Default faces
Default faces DM 23rd February 2024 When I was growing up, pulling-a-face was challenged with the warning: “If the wind changes, you’ll be stuck looking like that!” I dare say it was one of those threats employed by all parents everywhere, to deter their young charges from annoying their siblings and dampening the mood. (Though […]
Forgiveness
Forgiveness DM 10th February 2024 I like to keep current and relevant, and am pleased to report that I am now only nine years out of date. My daughter insisted I watch the musical Hamilton with her, which premiered the said nine years ago. I had long resisted because it focused on American politics, and […]
Walk on
Walk on DM 3rd February 2023 I think I knew that a person’s gait was one of those unique human biomarkers, like a person’s finger-print, voice, and iris pattern, but it still surprises me. Surely two people on earth walk the same way. But they don’t. Which is why that gait-analysing corridor that appeared in […]
Ponds and prophets
Ponds and prophets DM 27th January 2024 In my day, Jeremiah was a bullfrog. So said the first line of a very hip and happening song: “Jeremiah was a bullfrog, was a good friend of mine,” and so on, until it reached the zenith, “Joy to the world, all the boys and girls, joy to […]
Again but not forever
Again but not forever DM 16th January 2024 So JN-1. You showed up at my front door, invited yourself in, unpacked your bags, and presented me with your latest variation of viral gifts – leaving my head in a spin, and my body on fire, and chills and fevers coursing through my bones. And finally […]
If a hammer is your only tool
If a hammer is your only tool DM 28th December 2023 I’ve spent the last few weeks tripping around Iceland, soaking up the scenery, but avoiding the cold; both of which are entirely possible, when the mode of travel is a book. Interestingly, my travelling companions, the authors, have weaved their itinerary with the old […]
A Noisy Night
A Noisy Night DM 20th December 2023 “‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring; not even a mouse.” Well, that’s not your typical night before Christmas for anyone I know, especially people with kids. Like my brother-in-law who tried to assemble a trampoline on Christmas eve, in […]
One chirping bird
One chirping bird DM 11th December 2023 That ‘12 days of Christmas’ song includes a lot of birdlife. Seven swans are swimming. Six geese are laying. Four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree. That’s quite an assembly of avian choristers chirping out the carols. But for […]
The Christmas dragon
The Christmas dragon DM 4th December 2023 I was picking up some Christmas decorations for church at one of those big Christmas shops, when I espied a huge inflatable dragon standing among the santas and snowmen and reindeer. Not having seen a dragon before in the cast of Christmas characters, I asked the attendant, who […]
Managing the manger
Managing the manger DM 27th November 2023 It’s nearly that time of year where we again celebrate celestial mathematics (‘Hark the herald angles sing’), and laundry sessions (‘While shepherds washed their socks by night’), and appearances of Mary Shelley’s monster (in the presentation of gold and Frankenstein and myrrh). They’re the grammatical glitter of Sunday […]