Category: General

What I Did on My First Day at University

I miss Janus.

In particular, I miss his posts on his particular hobby horse, the House of Windsor. Whilst I respect his right to have a bee in his bonnet about said Royal Family, I do not usually agree with a word of his superbly crafted diatribes on the subject. I personally believe that the Windsors are, in the main and on the whole, a Good Thing.

But, there does come a point when my worm has to turn and agree with our Viking Republican. Last week here in Jockland, we were subjected to wall to wall coverage of the fact that the Heir Presumptive and his Bride Pending had spent a day swanning around some small and insignificant pimple of a jumped-up village on the coastal backside of the Kingdom of Fife to celebrate 600 years of the University of St Andrews. Continue reading “What I Did on My First Day at University”

Goodbye, Mister Jim

Mr. Jim died last week, he was a regular at the place I have eaten breakfast most mornings since my retirement. I have known him about thirty years, ever since I started going there he has been a regular, and was for years before that, so I have been told. He used to come alone, a small almost birdlike man limping in well before seven most mornings, untouched by the querulous focus on ailments that are often the mark of age. Always polite and inevitably cheerful, he made light of his own infirmities. Later he used a walking stick and towards the end a walker, folding it carefully and placing it out of the way of the other patrons.
Continue reading “Goodbye, Mister Jim”