It was one of those rare ‘eureka’ moments as I woke up in the early hours of this-morning knowing just what to write about.  I should write about the ice-cream I enjoyed the other day with my father.   

“He’s lost it.”  I hear you say. “Wri… Read full post »

After former cabinet ministers Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon’s announcement that they were seeking a leadership vote in a late attempt to oust the beleaguered Prime Minister, it was left to Gordon Brown’s former First Lieutenant, Ed Balls, to stand in the snow outside number ten Downing… Read full post »

Fancy some adult ‘down time’ after all the Christmas bingeing?  Look no further than Adam & Eve’s winter sale. 

According to a press release issued today, the Adam and Eve winter sale is “highly anticipated”, just like the thrills delivered by the amazing… Read full post »

This festive season, I have enjoyed more than my fair share of the 125,000 tonnes of oysters consumed each year by France, Europe’s largest consumer of the bivalves.

Oysters are a foodstuff I have always enjoyed but in the UK have seldom been able to afford. Supply and demand in Fran… Read full post »

Congratulations to Messrs Parfitt and Rossi, founder members of Status Quo, on being awarded the MBE in Her Majesty’s New Year’s Honours. 

Not only do we now appreciate the charitable activities of this pair of stalwarts, we also know that Rossi’s full names are Francis Dominic… Read full post »

British TV chef Jamie Oliver, whose books and television programs are now translated into no less than 29 languages has come away with the TED 2010 award for his efforts in tackling the problems of diabetes and obesity in the young.

Oliver, who also heads up the 'fifteen' project in which… Read full post »

News of the tragic death of actress Brittany Murphy at the age of just 32 years brings back memories of Karen Carpenter, taken at the very same age back in 1983. 

Preliminary reports state that the ‘Clueless’ star’s death is attributable to heart failure. The star had constantl… Read full post »

There's a skyscraper smell
and the upswinging clouds
move in chimney-pot puffs
through the sky.

And the downswirling leaves
of the upstanding trees
with a nod and a wink
give their cue to the morn

Then the upstarting car
in the downcrumbling slum
with a honk of its horn
turns the traffic lights on

And the sta… Read full post »

For many British and other expatriates here in the area covered by the regions of Poitou-Charente and Limousin, the picturesque covering of winter snow that has engulfed us since Thursday afternoon has not  been universally welcomed.

 Those who had planned to travel home to Britain for Chri… Read full post »

This piece was first published in The First Post, my personal blog, on 2nd September 2009 

 When a young life is taken suddenly it is always tragic, always sad, always a terrible waste of “what might have been “.  Does the fact that the young life taken without wa… Read full post »

I was a man who had outgrown cartoons. A man who generally failed to see the humour in American cartoons and who had begun to believe that the United States was a country bereft of political wit and devoid of irony.

My daughter used to watch the Simpsons, and while… Read full post »

The Debenham's group in the UK has recently launched a range of underpants for left-handed men. Titter ye not - pointing percy at the porcelain has been a difficult task for southpaws wearing the traditional Y-Fronts since their introduction back in 1935.

The problem has been that the opening all… Read full post »