The AQA exam board has withdrawn a poem from its anthology for GCSE English, after receiving a grand total of three complaints that it encouraged knife crime. The poem, Education for Leisure, by renowned poet Carol Ann Duffy is written from the POV of a disturbed, alienated teenager. It starts with the line: “Today I […]
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Val
The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill The time is 1976, the place is Laos. The Royal Family has been overthrown by the Communist Pathet Lao; many of the country’s intellectuals and ruling class have emigrated, and the country is reshaping itself while struggling out of chaos. Caught up in this is Dr Siri Paiboun, a […]
Yesterday was a frustrating day. B had to go to Dumfries in the afternoon to get his cataracts assessed; we had shopping to do, the appointment was at three, and he had to bet back to a driving job in the early evening. So, with time being tight, we set off early. B wanted to […]
For the last few weeks our Citroen has been playing up – when cornering and going over humps, the back ends ‘flips’ a little out of line. I can’t feel this, but it was making B very nervous. After doing some internet research and poring over the Haynes manual, B decided that it needed specialist […]
We went shopping this afternoon – not our usual big once-a-week shop, but (for long and boring reasons) our second mini-shop of the week. Now, when we’re going around the supermarket filling up the trolley, I know pretty well how much we’re spending. I don’t know the exact price of every item, but I can […]
I’ve not been posting much lately. And I think it may be because of the Verapamil. It’s still doing it’s proper job of keeping my heartrate from going doolally, but ever since I started on it, I’ve been feeling a peculiar lack of motivation. Everything is “I’ll do it when I’ve had a cuppa / […]
At first glance, Fairdeal Homeopathy looks pretty much like any other site selling homeopathic remedies – “Natural products to help you feel better about yourself” proclaims the front page, over a picture of flowers, leaves and a pill bottle. But just read the blurb inside: FairDeal Homeopathy is a company set up to provide you […]
Well, now and then…. Toniight I came across an old floppy disc containing all my articles that have been published. I had kept some of them on various websites (notably the Oakleaf Circle site), but lost them as I moved and revamped sites. So I was quite pleased to find them again. Anyhoo, they are […]
All this week, BBC TV News has been congratulating itself on exposing an illegal immigration ring bringing in Pakistani workers, supplying them with fake documents and putting them to work as cheaply-paid undocumented labour. Good investigative journalism, and the highlight was a secretly filmed interview with a gang member boasting of how it was no […]