Sometimes gardening demands invention. Last week, it required the construction of a moveable gated fence, seven meters long and one meter high running across our lawn. The requirements were that it should be sturdy enough to keep in a small dog, easy on the eye and flexible enough to allow it to be folded away…
Communication gap
Several years ago I was in a taxi heading for Moscow airport. I spoke no Russian and the driver no English, but that was no obstacle. Soon we were chatting away about football - what else? The topic of our conversation was Manchester United. One of us would mention the name of a player -…
The steam age (and my part in its revival)
I have been authoritatively assured that one day, sooner or later, I shall find myself facing the Great Assessor in The Sky. When that happens, I am told, he will have searching questions to ask me, so I had better be prepared. In particular, he will want to know whether I have achieved anything positive…
They was robbed
Football divides us, and for those of you who see the 'beautiful game' as irrelevant, aggressive or even repulsive, here is a health warning: this blog is not for you. However, those who empathise are invited to read on. The final Saturday afternoon of the season was a topsy turvy affair with anxiety and exhilaration…
Pfizer go home
Our house guest's question came out of the blue. Anne, who comes from France and has known me for years, suddenly asked why I had stopped railing against the pharmaceutical industry. Were the companies suddenly behaving themselves? I replied with some inner satisfaction that since my retirement I was a changed man. Instead of living…
Hold very tight please!
In central London last week I found myself re-living memories of my childhood - and there was an added pleasure: I was allowed to make the sort of very English public announcement of which boyhood dreams are made. The incident involved a new double-decker bus, one of those red, recently-introduced, London Transport Routemasters whose design…
30 Years A Shave
Joe Collier learns the importance of keeping up appliances Getting old seems almost unreal. As a child, then as an adolescent and later in my twenties, old age seemed a long way off and not much fun. And some things were clear - when old age arrives bodies stop working. Walking sticks, glasses, false teeth…
My little eye
There is more to spying than international espionage. Forget the events that forced Edward Snowden to take up residence in Moscow, Julian Assange in Ecuador's London Embassy, or the conversation that led to a Richmond spy's confession [Secret Newsagent, Greyhares blog, 9 April, 2014], in reality spying or being spied upon is a mundane, everyday affair.…