This speech was given on Saturday 17th September 2010 to the National Talking Newspapers Convention in Peterborough. Good evening! First a disclaimer: this post supper instructional talk will include flashing images – for me that is not for you…also a little blurring and distortion. There will be strong language and it will certainly contain nuts.Also please note that all opinions expressed are those of the author. Other visually impaired or blind experiences may vary. To be frank I was initially […]
Unbolted
I have twice been on a horse bolting from a snake. The horse bolting that is,, not me. This month felt strangely familiar; the puff adder being Dad’s illness and some of the dreadful things arising around it. The horse I suppose being the future, unknown and out of control. My desperate grip and my balance a mixture of experience and optimism and the reins and bridle that will eventually bring the horse into a calm and more controllable state […]
Dirty Girl
My flat is a tip. I am wading through teetering piles of paper, mostly study notes, bills and election leaflets. I ran out of hoover bags about..err…1998 actually and the dog has shed me a new carpet. There is stuff congealed on the cooker that seems to be sprouting tentacles and the fridge won’t open in embarrassment. And it’s a bank holiday which means we woke to lashing rain and howling winds. By midday the sun has made an effort […]
I see Spring!
Hito koishi hitobushi koro wo sakara chiru ‘Yearning fills my heart When the candles are lit: Cherry blossom fall.’ Shirao Kayo (Edo Period)
A Ward Blog
Thanks all – my cold is long over and I am healthy as an ox. (And sadly beginning to look rather like one too. Time for spring diet. Sigh.) OK, so do pray tell what this means -and apologies for those of you who get rigid with boredom when people open with the words ‘I had this really weird dream…’ Only I had this really weird dream. It wasn’t the first bit which began as a marvellous swash buckle of […]
Grumpy, Sleepy, Bashful and Doc.
Is it me or is it a little creepy that for the last four days here in UK all news has been head-lining the kidnap and release of the little five year old lad in Pakistan? It is a two day story at most and surely doesn’t lead over the breakdown of the Israeli-Palestinian talks, the near extinction of the tuna fish or Beckham’s Achilles heel? I just don’t get it and immediately suspect massive conspiracy and cover up… Well, […]
Term Begins
What a difference a seriously blue sky can make even in the fridge like conditions current. All around me a few days ago were the various creaking and cracking sounds of peoples shoulders un-hunching and jaws unclenching as they looked up in in wonder at what is known as sunlight. It didn’t last of course. On Monday Grace and I woke to several centimetres of icy sludge masquerading as snow and by the time we got to Bath for our […]