..but it's the owners who sometimes get on my wick.So I'd arranged to go out with my mate P the other evening. I've known him for years and I suppose I'd probably class  him as my best friend, though I'm not sure if 53 year olds are allowed to have "best friends" these days.And P has this dog, one ...

Whichever direction I glance in it seems that Nationalism is on the rise.Be it Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism over your way, the good old US Trump flavoured Southern fried variety out West or the drink tea and keep calm we're British and let's get rid of all the foreigners and fuck the country in the process kind that we have ...

Ever since I was very young I've loved reading. I'm quite good at it now and able to recognise most words I come across, occasionally even knowingwhat they mean.I'm also a firm fan of the Kindle app on my ipad, something I blame squarely on divorce. You see I owned hundreds of books. Some were bog standard high street ...

At first I was afraid, I was petrified.I'm no Rajapaksa fan by any stretch of the imagination, so my first thoughts were wholly negative.It was / is downright ugly; that hideous green and purple Chinese erection soaring into the Lankan sky.For some time I've thought that Sri Lankans just don't do subtlety. From the delicious food, chock full of every ...

Hello?!

Recently I've become aware that these two words, as nouns, have become things. I don't know how they crept into everyday usage, but what the hell?Maybe it's a muso thing, but every day I see muso type 'friends' of mine talk about what a great 'hang' they had with someone. And that someone is invariably a (slightly) famous sort, ...

It was a normal Saturday morning in September 2015. Normal except for the fact that my Dad had just died. He actually passed at around 6am but, by the time all the official declarations had been done and the undertaker had arrived, it was around 9.30 when we carried his body out of the house into the hearse.There was ...

I’m currently in Colombo, probably feeling like most people; a mixture of heartbreak, confusion, loss (for the many lives as well as the peace we’ve got used to) and, I’m sorry to say, relief that myself and my loved ones are okay.I’m old enough to have lived through many terror related incidents, from being here in July ‘83 to ...

I'm heading off to the Motherland for a sojourn. Nothing too spectacular, just a couple of weeks in the metropolis with C. I expect it will be pretty empty because of most of you fleeing to the more scenic areas for the new year.We will talk when I'm back, or if I whack out a little post or two while I'm over there.Bye then!

I went off to watch a gig with a good friend on Saturday. My friend, we'll call him P, has a son who's a very good drummer and his band was playing in this kind of grungy indie festival.I'd never heard of a festival taking place in a hotel before, but this was the score. This hotel, the kind ...

Or reminders.I don't want my reincarnated blogging life to consist entirely of mini rants, so I'll just write this one and slope off and try and think of something more jolly to publish for next time.But seriously what is it with these people and institutions who insist on sending Outlook and Google calendar invites, followed by fourteen reminders as you ...

I wonder if it's just me, or do you have any of these types as well?I'm talking about the Facebook friends who are madly keen to spread the news that someone, famous or not famous, has died.I've got two in particular, both musicians, who, usually within about half an hour of a death announcement, will put up a link ...

I was being chatted to by my sort of mate the other day. I say 'sort of' because he's one of these fellows who falls in the cracks between 'friend' and 'chap with whom I have a professional relationship'.I say 'being chatted to' because that's more or less how things are with him and I. He talks, I listen, with ...

Voted online in the revoke article 50 thing, because if there are enough votes I believe it means it will have to be discussed in Parliament. Brexit is messing up the UK. Most people seem disillusioned, fed up and just want to know what will happen, anything. And I don't think that's a good way to look at it; ...

Gents,I've noticed that the older I get the greater the likelihood is that I'll fart when I pee.In my little experience of such matters the average ladies toilet is a place of calm, tranquility and perhaps even pleasant smells. I know, I've seen them on TV.On the other hand the average gents convenience, especially in a good old British ...

At five foot five, living in the UK, I think I fall firmly into the category of 'shortarse'.In Sri Lanka or Singapore I feel distinctly taller and, to my surprise, last year in New York I felt a bit taller too when I'd fully expected to feel like I was in a land of giants. It's all relative, and ...

You know those niggling desires you have in nether regions of your mind? Those thoughts that pop up now and again until you put them to bed by doing the thing or somehow exorcising it.Well for a while I've had one such thought and it's been about picking locks. I wouldn't say I've been fascinated by the topic, more ...

I reckon most people think that they have a wonderful sense of humour. A bit like most men think they're fantastic drivers.Or is it just men? I wonder, as I write this I've had the thought that perhaps women aren't as bothered about their own sense of humour as a man is about his. Could it be that us ...

Have you ever seen that quite famous experiment?The one where a chap goes into a waiting room. Said chap thinks it's a genuine waiting room, perhaps for a job interview or hair transplant consultation, but in actual fact it's a fake one.So he goes in and finds three or four people already seated and he takes a vacant chair. ...

In my quite bald head it only seems like about one, at most two years ago when I told you that I was investigating the idea of having a hair transplant here.But no, on rereading that post I've now realised that it was over 5 years ago, which might explain a lot!I promised to keep you posted, so finally I ...