Crossing the line is an important milestone in a young sailor’s life. King Neptune demands that every time a ship crosses the equator, everyone aboard be called to account for his sins and he rises from the deep to hold … Continue reading →

See, I was looking for a picture of a freshly inked tattoo. I knew it was there somewhere but I found a thousand other pictures first. There goes my evening. I’ll have to look at every single one of them….and … Continue reading →

[continued from There Be Dragons...] Actually getting the tattoo was pretty cool. Tattoo parlours always intimidated me from the outside but inside it was just like going to the dentist (if your dentist had a lot of tattoos) [is that … Continue reading →

I read a book once where the protagonist made a list, at a young age, of certain pleasures that he wanted to save – read King Lear, visit the Bahamas, eat a durian – until he was 40. He didn’t … Continue reading →

As I mentioned, we had quite a few stories of teacher on pupil violence. Mine was best:-) It was the end of the third year (8th grade for the ‘mercans)  and we had to pick our subjects for ‘O’ Level … Continue reading →

It started with a random comment on a blog. A few months back, I blogged about a rather famous party at my school and, last week, Helen left a comment. It’s always exciting to get comments on my blog- especially … Continue reading →

On Monday I will be visiting the town of my childhood for the first time in over 20 years. I wonder if it has changed at all? I wonder if I have? Sidcup The name is thought to be derived … Continue reading →

Dear Mr Ferguson, I am very happy that the reds are back on top of the table despite the recent poor run of form. I am also delighted that we are in the semis of The Champions League.  The League … Continue reading →

In my travelling days, I used to keep one note and one coin from everycountry I visited. I just came across some notes in a photo album and, on a whim, had a look on eBay to see if they … Continue reading →

A long time ago, I went to a school called Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar. It was a good school: very academic and very sporty. Purple blazers. It was about as close to being a public (i.e. private) school that you … Continue reading →