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My recent years being single weren’t the best times in my life. Preceded by a cruel double trauma that sent me nosediving into a deep depression hadn’t helped, hurling me into a world of suffocating gloom. When I think back on those times, I see a darkness that I have never before experienced; a seeminglyContinue reading “My Socks Are Revolting (… the end of the single man)”

It was in November 2015 that the UK first started naming storms. Forerunner Storm Abigail brought high winds, rain, lightning and snow to northern parts. I am one of many who cynically rolled their eyes a little at a seemingly grandiose attempt at mirroring the dramas associated with the catastrophic effects of the named hurricanesContinue reading “Storm Eunice, the flying roof and the rusty nail”

Each new year is similar to the beginning of any new blog or writing mission. I love the notion of a blank page on which to write new things – things that I haven’t necessarily planned to write, but instead just flow naturally from my virtual pen. As with every new year, I have noContinue reading “New Year 2022”

Mr Adams was our milkman when I was a child. I didn’t really know him. He’d be up and out early, braving all weathers, dropping off bottles all around our council estate while most of us, including me, were still warmly tucked away in bed.  Not that I appreciated it in any way at theContinue reading “I’M GOING TO GET MY MONEY BACK (Mr Adams the milkman)”

It was the 15th July during the long, hot summer of 1976, the day before my 16th birthday, that my father took me into a music shop in the Newport town centre to buy me my first guitar. The guitar was a bottom-of-the-range classical guitar costing (I think) £15. Being left-handed, the staff at theContinue reading “The Worst Advice I’ve Ever Been Given – and the curse of being a left-handed guitarist.”

I stopped running seriously when I was in my late 20s. Not that I ever ran seriously, but I had just begun to think about it. I fancied the idea of running a marathon. I’ve always had excellent heart and lung function that has enabled me to build up aerobic stamina very, very quickly. IContinue reading “30 YEARS OF ‘KNEE’ INJURY CURED?”

The “flea” analogy is my favourite of all analogies. Maybe it’s because it is something close to my own heart. It involves jumping fleas in a jar such as an old jam jar. It’s not something I’ve actually seen myself, but I’ve heard and read about it. The jar contains a number of fleas, twenty,Continue reading “CONTROLLING RELATIONSHIPS (Have you ever seen jumping fleas in jar?)”

(First posted April 13th, 2018) It’s more than 50 years since I last saw my bright yellow dumper truck. It used to be kept on top of the coal bunker, along with other toys and miscellaneous items, not necessarily belonging to me, in a room that we referred to as the outhouse. The word “outhouse”Continue reading “My Reincarnated Yellow Dumper Truck”

It’s been many years since the famous Roswell Incident, where it is claimed that a UFO landed in New Mexico, only to be covered up by the American government. I’m always a little suspicious of such claims, as conspiracy theorists are always aware of the easy exploitation of the human mind’s lack of ability toContinue reading “The Bakewell Incident: Dance Teachers Are Not Aliens”

Anyone who has been a part of the Lindy Hop community for long enough will have heard of Ryan Francois. Many of us may have met him or had dance lessons with him. Not quite so many of us will have had the opportunity of spending a two-hour car journey with him. This happened toContinue reading “The Spirit of Lindy Hop”