Monthly Archives: March 2013
Hidden venom
It was early morning as Tai Woon, Captain of the 12,000 tonne fishing boat Nyanga, stood alone at the helm. He regularly fished this area just off the West coast of Gabon at Libreville where the waters of the Atlantic brought a rich harvest at certain times of the year. Now with the holds full, […]
The dreadful being knocked at the door…
I’ve always been glad that humans possess imagination giving us the ability to extend and colour our knowledge. Where would we be without it? As a young boy I was honing my imagination by continuing various dramas in my head well after the film had ended, the book was closed or the radio switched off. […]
Sometimes…
So many times I have wondered how my mother felt about me. I never knew her; she died when I was one year old. Part of this poem covers those thoughts. Sometimes I wonder at how I came to be… From two separate entities preparing parts of me; mother and father, loving ecstasy, nine months […]
Queuing
We humans spend quite a deal of time waiting, don’t we? I looked ‘queue’ up in the dictionary, being a smart arse, and found that a queue can mean one of three things: a hanging plaited tail of hair or pigtail; a line of persons or vehicles waiting their turn; or something to join or […]
A sentimental mood
‘Are you in a sentimental mood?’ asks Sir William Schwenck Gilbert in the ‘Mikado’, and then goes on to say, ‘I’ll sigh with you,’ which is rather nice of him I think. Most of us can get sentimental at times, especially at Christmas. I do; it’s the suitcase crammed with photographs, you see. It’s the […]
Vices: solitary and conjugal
Since my retirement I’ve taken to wanderings in places I haven’t been before, which I have found can be a bit tricky. On one such wander recently I entered a local Opportunity Shop (second hand shop), and it may sound cheeky but it was like stepping back in time, for in the dimly lit interior […]
Another side
Oh, but he was handsome, with his dark eyes, sparkling teeth, and ready smile upon his cheeks. And yes, I kind of envied him. Pommie joker back in 1954, I, along with others, soon was settling down, learning a trade along with Jeff, saw another side of this man. He was married, with a child, […]
Nymphs, indeed!
When you’re young, moving from one district to another has a certain excitement about it. My seventh birthday had come and gone some three or so months past, and while I did enjoy the change in surroundings in the street where we went to live, starting at a new school was another story. It was […]
Rock my equilibrium
With the children off to school I have a moment to myself sat at the kitchen table surrounded by their mess Tears aren’t far away, it’s another of those days, feeling down and quite dismayed by the burdens that I face Life goes rushing by, I only stand and see imitated copies of what I’m […]
The writings of a Lancashire lad 
A step into reality
There was one August Bank holiday in England that stands out very clearly in my mind as a nine year old boy. It was 1938, and the once a year passenger train would travel up the line from Preston to Longridge for the event; a distance of about seven miles. At all other times, only […]