University
Soviet Champagne
When I was eighteen I went to Poland for six weeks. It was a great turning point in my life, as up till then I had been very shy, very nervous, lacking in confidence and with very few independent skills. I was clever and well read, but that was about it. I left school after […]Read Post ›
Happy Birthday, Maja!
Maja is my one of my oldest and best friends. I have known her since September 1965 when she started going to my school. I knew her father before then, as he worked with my mum, and her brother, Tom, and I knew of her- but had never met her until she started at my […]Read Post ›
The Ides of March. Or David Pass
I wonder who remembers this face. If any of his family ever come across it then please get in touch. David’s birthday was on 15th March. He used to joke about the portents and then one day his worst fear was realised and he sadly died in May 1990, a very few weeks after being […]Read Post ›
St Nicholas’ day
For the Mhinisteir’s wife Today is the sixth of December. For me the real beginning of the Christmas season. This was the day when good children were given a little present and naughty children a birch rod. One year my mother gave me a rod. It was very small and gilded. Very pretty. But a […]Read Post ›
“A missed opportunity that turned out to be for the good”
A hard one this, Tony, but one thing comes to mind. When I was at university there were adverts all over the place for scholarships to various places. I would look at them and think nothing more of them – I didn’t consider the possibility of ever getting one. Confidence was never my strongest point […]Read Post ›
Lost and found
Universitas Studii Salamanticensis Decluttering is a very modern phenomenon, and one that I actually enjoy, not that anyone who knows me would believe, as I am always surrounded by masses of stuff. Even as I write, I have hardly any room for my elbows. On my right there are sheaves of papers as I am […]Read Post ›
Driving
For AAK My father passed his driving test when he was about 45 and immediately bought a car. Of course. An Austin A40: YMD 457 I think was the registration. Then he bought an Austin 1100 and we went to Poland in it. I have written bits about that journey. Six years later I was […]Read Post ›
Bucket
For AL “There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Lisa.” One of my favourite songs from my childhood. I still remember the words and the tune, such as it was. A symbol of unfaltering logic and hilarity, and now that I’ve thought of it again, I can’t get it out of my head. Never mind. […]Read Post ›
Life Through Basia's Eyes 