The economics of a kiss

There are no absolutes but I would hazard and propose that, in general, four, three and two kisses – given with greater or lesser affection – are a social and cultural convention. A single kiss on the cheek is a universal demonstration of love and appreciation.

On the elasticity of eleven minutes

My mother tells me that the longest ten minutes of her life happened that time I wandered off on my own in a supermarket in Bogotá in the mid seventies. Colombia was an edgy country at that time and child abductions were a reality; often, I am assured, with the purpose of using children for […]

Joana

Joana and her siblings lost their mother twenty years ago. I shared their emotional annihilation as I could envisage nothing worse in life. A few months later she and I went for a drive in here mum’s old Merc. I drove. We spoke… about this and that. “Despite it all, I love everything about my […]

On ageing

For those of you enjoying “face app” and morbidly looking at a rendered image of yourselves looking like a prune’s wallet, here are my two “face app” moments in the last year. I have no need for more. One time in class with about twenty-five unruly, shouting thirteen year olds, being reduced to banging on […]

On snipped jeans

I don’t entertain many pet peeves but one that I must admit to is a disdain for sheepish “fashionistas”; those mindless morons who can’t think for themselves. We are all entitled to entertain our own aesthetic tastes and to cultivate a personal style that we like and that we feel represents us and who we […]

On (In)gratitude

Before being stabbed in the back by Hitler, the Ribentrop – Molotov pact and the partition of Poland suited Stalin just fine. It was thanks to American lend-lease that to a greater part the Russians were able to turn the tide against the Germans. On that note, my grandfather served in the Royal Navy for […]

On disparity

I was struck by a thought-provoking fact that I read the other day that I think is worth considering. A million seconds is equal to about twelve days of ours lives. A billion seconds – a true billion – is equal to somewhere in the region of thirty-five years. I had no idea of the […]

On the mysteries of Oriental medicine

I left home for work this morning without my set of keys. Cristina needed them, her set being with the building’s handy-man and as today she would be working from home she would need keys to come and go for various reasons. I called her late afternoon to touch base and work out how and […]

For Paris

I have been to Notre Dame countless times in my life, albeit not in the last ten years. As a family, we lived in Paris from December 1978 to April 1982. An occasional family activity on a Sunday afternoon would be to go to Notre Dame to hear part of the recital being put on […]

A day in our lives

Whoppers in the White House, No one knows what-the-fuck in Westminster…. And Vladimir? “Pass the popcorn and get us another beer”.

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