This World, This Life

  It's taken a while to write this post.   We all knew it was coming sooner or later, as it does to us all, but for all that, the news of HM Queen Elizabeth II's passing still shook me to the core.  It shouldn't have, of course.  She was 96 years old, a fine age for anyone to reach (and I hope I do) and apart from these unspecified "mobility issues" appeared in good health.  There had been rumours, rightly never commented on by Buckingham Palace, for a while, and she had started to look a little frail on her infrequent public appearances - but like most people I thought that was probably par for the course - I've never met anyone in their 90s so it's difficult for me to judge. Then suddenly, after the first announcement at lunchtime that there was "a concern", in only a few hours she was gone.  It was even quicker (at least in my memory) than Prince Phillip's end.....and am I the only person who believes that a light went out in her life that...

  So the Serial Liar, the Rt.Hon. Alexander Boris dePfeffel Johnson, 80th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, has wandered off into the sunset of the Tory Back Benches.  Earlier this year he had stated a desire to serve further terms of office, remaining in power for perhaps another ten years - like so many things he has said, no-one was sure whether he was being serious or just having a laugh.  Given his childhood ambition of being "world king", I rather suspect he was serious. As things turned out, his behaviour during his brief (less than three years, at least until his ignominious resignation, though he clung on for another three months until the Nasty Party found a new leader) term of office was riddled with lies, deceit, self-promotion, incompetence and general all-round crapness.  Despite this, his opinion of himself as a hero and the best PM in British history was been unwavering and on display at every opportunity - ev...

"The Anthropocene (Noun):                a  proposed  term for the present geological  epoch  (from the time of the Industrial  Revolution   onwards ), during which  humanity  has begun to have a  significant   impact   on the environment."                                                                             Source: Collins English Dictionary (online edition) ------------------------------------------------------- Yes, the term was a new one on me as well - at least, until I read There is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years (Updated Edition) by British researcher and author Mike Berners-Le...

      So here we go, another epic Premier League season.  As Sky continues to trumpet, the 30th since they "created" it, launched the "Premier League Era" and changed the face of British - and arguably world - football forever.  Another season where billions of pounds are pumped into the Beautiful Game (or at least The Premier League: how much of it filters down through the pyramid to the smaller clubs, whose full house crowds of a few hundred probably number less than the bloated press and tv crew that covers even the smallest EPL fixture, is a point for serious debate!), and even the worst PL team, relegated after a season of huff-and-puff incompetence, goes away with a hundred million or more  in "prize money".   Is there a competition anywhere else in the world where the rewards for being absolute shit are higher?  Can't think of one myself. It will be another season of hyperbole, with commentators yelling their heads off at very little i...

       Retirement. It comes to us all, like death and taxes (to paraphrase Sam Clemens), but I'm betting I'm not the only one to neglect planning for it. But it happened, incredibly four years ago already, and without a backward glance I walked away from the workplace with a spring in my step (as far as dodgy knees and hips allow, in any case). A weight fell off my shoulders. I had plans, places to go and things to do. A backlog of books to read. Others to write and one to (finally) publish. Time to relax a bit away from the business treadmill - time for myself. Sure, money would be tight, but that was inevitable: I had been very well paid for several years so was bound to take a bit of a hit because, in retrospect foolishly, I hadn't saved as much as I should have. But that was ok, I decided, I'd manage. I soon discovered it wasn't quite what I had expected. I'd not done my sums right at all, maths never being my strong point, and my inco...

  Today is a good day. The sun shines brightly and warm in a cloudless blue sky. Not as hot as in other parts of Europe in this blistering heatwave, for sure, but a pleasant 25C nonetheless. Certainly hot enough for me. Outside, there is peace and tranquility. Butterflies flutter aimlessly past the door, bees flit clumsily from bloom to bloom - not too many in this place, not yet, but it's coming. The grass is green in patches, bare in others, and freshly cut this past weekend: I need to get some lawn feed and nourish it. All in good time. In the distance, I can hear the constant thrum of traffic on the Warsaw by-pass, the A2 that leads away westward to Poz ń an and beyond (unless you branch off a couple of kilometres from here and head southerly through Wroc ł aw to the Czech border, and on through Austria to Croatia and the warm and clear Adriatic deamlands. Or an hour's drive further, and branch off north towards Gda ń sk and the Baltic coast). Eastward, beyond Wa...

  I'm currently reading a book by acclaimed author Salman Rushdie called Languages of Truth .  It's a collection of essays and speeches he has written or made between 2003-2020, rather than the novels he is more well  known for, and I have to say I'm enjoying it more than the novels I've read (his two most famous: the Booker Prize winning Midnight's Children  and the Muslim upsetting Satanic Verses - and I enjoyed both of them very much) .  The essays cover a wide range of topics, from appreciations and criticisms of different authors, both old and new(er), a section on what Rushdie terms "WonderTales" - the age old myths and legends from Greece and elsewhere, and in particular his native India, that led him to become a writer, their influence on his work, and what it actually means to be a writer, its trials and tribulations and triumphs.  It's a fascinating portrait of a renowned author at the top of his game, and for anyone interested in the craft ...