After the disappointment of the last minute, opening-night concert postponement in January, I was keeping my expectations realistic. If the truth be told I was expecting a cancellation. A band like Erasure which is on a multi-date tour, and a venue like the Olympia, which is consistently busy, must both schedule their events with the precision of an obsessive-compulsive homing pigeon. A three night stint of gigs isn’t so easy to reschedule. In a worst case scenario you’ll be left in a Red Hot Chili Peppers situation where your night out will switch from the opening night show, to the closing night show almost a year later. Continue reading Erasure: ‘World be gone’ – concert of the year →

Continue reading ‘There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.’ →

In preparation for my Sunday evening routine – watching  ‘Dancing with the stars’ – I popped out to the Spar for some snacks. In particular popcorn. Continue reading Under the tree at Spar – some drunken racism →

The challenge with old films concerning ‘issues’ is to divorce yourself from the modern lens. Opinions on hot topic issues evolve over time, so you need to be aware while watching these films, that the 2018 view on things was reached, as part of a long and winding process of education and compromise. Continue reading Black and white film night: ‘Victim’ (1961) →

As avid readers of this journal will be aware I suffer from the deeply glamourous, chronic condition of Type 1 diabetes. At the age of four, my pancreas declared itself uncooperative, refused point blank to cooperate with my body, and stopped producing insulin. (I like to imagine it threw a massive tantrum and then flounced off in a sulk). Meaning that every day since, I have taken a series of injections (originally of pig’s insulin; more recently of synthetic insulin) and blood tests to regulate my sugar levels. Continue reading To the hospital →

I have just finished reading ‘A slanting of the sun’ – a 2015 collection of short stories written by Nenagh native Donal Ryan – the Tipperary author who exploded onto the literary scene in 2012 with his book ‘The spinning heart’. That book explored the impact of the economic crash on the local population of a mid-sized country town. I have not read it, but saw the stage adaptation in Smock Alley Theatre in January 2017,and was impressed. That book was followed by ‘The thing about December’ – written before, but published after ‘The spinning heart’ – a novel set in the same town. It was about a Johnsey Cunliffe – a damaged man unable to deal with the pressures forced on him as the Celtic Tiger descends on him, when he inherits a great deal of wealth. It was an unsettling book, told with humour, but with an underlying sense of dread and darkness. I wrote about this book PREVIOUSLY. Continue reading Bookworm: ‘A slanting of the sun’ by Donal Ryan →

The wedding was amazing – I was very happy to have made it on time (barely – after 17 hours of traveling through a snow blizzard) see the couple get married. It was most certainly worth the risk to my health and sanity to arrive there. Continue reading The climate wars – Day 2; the Brighton edition →

As I sit sipping a cup of instant coffee, in my grubby little boarding house in Shepperton, it is not so easy to cast a neutral eye over the past 24 hours. Continue reading Trains, boats and automobiles – the wedding edition →

This post is just a series of random thoughts, strung together in a haphazard way – I may feel different tomorrow.

I have an admission to make though – I never read news about American politics or American gun massacres. Continue reading Mental babblings of a malcontent commie. →