Just as I have a system for recalling words, I now have one for faces. For words I do a mind search. As others do, I scan through the alphabet focusing on each letter in turn looking for those that best match the starter letter of the lost word. I then run through second letters…
The child within
To passers-by I would have appeared a normal adult, but for an hour or so I became a reticent school-boy dragging his feet. I just did not want to go to school. The immediate background to this metamorphosis was straightforward. Some weeks earlier my wife had asked what I wanted for my birthday. I plumped…
Labour of love
Our back garden had a problem. As soon as it rained the earth by the scullery door became all mud and puddles. After three years of inertia we decided to lay a paved path, edged on one side by a row of stones to restrain the herb garden, and on the other by a wall.…
Gentlemen who lunch
Men who learn to cook later on in life do so for a variety of reasons, either out of necessity (bereavement, divorce) or choice (curiosity, more time on their hands). In my neighbour Barry's case it was an ultimatum from his wife along the lines of, "if something happened to me, you'd starve." There is…
French as she (or he) is spoke
By my early sixties the limitations of my 1958 ‘O’ Level French were being cruelly exposed when attempting to converse with my neighbours in France and for the last four years or so I have been learning French. I have done the majority of my studying at the Institut Francais in London, and this has…