Author: John Mackie

Last night, I was down to play for my Club in the Embra-wide knock-out tournament. Really did not want to because I would much rather have been somewhere else. I felt, however, that I owed it to my fellow members to be there for them. Then, the opposition scratched with an hour to go and I was free to be where I wanted in the first place. Made it to a vantage point at the last moment.

To explain, today is, as you should all know, Armed Forces Day in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. A very new introduction. Don’t care what anybody else thinks about the idea.It means a lot to me as an Army brat. Continue reading “What I Did Last Night”

I take up my pen in this Year of Grace Two Thousand and Eleven to apprise you that I imminently purpose to embark, at some considerable risk to my person, on an hazardous and lengthy voyage to a little known former province of the great British Empire; an Empire which, at its zenith, bestrode ‘the narrow world like a Colossus’ as the Bard has it. My sole and faithful companion will be the trusty Mrs M, often styled ‘The Passepartout of Embra’. I will be furnishing you with a full chronicle of my journey to the island of Terra Australis Incognita.

I have, as my inspiration, the ‘great travellers’ described by the immortal Jules Verne (1828-1905) in his masterpiece, ‘Celebrated Travels and Travellers’. To borrow from the great man in his ‘Preface’ thereto, I trust that my readers will render to Mrs M the credit due to her for her ‘share in a work which will demonstrate what manner of men the great travellers have been from the time of Hanno and Herodotus down to Livingstone and Stanley’ (and me, in my opinion, if Jules had lived long enough to learn of my many and manifest talents). Continue reading “What I’m Going to Read on My Holidays”

In 1984, I moved to where I still live. At the foot of the hill is a bowling green. Pleasant enough but meant nothing at all to me at the time.

Then, one of my colleagues at work explained that I could fast track membership because I lived within the boundaries of the Trust which owned the club. So, I joined for next to nothing and because the drink was incredibly cheap. I am, after all, a Jock. Continue reading “‘An’ forward, tho’ I canna see, I guess an’ fear!’”

You know how, as you get older, you accumulate memories of seconds, hours, days, weeks, months or even decades when you would probably have preferred not to have been there, on mature reflection? They seemed like fun at the time but they might not have been such a good idea when you think back on it?

At 9.05 am on Friday 3rd June 1977, I was toying with a particularly tedious Note on Title and looking forward to 5pm and the weekend when a Partner stuck his head round the door and said:-

‘Could you use six tickets for Wembley tomorrow?’ Continue reading “What I did on 4th June 1977”

When OZ announced his competition for this month,

https://charioteers.org/2011/05/05/9th-photo-competition-may/

I realised that there was only one photograph that I wanted to enter. It would take time but I vowed that I would do my best

Unfortunately, I live in a country where we never quite know what the weather will do next and I only had the weekends. I knew that I could set off from Embra on a glorious and sunny day only to arrive at my destination, less than 70 miles away, in a howling gale with torrential rain and zero visibility. It’s what we Jocks have to endure and it goes a long way to explain our cheery view of life. Continue reading “Beauty Before Age”

Not a lot wrong with the boy Lovelace, to be fair. A fine pome and fairly memorable for a couple of lines, quote-wise.

https://charioteers.org/2011/05/23/to-althea-from-prison/

But, utterly trumped by the Parliamentarian Andrew Marvell, in my opinion.

‘To His Coy Mistress’
Continue reading “A Poetic Counterblast to the Cavalier Fellow Traveller Araminta”

I have always said that I only post here or anywhere because I find it to be a relaxation. I seek to join in discussions which interest me and to which I believe that I can contribute. I read the rest and ignore it, passing by on the other side, particularly when it is what I perceive to be inflammatory, derogatory and pejorative or a self-satisfied and self-justified attempt to be as gratuitously offensive as is possible, with the usual defence that it is all just robust language. That is, of course, the right of the posters concerned. I would never dream of criticising them for having their fun. Continue reading “For the Record”

‘Look, it’s all very simple. You want to be famous, we want you to be famous and you could be incredibly famous or even, who knows, infamous. You have the boyish smile, which really works on tv, the slightly annoying but instantly recognisable voice and inflection and the fact that you are completely full of yourself and utterly devoid of any principle or genuine conviction or belief of any sort. Works for us and you are a natural. All you have to do is sign the contract’. Continue reading “The Secret Contract – JW’s CW Competition”