Free Friday
Free Friday is the one day each week when there is no employee, contractor or part-timer working at our home either in the office or on the land. My ‘other half’ and I savour not having to get up early [...]
Status Quo – a micro fiction
Three years after their wedding Ella’s husband Andrei ran away to sea. He was a Romanian bricklayer who had always had a dream to sail the oceans. It came as no surprise - he had always been so impetuous and [...]
Put your Feet up and Read an Uplifting Book!
The times in which we live can seriously impact the type of books we choose to read. When an economy is booming, unemployment low and the national feeling is upbeat, we often indulge ourselves with reading books about war, natural [...]
Light-Bulb Moment
I lost my balance recently. Few of us care to admit having problems with mobility until it becomes obvious. I started falling over a lot. Luckily I’m expert at falling without hurting myself (I used to do ‘pratfalls’ as my [...]
Passing the Spratly Islands
Over 50 years ago, I was living in SE Asia. When on leave from my teaching job in Thailand, I used to travel around the neighbouring countries. In 1970, I bought an inexpensive airline ticket with five destinations, one of [...]
Vive la Difference
Big cities or small villages - I’ve lived in both - and I know which I prefer. In my twenties and thirties I lived in Dublin, Bangkok, London and Bath, but I’ve remained for longer in villages - both in [...]
Over a Barrel
"We're out of gas - again!" The exasperation in my husband's voice yesterday was evident. Like many people, we live in an area with no piped gas, and all our heating and hot water is provided by boilers that run on LPG (liquified petroleum gas) provided by [...]
Unintelligible
Intelligence, until the advent of artificial intelligence, has always been an attribute describing a human being, or a living creature. In recent years I have observed that adjective ‘intelligent’ has been applied to a number of inanimate objects. For example, [...]
Welcome to the Next Stage of Life
A few days ago, I retired from work - my final occupation, my last job. I had orchestrated my exit, set everything in order and handed responsibility over - it all felt quite satisfying. I received a few cards and [...]
Don’t Quote Me
I wonder who is responsible for putting together online all the quotations on hundreds of different words and topics, and how accurate the attributions are. Recently I came across a whole slew of them on the subject of Change. Some [...]