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As I write this I’m experiencing my fourth day of evacuation from home due to the unexploded World War Two bomb discovered in Great Yarmouth. Three days ago we had to scramble to pack some essentials when the police came to the door, and were compelled to rely on our (extremely generous and welcoming) friends for a roof over our heads for the night. We only had the things with us which we could quickly grab, and had to leave some very precious things behind, not least our animals who couldn’t be accommodated elsewhere. The decisions about where to go, when to go, what to take were really difficult. We don’t at the moment know when we can return.

When I was a child, there were two occasions during the year when my patience was tested to the limit. They were the week in June, leading up to my birthday, and nearly the whole of December! I usually managed to hold back without searching out the presents, but I know I did occasionally lift…

Have you ever heard of Blue Monday? I’m not referring to the song by New Order but rather the third Monday of January. The concept of Blue Monday surfaced in 2005 during a press release from British travel company, Sky Travel, as part of a publicity stunt. Apparently, a psychologist, Dr. Cliff Arnall, created a…

I’m sure we can all think of presents we’ve received which have left us a little bewildered, maybe even disappointed. My mum recalls her grandmother receiving yet another unwanted present from her sister and commenting that she “needed that like a hole in the head”! For me the most perplexing present was the egg separator I got for my 13^th
birthday. I appreciated gesture, but also remember wondering “why did they think I would want that?”!

At Christmas we think a lot about gifts. If we have the time and money, we can enjoy carefully selecting things and giving them as presents to family and friends. It can be a joy to watch a loved one unwrap a well-chosen gift, something that is exactly what they wanted and hoped for. The…

I cannot remember the last time I was truly hungry. When I’ve said, “I’m starving,” it’s simply because my dinner’s been a little later than normal! I have no idea what it’s really like; and yet there are people in King’s Lynn going hungry regularly in order to make sure there is enough in the…

(First featured in Great Yarmouth Mercury, October 2022)

I’ve never particularly enjoyed supermarket shopping; but over these past few months that disinterest has sometimes turned to panic, as my eyes scan the spiralling prices of basic food items. Can sliced bread really cost that much? How has the price of milk gone up so dramatically in the last week? Where will it all end?

Sometimes things happen in the economy that take me completely by surprise. I feel like I’m witnessing the impossible. One such experience was on 15th November 2016 when a leading supermarket dropped the price of unleaded and diesel to £0.99 a litre. In 2010 the price sat at around £1.23 per litre and each year…

Each day I wonder how much longer this glorious weather will continue. I like to think it will last forever. If I wake up to a grey sky, I’m disappointed. Each day I expect to wear shorts, eat outside and use sun cream. I know it’s unrealistic, but I don’t want it to stop! I…

I never met the queen, although I think I saw the back of her head once as her cavalcade sped down a London street before the State Opening of Parliament! However, I do know some people who have met her. One of those is Jon Kuhrt* and I would like to share his thoughts about…

There is a famous verse in the book of Proverbs that in the King James version reads, ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’. As I look toward the coming months and years, the political uncertainty, the continual rise in the cost of living and the prohibitive price of fuel and energy, I think…

Recently I was introduced to Wordle. It’s a game that I play on my tablet. I have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for each guess. I usually get to the answer by the sixth attempt but occasionally I get completely stuck. With each wrong guess my chances reduce, and I…