The perks of customer loyalty

6 Oct

This sneaked into my inbox the other day from my home contents insurers. Can I go to the website and deselect auto renewal? Can I buggery! I have to slalom through the maze of phone flow-chartitude we’ve all come to … Read More »

Sloe gin’s a-coming

3 Oct

Michaelmas Day is when the Archangel Michael ejected his colleague Lucifer – a shady type known to use aliases and adept at blending in with the crowd – from Heaven. It’s also my birthday. A gorgeous day as it happens. … Read More »

Formby on Friday

28 Sep

Through the pines. Over the dunes. And onto the beach, the light in constant flux … … an Atlantic north-westerly ripping in relentless. “I’m going out”, said J, pushing through piles of sand outside our bedouin tent. “I may be … Read More »

The pike and heron

21 Sep

I spoke in Afloat in the Fens of a brace of pike spotted in a small mere, amid an otherwise banal housing estate on the edge of Thrapston and fed by the Nene. Here they are. Close by, another ambush … Read More »

Afloat in the fens

15 Sep

It’s a scorching afternoon, still and sultry. A minute after putting in at Islip, I disturb a grey heron. It flaps a gawky take off across the river twenty metres ahead. Ten minutes after that I hear a tiny plash … Read More »

Saturday on the Soar

13 Sep

Needing spiritual refreshment after two months making repairs to my house in Sheffield (I let it out, and hand over the rent collected to my own landlord) and a recent flurry of posts on Julian Assange, I took the junior … Read More »

Two lonely blokes in a park final

21 Aug

As lockdown closed sports stadiums across Britain, BBC rugby commentator Nick Heath took to our parks and streets with his smartphone, professional skills and quintessentially English wit. Try his instant classic, Two Lonely Blokes in a Park … … the … Read More »