Music, song, free time, and ironing Today, a friend of long standing completed a 100 Happy Days challenge begun at the beginning of the year. I think I may well have hit the like button on every one of her posts. Call me obsessive if you like, but I suppose I was motivated by the... Continue Reading →
Normalville
Let's see now if we can sort out a few principles. Life is what you make of it. There are certain constraints, but if persistently prodded and poked, most people will eventually succumb, and agree that this statement is generally true. For a moment, let's dispense with the idea of God, or any other higher... Continue Reading →
Pruned
For those hailing from southern Africa, or indeed South America where the tree originated, seeing a row of severely pruned Jacaranda trees is painful to the quick. Deformed, naked, stunted, pleading. Weird imitations of lampposts on this first fine day with spring in the air. The sky is blue, yet the trees are bare. Weeds... Continue Reading →
The Village
I live in a village in the Algarve, in the south of Portugal. There are over 26,000 such villages in Portugal. I cannot give you a link to this information because I heard it on television a couple of years ago, and Internet searches to confirm the exact number have proven futile. Things I like... Continue Reading →
Scatterling —published!
Have barcode, will publish Proof that with a bit of help from CompletelyNovel in getting the barcode to appear on the back cover, even techno-eejits like me can self-publish. Scatterling is published! Click on the image below to read online: I hope you enjoy the preview enough to buy your own copy. The format and the print... Continue Reading →
Scatterling, the book
A potted story of me so far As memoirs go, mine are intentionally short. They are composed of 45 stories. Each story is around 150 words long and has a cartoon drawing to go with it. This is about the right size of book for the kind of life I have had so far. I... Continue Reading →
A bowl of cherries
Or, in my case, as I write, a bowl of dried figs, removed from the freezer and cut in half to facilitate chomping. I am definitely a proponent of the "no crumbs in my keyboard" philosophy which fellow translator Emma Goldsmith introduced in the recent video discussion while being interviewed by fellow translator and agency... Continue Reading →
You know what thought did
"But, I thought..." Whenever we uttered this as children, some adult or other would invariably reply, "Well, you know what thought did." This was a very long-winded way of saying "shut up", but it worked. We were quiet. End of argument. Then one day, when I was at university, walking along the road with a friend,... Continue Reading →
Oddities – the 2014 version
Here are a few oddities: I have been rushed off my feet with work since before Christmas, yet I have been taking stock. I love my sleep, yet I have not had very much of it – unless you count the last four nights. I have many plans, but no concrete plan in place for 2014.... Continue Reading →
Stray thoughts for day one
Today These two daisies - one white and one purple, both fully open for the first time - greeted me as I gazed out of the kitchen window this morning. Neither has any thought for yesterday, yet without the sum of all yesterdays neither would be here today. The same is true of me -... Continue Reading →
That elusive pair of jeans 