“All clear!”, Jane called from the kitchen. “What?”, I asked, looking up, startled, from reading a fascinating article in a technical paper about the ductile brittle transition temperature in mild steel.“All clear!”, Jane repeated. ”The clearing away after dinner is done. You can come out now.”Oh dear: in trouble again. I left the dinner tableContinue reading “Blog 109. There was a cake…and singing.”
Tag Archives: COVID19
Blog 108. Paddington Bear Eat Your Heart Out
Double, double toil and trouble. Fire burn and caldron bubble. It is January, and so marmalade-making time in the Shacklepin household, and the cauldron – or rather the large jam-making pan – has, indeed, been bubbling away for over two hours. Steam fills the kitchen and the extractor fan is roaring away at full speed.Continue reading “Blog 108. Paddington Bear Eat Your Heart Out”
Blog 107. Déjà Vu
Happy Christmas one and all. I must confess that when I made the same greeting almost exactly a year ago I never thought I would be writing the same words in the same circumstances, with Covid still “raging” and “infections soaring” according to the British media. Sadly, the headlines are – alas – more orContinue reading “Blog 107. Déjà Vu”
Blog 106. Told You So
Don’t panic! Don’t panic! A new variant of the Corona virus has emerged and it is the Omicron variant, pronounced, according to some classicists, Oh – MY – cron, which appropriately rhymes with OH – MY – GOD. The very name strikes terror to the heart. Worse, it is a mutant strain (my wife reportsContinue reading “Blog 106. Told You So”
Blog 105. Ready in all respects to receive visitors.
“Why have we been given a card marked ‘M’?” Thus spoke Mrs Shacklepin as we stood in a very short queue of about four people at the vaccination centre at the racecourse of the Big City. Adjacent was a far longer queue, snaking away to the door, labelled ‘P’. Earlier, as we had swept pastContinue reading “Blog 105. Ready in all respects to receive visitors.”
Blog 104. Torchy the Battery Boy
“You have done what?”Jane’s concern for my welfare was touching, but also a bit scary.“Um….I may, just possibly, have swallowed those old hearing aid batteries you gave me to recycle. I may have thought they were Vitamin D pills, you see”.She shook her head, more in sorrow than in anger.“I’m going to have to watchContinue reading “Blog 104. Torchy the Battery Boy”
Blog 103. My Little Spitfire
It never rains, it pours. Not content with the many and various rashes that it has suffered over the last two years, Jane’s body has now decided that it rather likes the idea of shingles. She now has two patches of nasty and very painful spots on her trunk and back, and her skin isContinue reading “Blog 103. My Little Spitfire”
Blog 102. Flip-flop
Well, that’s Christmas mucked up for another year then. Boris has just done another of his U-turns and the writing is on the wall saying Christmas Is Cancelled. Having declared in July that almost all Covid restrictions have been removed in England irrevocably, he came on the television the other day to announce cheerfully whatContinue reading “Blog 102. Flip-flop”
Blog 101. Esso Blue.
Senility is beginning to assert itself and I am appalled that it has dared to attack so soon after my 70th birthday. I have developed ear worms. You must have heard of ear worms. No, not those horrible things from the planet Zarg that they put in Chekov’s ear in that episode of Star Trek. Continue reading “Blog 101. Esso Blue.”
Blog 98. ‘Ping’
Nobody works, nobody goes to school. That was Jane’s sage observation when I complained about how busy the River Dart and our marina was, midweek, mid July, before English state schools had broken up for the summer holidays. She was, as ever, quite right. The NHS automatic ‘Covid Track and Trace’ system uses a smartphoneContinue reading “Blog 98. ‘Ping’”
"A Very Vintage Chap..." 