Lunchtime, and other illusions

‘Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.’ – Douglas Adams. ‘Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.’ – Groucho Marx (but apparently not necessarily said by him – how disappointing). The week has passed, first slowly, then quickly, then slowly again, as if performing a half-arsed foxtrot. Seizing the opportunity afforded by …

Cover story

The week has passed, looking neither to the left nor the right, and scurrying through in the hope that it would be finished before something awful happened. On Tuesday a shaggy-plumaged robin hopped up onto the feeder. It cocked its head and looked at me as if to say ‘hello there, I haven’t seen––’ Ahem. …

Escaping the world

The week has passed, relentlessly flinging tragedy and horror in our faces as if to say ‘Had enough yet? How about now? And now? And now?’ On and on and on and on. I can’t process it, cannot imagine what it would be like to be directly affected by any of it. But still the …

Habla-vous Duolingo?

The week has passed, for us at least, Spanishly. There was a moment, a couple of days into our Granada trip, when I could have sworn our waiter showed signs of understanding what I’d just said to him. But it was no more than a fleeting look of anguish on his face, and might equally …