The final slice of tarte tatin remaining from our last dinner party lay before me, covered in cream. I savoured it for quite some moments, just as a starving survivor in a lifeboat might eye up the cabin boy for his next meal. Christmas was over, 2024 had begun, and the pudding in front ofContinue reading “Blog 130. Give Me a Ring Sometime”
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Blog 129. Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree
I was ambushed last Sunday. No, not by deserters and footpads returning from the Duke of Monmouth’s Pitchfork Rebellion, but by Jane. I should have seen the warning signs: the request for a printout of our Christmas Card List, the purchase of what seemed like £100 worth of Second Class stamps…. However, like a fool,Continue reading “Blog 129. Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree”
Blog 128. Call me Sir
Mount Crushmore is back. Regular readers will recognise that this soubriquet was first attributed to the enormous pile of rubble left over from the demolition of the old Philips shipyard buildings at Noss Marina in Kingswear, where my boat is moored. Despite the pile being subjected, for over a year, to the attentions of anContinue reading “Blog 128. Call me Sir”
Blog 127. After You With Those Crayons
So that was summer. It was 5C outside our house last night and the central heating is back on for the winter. For Jane, out go the skirts, shorts, sandals and sun tops; in come the trousers, socks, jumpers and (soon, I dare say) vests. We calculate that we, the Shacklepins, had only about thirtyContinue reading “Blog 127. After You With Those Crayons”
Blog 126. Pressing Concerns
Well, I hope I never have to go through that again. It was a supreme test of my stamina and endurance, such that I wondered if I would ever see normal life again. The ennui was as bad as the physical torture that I suffered but, at last, it is all over and I canContinue reading “Blog 126. Pressing Concerns”
Blog 125. The Baked Potato
You know, there is something about electric hedge trimmers; like their brother, the pressure washer, they become habitual very rapidly and you always want to cut off a bit more foliage with them. I reflected on this as I gave a jolly good trimming to the berberis hedge the other week, swiftly followed by aContinue reading “Blog 125. The Baked Potato”
Blog 124. Just One of God’s Little Soldiers
Red meat went on ration on 13 March 2023. This was to be the beginning of the new diet imposed by the memsahib after my diagnosis of prostate cancer. I accepted the imposition philosophically, if not exactly ecstatically. It is, of course, written that if a person is sick in body, he must also beContinue reading “Blog 124. Just One of God’s Little Soldiers”
Blog 123. Zap!
Spring has come, that is to say we have passed through the vernal equinox: the time when night is as long as the day. We are back on British Summer Time and, although our body clocks are all ahoo, it is all sunshine and light from now on. Honestly: trust me on this. A furtherContinue reading “Blog 123. Zap!”
Blog 122. Suffering is Good for the Soul
Out of the impenetrable darkness, a disembodied voice spoke: “I can’t feel my nose.”though, to be more accurate, what it actually said was:“I garnt veel by doze”,the voice being Jane’s and she being afflicted with a stinking head cold.We were back on the boat – the first visit in 2023 – and we lay rigidlyContinue reading “Blog 122. Suffering is Good for the Soul”
Blog 121. I Give You a Toast for 2023
The toast rack is back. Perhaps I should explain: proper report and all that. You see, insidiously, the breakfast routine has grown slack over the last few years – another sad consequence of the Covid19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns. Over time, the practice has been allowed to develop of the breakfast toast being served,Continue reading “Blog 121. I Give You a Toast for 2023”
"A Very Vintage Chap..." 