I think I'm getting old. In fact I'm sure I'm getting old. Being realistic, I knew it would come, it always does, but I didn't expect it quite yet, and I certainly hadn't prepared for some of the things that come with it. The creaks in the morning I can handle, the aches at the end of a tiring day I can put up with. I can even accept walking into a ( Read more... )

I've written about this on a few occasions before, and now that it's happened I thought I would break my (unintentional) silence to round it all up.

Yesterday, between seven in the morning and ten at night, the people of Scotland had the chance to vote on the future of their nation. It's a rare thing in these islands for such an obvious democratic ( Read more... )

Here's a bit of a story, an anecdote. It's about me and just one of the funny things that seems to come along and stick ( Read more... )

I’ve just been looking back through some of my entries and I’ve re-read what I wrote here on 19 September last year. It was my column about the impending Scottish referendum on independence.

I saw this video, used as a television advert, yesterday evening (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvymXo3xF3E) and it reminded me that I had planned to ( Read more... )

Is it me, or do we live in a very strange world? Now, I realise that could be a leading question, so I'll tell you what I'm talking about and tell you what I think. (Oh my gods, he's voicing opinions again!)

I read an article on The Press website this morning. The Press is where I get my Christchurch news from, where I go to see what's happening ( Read more... )

In 2002, good old auntie BBC (gods bless her and all who sail in her) held a public vote to try and establish the 100 greatest Britons ever. Once that list had been sorted, they told people what the top ten was and got various prominent people to make a television programme about each of them, selling their merits.

Then there was another vote ( Read more... )

What's in a name? Well quite a lot actually. Unable to sleep a couple of nights ago, I was listening to the radio. I like night-time radio, it's broadcast in a way that suggests the people doing the broadcasting don't think anyone's listening. It's sort of sloppy, yet engaging, amateur and professional all at the same time. Yet, the very fact that ( Read more... )

I don't know what to think. And that's not a nice place to be for someone who's always got bloody opinions, like me. How can I be grumpy if I don't know what to be grumpy about? How can I be enthusiastic? Ahem, no, that doesn't happen often these days. Let's stick to grumpy. This matters to me. I don't have a particularly well-developed vested ( Read more... )

A news story broke here at the weekend. It wasn't a surprising one, no 'shock horror' this time. The deputy prime minister of this soon to be dis-united kingdom decided to kick off his party's annual conference with a bit of a bang. It sort of illustrates how insignificant the job is when his big announcement is that in about a year and a half's ( Read more... )

Unlike LP Hartley and the entire premise for his novel, 'The Go-Between', I'm not normally given to nostalgia. While I have memories, pleasant or otherwise, from times gone by, I can't say that I see the past in anything other than a pragmatic way. The definition of nostalgia is: a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past. ( Read more... )