Over the years I have become depressed by the continual digs about not having been out to work a great deal in my life. I wonder if anyone has ever considered that it could be that you don’t go to work because you don’t have a job? You may well have entered your child rearing years […]

Mindfulness, as I have long understood it, is being in The Moment, whatever you are doing, whether washing the dishes, or something more enjoyable. For whatever you are doing, normally your mind wanders. I guess watching television could be described as mindless. It is certainly a lazy occupation. Other activities may require you to turn […]

In the introduction to my poetry collection, I named T S Eliot as my favourite poet; and my favourite poems of his as first Prufrock, then Ash Wednesday, Portrait Of A Lady, and finally Burnt Norton. Eliot has been my favourite for half a lifetime, since being introduced to him at school, but in the last few […]

From time to time my son comes round to do what he calls ‘jobs’ for me, jobs that answer to the description of minor maintenance and repairs. He came two weeks ago, so I knew who the culprit was., when I found a few bent screws, an empty glue tube and a dead battery in my […]

My friend was alarmed when, upon arriving at her hotel, she went straight to the bathroom and saw something, well, not very pleasing. There were the little soaps, the small bottles of shampoo and shower gel… …and the loo roll holder. Well, the loo roll had that welcoming pleat a well-organised environment often sees fit to make for you […]