that I tend to wobble just a trifle as I walk; they…

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Renaissance man

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Renaissance man

    The Tankerton bus drew up. The passenger door opened and the bus settled down with an emphatic hiss. No one left and no one came. It was high summer. The driver shut off his engine, opened the half-door of his cab and emerged into the sunshine. Pausing in the doorway, he yawned and…

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Hare today, hare tomorrow

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Hare today, hare tomorrow

One of the two things I learned at school and can still remember (the other was that Samuel Johnson had a cat called Hodge whom he fed on oysters and described as “a very fine cat indeed”) was that young hares in their first year are called leverets. With this fountain of General Knowledge to draw upon, it…

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The preserve of the tongue-tied

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The preserve of the tongue-tied

Mrs Miller moved like a tortoise. All her movements were slow, nothing sudden, nothing jerky; she was certainly not someone to be hurried. It was a concern about her shortness of breath that brought her to the clinic, and the diagnosis was soon clear; she had developed asthma. But, for her sake, her eerie slowness also needed…

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Divided we stand

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Divided we stand

While the invaders in our Brittany garden were welcomed by my wife they had me in a real spin. I am a very tidy gardener, not to say obsessional, and in my view these six, albeit very imposing invaders simply got in the way. They would have seeded themselves in the spring and by the…

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You must be serious!

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You must be serious!

It will be the same advice once again; the ninth time in less than a fortnight. We are on the runway at Amsterdam airport on the last leg of our journey back from the Galápagos Islands . The plane waits prior to take off.

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Slippery customer

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Slippery customer

My wife, Rohan, suggested that we eat out at Vince et Versa, a restaurant nearby. I agreed but on one condition, that I be allowed to bring my own cutlery. My proposal was rejected – it would be an affront.  A day later, I hatched a less obtrusive plan and a table was booked. I…

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The secret garden

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The secret garden

There is a garden near our home in France and it is one of my treasured sights. Among other such sights could be a particular wall or seascape, bush or tree, or perhaps some old railings. Whenever I see one of them, I linger and gaze, sometimes touch or even sniff. As with many of…

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