CHEAP LUXURIES
Years ago, I coined the term ‘cheap luxury’ in my household, but I think it is a good time to spread it around. See if you think it has meaning for you. The term first arose, if I am not mistaken, over a jar of mustard. We were in a…
SHOPPING
I cannot keep my secret quiet any longer. I have suffered in silence for years. Only my closest friends know the situation and they tend to sympathise. It’s not really my fault, BUT I really hate shopping. I always have. The problem Let’s try to ‘unpack’ this little problem. Perhaps…
LOSING ENERGY AS WE AGE: A LAMENT
It is a common practice to divide the world into two types of people. Extroverts and introverts. Meat eaters and vegetarians. In England, Marmite lovers and haters. My distinction for today is between those who love to laze around and do nothing and those who are happiest when they…
A VISIT TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM AT THE HEIGHT OF THE PANDEMIC – YIKES!
We’re all a bit scared right now. Indeed, if we aren’t, we should be. The tentacles of Covid-19 are everywhere and getting worse. And we are warned that health systems are under serious strain. In England, where the new, more contagious strain has begun to predominate, the problems are doubtless…
THE VERY REAL PROBLEM OF GUILT
With Covid-19, we are drowning in statistics. Every day, I see the number of new cases, the number of hospitalisations, the number of deaths. For my country and the rest of the world. They are overwhelming, and it is hard to take them all in. At the same time, there…
FRIENDSHIPS
Almost everybody has friends. It is part of life to have them. Some of us have loads and some have very few, but we all feel that they are important in our lives. And we all know who our friends are. They are people who are not our family, not…
OLD AGE IS NOT A FOREIGN COUNTRY
A well-known saying floated into my head recently: “The past is another country.” Interesting, I thought, and wondered who said it first. It turned out to be J. P. Hartley, the novelist, and it is the first line, slightly wrongly remembered, of his novel (later a movie), The Go Between: “The…
SLEEP APPS
They say that the older you get, the more difficulties you have sleeping. This may be true, but I have always had trouble sleeping, so for me it is nothing new. I have read all the advice about how to avoid – or, at least, minimise – sleeping problems. No coffee…
THE IMPACT OF ONE UNEXPECTED DEATH AMONG THE GROWING NUMBERS
Death. It is all around us these days. Indeed, you can’t get away from it. Turn on the television and you learn how many people have died from Covid-19 in your country. In the US, it is now nearly 250,000; in the UK, it is over 50,000 – and so…
THE COMPLEXITIES OF MODERN COMMUNICATION
When those of us who are over-sixty were young, there were very few ways of communicating with people who didn’t live nearby. There were handwritten letters (remember them?), there was the house phone, and, in an emergency, there was a telegram. Getting one of those was an event – often…