Tag Archives: comment

I was going to do a piece about how ridiculous it was to think for one moment that so-called ‘regular exercise’ might be achieved by wiring yourself up to a Wii machine and prancing around in the lounge in front of your HD compatible TV. But then there was this news item, you see; something about the Department of Education planning to scrap (or ban, whichever is the more meaningful and permanent) the infamous spelling rule that most of us were brought up with, namely: ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’. (You will notice that I took account of this instruction a couple of times in my first paragraph.) This had always been part o

The title of this piece more usually adorns the front of an enormous and brightly coloured greetings card. When opened by its lucky recipient, a torrent of sentiment springs forth, and while in a variety of handwriting styles, all, nevertheless, convey much the same message. This is along the lines of: “Sad to hear you are off, it’s been good working with you and good luck in your next job/posting with the British Antarctic Survey/sabbatical in Albuquerque, New Mexico/maternity leave/retirement/blah-blah”. Those of us who have been fortunate to be on the receiving end of these expressions of appreciation may feel a sense of awkwardness