So sang Flanders and Swann in The Song of Patriotic Prejudice. I think Schatz agrees – at least when it comes to going on holidays abroad. Back in September this year, Schatz and I spent a few days’ holiday in a wonderful hotel on Cyprus, nearly 40 years after I had last visited, to see […]
Category: German
Last Monday evening I went to, and interpreted at, a prayer service at church, where we prayed together with five Ukrainian refugees, living a stone’s throw away from church. Since then, I have had occasionally damp eyes and lump in my throat while thinking of our new church brothers and sisters in Christ. I’ve also […]
The following is a little piece I wrote at my creative writing group session this evening. “What if God was one of us?” sang Joan Osborne, “Just a stranger on a bus, trying to find his way home…” Doubtless He, too, would come, sit down and rattle on to me about His life and times […]
The wee small hours. Emphasis on “wee.” Loo break time. Then back into bed, with Radio 5 Live still playing in the background. I try to get back to sleep again. Where is he now? What happened to her after she was a pop star in the 1970’s? Where did strawberries come from? All the […]
Does Bielefeld exist? Have you ever been there? Have you seen road signs pointing to it? Is it just a Potemkin village, a façade constructed by the Bundesregierung, the Matrix and the international neo-liberal capitalist running dogs movement? Watch this clip, and you decide… Long live the conspiracy theory!
RSM: Regimental Sergeant Major, also known as the Regimental Scary Monster, the senior soldier in a British Army regiment. Don’t cross him. He is a strict disciplinarian, because he has to be. As Church Warden, during the recent CV-19 situation, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve started a sentence when speaking to […]
I’m feeling quite chuffed with myself. I’ve just stashed my 2020 diary onto my bookshelf. 2020 was the first year since I stated diarying as an adult in 2013, where I have 100% complete diary with no missing days. Will someone forge my diaries one day? Long live focus and time management!
Known as “Stille Post” in German. The classic example is: “Send reinforcements. We’re going to advance.” becomes “Send three and fourpence. We’re going to a dance.” This is why I hate hearsay with a passion. Yesterday I reported sick at work. Nothing major. Just a probable cracked rib. I will survive. I will hold my […]
This month’s offering from Deutsche Post is rather cute, I think you’ll agree. Have a look at these two sets, issued this month. Long live nature!
My dad loved Berlin. He had worked there 1999-2000. He had visited a couple of times in the 1960’s as a regimental boxer. He and his then girfriend went there on holiday in the summer of 2004, paying £40 return each with EasyJet from Newcastle to Berlin. Bargain! Here’s what I found in one of […]
The Dairy of Samuel Peeps 