Tag Archives: post a week
“A HANDBAG?”
Brace yourselves. This is going to be a highly controversial post in which I risk alienating myself from my more fashionable readers (that’s you. No, really…). Here it is: I don’t really get designer handbags. The marvellous Caitlin Moran wrote about designer handbags in her book How to be a Woman. Like me, she couldn’t …
The Perils of Pigeon English
You can only really ask someone to repeat something twice (or, in an emergency, three times) before you have to just smile, nod politely and issue a non-committal, “Mmmm”. Over here the vast majority of the population go through every day speaking their second or third language and this can result in some quite extraordinary misunderstandings. I …
A Simple Desultory Philippic on the Public House
It’s hard to define what’s so great about the great British pub. Is it the warm welcome? The long tradition of comfy, informal hospitality? The good company, conversation and sense of community? Or maybe it’s just the alcohol. Some pubs are pretty grim, let’s be frank. There are few things more depressing than the stark, …
2013: Taking the Plunge
It was my intention to see the New Year in with an early morning swim in the sea. Considering my plans for a glamorous New Year’s Eve of drinking and dancing, this was of course ludicrously optimistic. My good intentions were abandoned at some point during the course of the night, though it’s hard to …