All shopped out? Thought so. Even the most prosaic shopping expedition – to your local food supermarket, for example – can be a highly stressful experience. The problem of course, is the other shoppers. Obviously, the problem is worse during the holiday season as there are more of them about and they’re buying more stuff, but in truth your fellow shoppers…
I is useless. ‘Tell us something we don’t know’, you chorus. The archives of this blog are awash with examples of my general ineptitude when it comes to anything practical, chronicling my various struggles with duvet covers, flat-pack furniture and many of the other benefits of modern civilisation. However, this week I may have hit…
“Drawing the line. Can anything be funny, or are some things off limits?” A tricky one, this. Rather ironically, writing about humour isn’t inherently amusing. I skipped a recent daily prompt about political correctness (is it a useful concept, or does it stifle honest discussion?) because I could see this particular subject coming up, and I think…
“21st century citizen. Do you belong in this day and age? If you do, explain why – and if you don’t, when in human history would you rather be?” A bit tricky this one, because there’s good and bad today, and there was certainly both good and bad in the old days. In the interests of…
By Jean Le Bidon, Chief Investigative Reporter, ‘Le Quotidien de Faire-le-Dodo (87)’ A number of residents have recently contacted Le Quotidien, reporting increasingly strange behaviour by members of the English expatriate community. “it’s very odd” said Jean-Claude Gazole, cashier at the Trop-Cher-Essence petrol station on the old Limoges road, “but lately I’ve seen a lot of the rosbif flying…
“Million dollar question: Why do you blog?” Well, it’s certainly not for the money. And frankly it’s a bit depressing that I can remember when the million dollar question was only the sixty four thousand dollar question. I started this blog about eighteen months ago, since when I have published 94 posts (this will be…
“The satisfaction of a list: Who doesn’t love a list?” Who doesn’t love a list indeed? They are apparently one of the most popular genres of posts in the blogosphere, almost guaranteeing more views than might normally be expected. This fact alone is enough to explain why there are so many. I’m quite partial to…
“Run outside. Take a picture of the first thing you see. Run inside. Take a picture of the second thing you see. Write about the connection between these two random objects, people or scenes.” Well, I did warn you that some of these ‘365 Days of Writing Prompts’ were bonkers. Normally, I would just ignore…
“1984. You’re locked in a room with your greatest fear. Describe what’s in the room.” So, dear WordPress, in this latest of ‘365 Days of Writing Prompts’, presumably you actually meant to ask ‘what’s in your Room 101?’ The original impact – and import – of the Orwellian Room 101 has been rather lost in…
‘Tis the season to get legless. Apparently. Ah, the Office Christmas Party. That once-a-year event that affords the opportunity to see your work colleagues in an entirely different, and almost certainly unflattering, light. Clandestine assignations in broom cupboards, obscene misuse of photocopiers and puking in the potted plants: you know the sort of thing. Not…
the only deadhead in the hameau 