The events of the past few weeks have been pretty exhausting. On a personal level, on a health level, and finally on the level of this blog.
The news from the
Continue reading →The events of the past few weeks have been pretty exhausting. On a personal level, on a health level, and finally on the level of this blog.
The news from the
Continue reading →When my daughter made contact with me, she had done her homework. She is a very, very, sharp and smart lady. She had also been though Somerset House
Continue reading →This is going to be painful and humiliating, but it is all pertinent to the big picture.
The Internet is full of characters. Some delightful, some several points past barking mad. Because I started my internet
Continue reading →This is not just any pink sponge on a stick – this is a M & S pink sponge on a stick.Â
Well now my beauties; have I got a tale to tell you!
Continue reading →Other than a couple of days last week, I have been in hospital for the past three weeks. First Sepsis, then the effects of the attempts to cure me of that. I am now the original Christmas Turkey –
Continue reading →Vernon was probably about 70 when I first met him. A taciturn, socially awkward creature who found it difficult to meet your eyes. He would stumble into the tea room – he never seemed
Continue reading →Put up with it folks – Ms Raccoon is in whimsical mood, having just enjoyed a romantic trip down a moonlit river to a tiny village with a handily placed Chinese take-away, and the world’s best
Ms Raccoon would like apologies for her absence to be noted in the minutes.
I wasn’t in any fit state to deal with the bickering, carping, mud hurling, whinging e-mails, or bad tempered tweeting,
Continue reading →Yet again, the latest example of the manipulation of our judicial system lies languishing in my ‘to do’ folder; and Ms Raccoon has found three more titbits of absolute nonsense in order to distract herself from the hard
Continue reading →I can scarcely believe it myself but it continues to be the case that I am intermittently invited to stay with Ms Raccoon and Mr G – provided enough time has elapsed since my last
As night-time falls, the marsh becomes the province of the ‘will-o’-the-wisp’, that mysterious blueish light that dances hither and thither, occasionally picking up the slow beat of the barn owl’s wings, more usually skitting across the
Whips in parliament operate by controlling information that individual MPs would not want to escape. The Catholic priest enjoyed a measure of control over his community by virtue of what he knew. Blackmailers work on the
Long ago, a woman called Rosie Swale-Pope wrote a book which became famous briefly in the 70s. I, along with every other woman of my generation read it eagerly. Rosie had sailed around the world with her husband,
Continue reading →How about some good news for a change?
Ms Raccoon won’t be resigning any time soon.
My last scan was a success. Correction, my last scan was a flippin’ disaster – but
Continue reading →Gosh! Was it really 60 years ago today that I was eight years old? Did the sun really shine all day in June back then? Did I really cycle from Westleton to Dunwich day after day,
We slipped our moorings early Sunday morning. Our ropes were coiled, our fenders stowed. The decks had been scrubbed before dawn. There was probably a belay pin somewhere, who knows.
I’d
Continue reading →One of the difficulties of being a ‘one-man band’ running a site such as this, is that I have no ‘newsroom’ colleagues with whom I can discuss contentious matters that I cannot post – either because
I do not care what anybody says about blowing my own trumpet – ahm that reet proud o’ meself!
But amusingly – in collecting the paperwork, I managed to kick off an entire ‘Brexit/anti-EU’ argument in
Continue reading →Just as no one would read a ‘Baby rearing’ book until the prospect of parenthood was bearing down upon them – so we all adept at ignoring the literature regarding Palliative Care until we become personally involved in
Continue reading →The BBC continues its mission to ramp up the dangers posed by the Internet, as opposed to the dangers of cosy old Aunty Beeb….
As it happens (and you might have guessed) Ms Raccoon had
Continue reading →The ‘outrage bus’ is doing wheelies round the Sunderland Football Club car park as it awaits its ritualistic joy-ride through Twitter when Adam Johnson’s sentence is deemed too soft… as it will be if just one week short of
Continue reading →Ms Raccoon would like to apologise for leaving you all in the dark last week – and to thank you for behaving so well with no one watching over you.
I have had several e-mails asking
Continue reading →A fascinating case has been making its way through the legal system unnoticed by all bar a few legal practitioners. The media are uninterested – they cannot name or photograph the parties and there are absolutely no celebrities,
Continue reading →As the media gird their loins for days and weeks worth of satisfying bleeding, crying, heart-rending front pages, one question stands out ‘How could young men become so radicalised that they turn into suicide bombers’.
Continue reading →
As the media gird their loins for days and weeks worth of satisfying bleeding, crying, heart-rending front pages, one question stands out âHow could young men become so radicalised that they turn into
Continue reading →Or are you still âtransitioningâ Officer? – As Ms West might have been forced to inquire these days.
An armed MoD police officer making the delicate transition from male to female,
Continue reading →When Clive James wrote a few months ago of being ‘stuck with the embarrassment of still being alive’, it struck a particular chord with me – as a number of people thought it might, judging by the
Continue reading →When Clive James wrote a few months ago of being âstuck with the embarrassment of still being aliveâ, it struck a particular chord with me â as a number of people thought it
Continue reading →When Tony Benn died last year, the obituaries tended to focus on the radical old uncle of the elder statesman years rather than the belligerent troublemaker of the turbulent early 80s. Benn successfully reshaped his public perception
Continue reading →Mrs Relentlessly Cheerful wore her broadest grin. ‘Sleep well?’ Her head tipped from top to bottom in that nodding motion employed by amateur psychologists which is supposed to get you to nod in agreement. Her tussled blonde
Continue reading →