Culture

Postcard from Lille, Part 6

23rd February 2019 Always Worth Saying 0

We’re travelling the length of England from the Debatable lands to the white cliffs. We’re on the way to Lille but I’ve been distracted by an Arab girl who reminds me of an excellent pen, [more…]

Graveyard Shift

19th February 2019 bobo 0

I used to work in a cemetery. It was a dead-end job, but you could always bury yourself in your work! Oh, ho ho ho! I humbly beg your pardon. I shall start again. I [more…]

Postcard from Lille, Part 5

9th February 2019 Always Worth Saying 0

We are on our way to France as a family group. We are travelling first class and the serotonin is high. I’m a ‘look out of the window’ kind of person and, as we travel [more…]

We are a family group en route to the near continent travelling by first class train to London. It’s November and the English countryside is touched by frost and gentle mist. As we head south, [more…]

Postcard from Lille, Part 3

26th January 2019 Always Worth Saying 0

After a gap of many decades I’m setting off by train to visit the near continent. Some of my family are coming with me and as a special surprise treat I’ve booked first class seats [more…]

Postcard from Lille, Part 2

19th January 2019 Always Worth Saying 0

First Class Previously I regularly visited the continent travelling by train, ferry and hovercraft. Subsequently I went via the channel tunnel but before the high speed rail link to St Pancras had been completed. After [more…]

Where have all the Post Offices gone?

13th January 2019 Going Postal 0

According to Touchstone in ‘As You Like It’, the seventh form of lie is “…the lie direct” (Act V, Scene IV): our Politicians do not often use this form – for instance, the late and [more…]

Postcard from Lille, Part 1

12th January 2019 Always Worth Saying 0

In the prologue we recalled a fond age of travelling to the near continent via rail, ferry and hovercraft. This landscape changed with the opening of the Channel Tunnel. At the beginning of Eurotunnel operations, [more…]

The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon

8th January 2019 Going Postal 0

I was musing on the small pleasures in life this morning: hot, clean water on a cold day; the scent of flowers that catches you unawares when walking through a dormant winter’s garden; the taste [more…]