Martyn OffordNov 9, 20203 min readNovember 9th A Day not worthy of a TitleGrey, grey day – empty, featureless, soggy. An anonymous day. A pyjama day, a duvet day, a snuggle down day to sleep and wake up in time...
Martyn OffordNov 8, 20202 min readNovember 8th Strange MeetingThis is the title of a Wilfred Owen poem that usually doesn’t feature in Remembrance Observance, but Susan Hill borrowed the title for...
Martyn OffordNov 7, 20203 min readNovember 7th Ich frühstückeMy last German report before ‘O’ Level read, “His case is not entirely without hope.” It was wrong. My case was entirely without hope. So...
Martyn OffordNov 6, 20202 min readNovember 6th Remembering T.LeafeI’ve just been setting the fire in order to create a snug Friday evening at home. Actually all evenings are at home, but there’s still a...
Martyn OffordNov 5, 20202 min readNovember 5th The Trouble with ZipsNow the portcullis has dropped again and we are left to repine whilst the great events of the world happen beyond the moat. My thoughts...
Martyn OffordNov 4, 20202 min readNovember 4th Never Go West Young ManI awoke this morning divided. Should I turn on the news or not? I agonised and delayed and then did. The news was that the big toxin was...
Martyn OffordNov 3, 20204 min readNovember 3rd BAD MOUTHINGEric, my financial and business correspondent, has informed me that Primark has seen a dramatic drop off in the sales of suits and a rise...
Martyn OffordNov 2, 20203 min readNovember 2nd “Equivocation will undo us,” (Hamlet)Sometime last year I bought a lounge suit from M&S. I don’t mean a lounge suit as in ’lounge-suit’, an item of matching jacket and...
Martyn OffordNov 1, 20202 min readNovember IstALL HALLOWS, SOULS, SAINTS, BORIS AND HIS SEAL PUP EYES He looked so woeful and ashamed with his drooping, doleful eyes last night –...
Martyn OffordOct 31, 20202 min readALL HALLOWS EVEOctober 31st 2020 As we ticked towards Tier 2 last night I wondered about resurrecting the Blog – A Muse A Lone. After all most worst...
Martyn OffordJun 22, 20205 min readJune 22nd The FinaleTwelve weeks ago, it was announced that those of us over 70 were to be labelled ‘Vulnerable and at Risk’ and were to disappear under our...
Martyn OffordJun 21, 20204 min readJune 21st Fathers’ DayI could spend half this blog reasoning about the apostrophe in the title of this day, but I’m short of time today, having vouchsafed my...
Martyn OffordJun 20, 20205 min readJune 20th For the Want of a DruidBoris has ideas about extending shop opening hours or factory shift patterns in order to kick start the economy. I’m surprised he hasn’t...
Martyn OffordJun 19, 20203 min readJune 19th Ursa Major via Chapel LaneI read years ago that if you’re playing the radio or a tape of something you want to learn as you drop off to sleep, you’re more likely...
Martyn OffordJun 18, 20203 min readJune 17th Clouds of UnknowingI have a favourite line of prose that I’ve been wanting to use in this blog. It’s James Joyce again: “A day of dappled sea-born clouds.”...
Martyn OffordJun 17, 20205 min readJune 17th (Ooh, ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh ooh oo-ooh)During times of plague the Monarch used to leave London and go on procession around the country. Henry VIII’s favourite escape was...
Martyn OffordJun 16, 20203 min readJune 16th Happy BloomsdayWe all learned at school that a sentence must have a subject and a verb, shouldn’t start with a conjunction and shouldn’t end with a...
Martyn OffordJun 15, 20205 min readJune 15th Off Your TrolleyIf the media are looking for some dynamic images of the economy revving up into motion today, they are unlikely to converge on Crich....
Martyn OffordJun 14, 20203 min readJune 14th Bone LazyToday I have discovered what hashtag means as in #trinitysunday or #thiswouldhavebeenmydad’s104thbirthday. I hope that this will not be...
Martyn OffordJun 13, 20204 min readJune 13th What Will beTurning Up?Perhaps I’m being fanciful but there seems to be something in the air. It might be pollen or humidity, earlier it was low cloud. In fact...
