I knew something was wrong on my way home from school. At Finchley Road station, the Underground loudspeaker belted out, “Change here for the Metropolitan Line.” Was I living in an illusion? Could the world really change after stepping from one platform to another? Grabbing the worn-out elbow rests on either side, I sat petrified, […]
L’Antidote pour les Fautes
Quelle honte ! En utilisant le logiciel de correction Antidote pour relire mes écrits en français, j’ai constaté avec surprise que j’avais fait des fautes de grammaire et d’orthographe que je ne pensais pas commettre. D’accord pour l’orthographe ! Mais quelle idée de nous flanquer une dictée deux jours seulement après la rentrée des classes […]
Post-Op Blues
July 8th may go down as a landmark day in my life. A five-hour operation to remove a sizeable chunk of the right side of my body cannot go unnoticed and/or ignored. Now, weeks later, I’m feeling fine and continue to defy the expectations of every specialist I’ve seen. What I can say, though, is […]
Abandoning this Blog? No Way!
How can I be forgiven for abandoning a blog that helped me through a nightmare, Brexit? How can I delete posts that a handful of people have read? I owe you a lot for having dipped into a world where no man (or woman, or something else) had been before. A world full of viruses […]
Camilla Long And Misogyny: Good Ideas, Bad Words
In treating football players as thick overpaid yobbos who don’t know what a woman looks like, let alone what she feels, Camilla Long goes slightly over the thin line dividing misogyny and normal behaviour. Yes, most footballers are obsessed by money and good looks–not necessarily in that order–and are ready to leave politics and good […]
A.S. Saint-Etienne: Les Fantômes du Stade Geoffroy-Guichard
Que s’est-il passé depuis mon départ de Saint-Étienne, il y a vingt-quatre ans? Un quart de siècle depuis mes dernières palpitations, yeux fixés sur le chronomètre de l’autre côté du stade mythique surnommé « Le Chaudron. » Et pourtant, aux fins fonds de mon esprit, je sais ce qui se passe dans l’enceinte du stade: le temps reste […]
The Obnoxiousness Of Online Comments
It doesn’t matter where they come from or where you read them, online comments seem to have one overriding common characteristic: obnoxiousness. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Facebook, You Tube, or newspaper websites, online comments coming from people I’ve never met, and thankfully never will, excel by their virtuosity in handling the written word. What […]
Party Time At Number Ten
How I longed for today to arrive. The invitation that lay dormant on my mantelpiece was coming to life at 7.00 pm. I held it tight and read it again: Yours Truly had been invited to Boris Johnson’s (BoJo from now on) garden stroke office party. Come on BoJo! Pull the other one – […]
Has My Blog Served Its Purpose?
This blog was supposed to be a remedy, a palliative treatment to cure a break in my soul – my European soul. In 2016, I had to find something to do to combat the irrefutable madness of the Brexit vote. I felt like an Emile Zola who nobody knew, crying out to the world from […]
Sexual Violence Under The Steeple – Child Abuse In The French Catholic Church
My Dearest Child, Let me come. Sit on my knee, my child. Let me teach you the deeper meaning of the Holy Text, and only when you have finished providing me with the pleasure of the flesh that I seek, will I let you go. I don’t expect you to find answers to your questions […]