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.

Read more "The economics of a kiss"

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 […]

Read more "On the elasticity of eleven minutes"

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 […]

Read more "Joana"

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 […]

Read more "On ageing"

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 […]

Read more "On snipped jeans"

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 […]

Read more "On (In)gratitude"

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 […]

Read more "On disparity"

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 […]

Read more "On the mysteries of Oriental medicine"

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 […]

Read more "For Paris"

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

Read more "A day in our lives"