In Sickness And In Health - Redux!

Hello, dear readers!

This week I thought I’d try something a little different.

This is partly due to a sparsity in subject matter, partly due to my usual blog day being overshadowed by yesterday’s 8th wedding anniversary, and mostly to do with drinking a little too much wine (and then a little more than that... and then a touch more) celebrating said anniversary.

So, in the interest of my aching head, and a fading ability to make any kind of sense, I thought I’d dig into the archives and present to you a previously written post, fully updated and checked for both spelling and grammar (he said, hopefully).

So, here we go, a blast from the past, delivered straight to your door. Everything from here on in is brand new and three years old.

Ups and Downs

Hello, dear readers!

Perspective is a wonderful thing.

It can be easy, sometimes far too easy, to get caught up in life’s moments. Moments which can provide soaring highs and plum subterranean depths of searing emotion, the true worth of these moments however, can often only be found in retrospect.

This week, life has thrown up two such examples of the above and they really couldn’t be any more different.

We’ll start with football.

I've Got A Theory

Hello, dear readers!

I have a problem.

Yes, I know this is not the biggest of revelations (well, the fact I used the singular might be). It is true, though. In these Covid days it’s not a big problem, In fact it shrinks in comparison to some of the horrors and hardships people are going through but it’s there, and like a piece of grit in the sandwich of life, it irks me.

My problem is such. As a blogger, I look for something to write about every week. As my blog is a personal one I try to make this experiential. A taste of the trials and victories in my life.

Of late, however, my life has constricted. Covid-19 has meant that the limited social interactions I force myself into have all but disappeared. Lockdown has robbed me of stories regarding family, friends, appointments, and meetings. The advent of Covid means that often, when I’m looking for something to write about, there is only one subject that presents itself. There is but one game in town. Luckily, however, the game has myriad aspects held within it, and sometimes those aspects lead on to other avenues.

Today I’d like to take a trip down just such an avenue.

An Open Door

Hello, dear readers!

There is a saying, one as old as some particularly old hills and wise as the wisdom teeth of an owl. A saying which has been handed down from generation to generation in order to be handed out, free of charge, when life has taken one of its trademark cruel turns and the recipient is filled with despair at another lost opportunity.

As one door closes, another one opens.

And yes, you’ve guessed it. Doors, and their operation, does indeed form the backbone of today’s post.

The Dog And Lockdown

Hello, dear readers!

And so, the end is near. or so the song would have you believe. Personally, I’m not so sure and I’m not sure there're any curtains, final or otherwise, to face either.

I am, of course, talking about the one topic which has taken over all of our lives in the last four months. The advent of Covid-19 and its rapid and unrelenting progress through the world.

This disease has killed at least 43 and possibly closer to 65 thousand people in this little island alone. It has taken friends, family and neighbours away from us and made life almost unrecognisable from this time last year. For the vast majority of us it has meant an unprecedented global emergency, unseen in our lives.

Still, not to worry. At least the pubs are opening.

Hot Stuff

Hello, dear readers!

I’m going to keep it short and sweet today. Partly because of a complete lack of inspiration, but mainly because I’m currently feeling a little like a cross between a pint of ice cream in a steam room and The Wicked Witch of the West after a nice hot shower.

Yes, that’s right. After a brief showing a few weeks back, the great British summer has arrived once more. This time, apparently, it may stick around right up to the weekend before giving way to some increasingly seasonal rain.

It’s going to mean a small window in which it may be possible to get some much-needed work done.

Home And Away

Hello, dear readers!

Absence, they say, makes the heart grow fonder. If that is indeed the case then I have to say that, after over three months of strict lockdown, there’s an awful lot of people who must absolutely adore me.

Not that people don’t naturally adore me, you understand. I am, after all, an absolute delight of a man. I just feel my enforced opting out of anything close to a social life for the bulk of this year must have elevated me to an almost god-like figure of enduring, all-encompassing love.

No?

Well, not to worry. You see, prison security has started to relax, and this week I made a break for it!