Category Archives: The stuff of daily life

Somewhere, there is a photograph of me on a French Mediterranean beach in early- August 1989. It was the height of summer, the autoroutes that brought us from the Channel port had been filled with traffic moving at walking pace. … Continue reading →

Do you get those emails offering you patent medicines at knockdown prices? The ones that offer you a cure to conditions you never had? And even conditions you could not possibly have? Quackery is nothing new. The 19th Century was … Continue reading →

The first year students are no longer new, but nor are they worldly-wise. They are reckless about their own safety and I have realised that my warnings fall on deaf ears. They give me a fist pump and a smile … Continue reading →

I was thinking about my grand aunt. We called her ‘Nell’, my grand uncle called her ‘Helen’. Only by doing research for the family tree did I discover her official name was ‘Nellie’. It was not a name that had … Continue reading →

The pharmacy hadn’t all the tablets to make up my prescription when I called last Wednesday. I was given enough for a week and told to call back. Going to collect the balance of the medication, I realised it would … Continue reading →