It’s a Dog’s Life

(Sub-Title: Did I ever have a sense of humour – 25 August 2019) Many of us would struggle to find an agreed definition of a sense of humour, after all we laugh at different things stretching from unalloyed joy at seeing someone slip on a banana skin to a lengthy witty tale by a gifted…

(Sub Title: Just Another Rant) Disclaimer. Having already outlived the time allocated to me under Biblical rules I hereby claim the right to wander from the point and to display spells of incoherence. Truth to tell, as the kernel of this particular outburst began to develop other tangential thoughts emerged that have compelled me to include a…

(Sub Title: What can one say? The safe answer to the question ‘what can one say?’ might be to keep schtum. However many will be disappointed to know that such a response would have been entirely out of character – sorry. After some three years of confusion we seem to be moving to a new surreal world…

Introduction The process of re-reading The Captain – The Life and Times of Simon Raven has prompted some thoughts. It is a book that merits multiple re-readings if only to understand the references to Greek mythology. Unless otherwise stated the quotations offered below are from the book. There was a temptation to call this piece ‘BAOR in the…

Oldies may recall the halcyon days when General Brian Robertson Late RE (ennobled by Labour Premier Clement Attlee as 1st Baron Robertson of Oakridge) filled the post of Chairman[i] of the British Transport Commission. That said, the General may not have agreed that those railways days were idyllically happy and peaceful ones for him as the…

  By Arousal Stillskin (nom de plume for the original article) “For I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me.” AA Milne NO APOLOGY As Constance Wu once put it: “You’re never going to please everyone, and if you do, there’s something wrong”. Although the sentiment of her words may have been…

January 11, 2020 INTRODUCTION These three motoring-related issues have been gnawing away at my equanimity for a number of years: ·        Daylight driving with headlights turned on. ·        Reverse parking in public car parks. ·        Locating pedestrian crossings near to roundabouts. Although any normal egotist hopes that their cri de Coeur might excite some interest, this author accepts…

Get fell in for a logical job search campaign….. “People from the Services have been very carefully selected and are very well trained. They are accustomed to learning new skills the whole time and, of course, they have a sense of duty, responsibility and a work ethic which is a byword.  Anybody who does not look at…

Of late I have taken the view that far too much time and energy is generally devoted to the topic of leadership but that was not always the case; indeed, reading the Obituary of Lord Chalfont (DT 15th January 2020) which quotes his thoughts on Field Marshal Montgomery as being “brutally inconsiderate, unimaginative and monumentally…

THOUGHTS ON RESTRUCTURING Disclaimer: Notwithstanding that much of this article talks in the Present Tense, having been out of the Army for more years that I can count on the combination of my hands and feet, it is accepted that things have changed since ‘my day’. I certainly hope that is the case. Background It is my…