The Obnoxiousness Of Online Comments

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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

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  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 – […]

Black Lives Matter In A Land Of Hope And Glory

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You’re at it again, aren’t you? Playing mind games with traditions, tearing up musical scripts and peeling off black make-up on white people’s faces. I got used to seeing Black Peter roaming the streets of Dutch towns and cities, distributing marzipan tasting biscuits to smiling children. The children believed; the children loved. There was no […]

Our Biggest Weakness Is To Think We Are Invincible

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Weakness, is thinking of oneself as invincible. – Roberto Saviano   Exactly one month ago, I started cancelling appointments at my dental practice, following advice from the Dutch dental association to only treat acute emergencies, and avoid patients who have been tested positive for the coronavirus or who present symptoms, like the plague. We are […]