wozbridge

A friend of mine was in hospital – a friend I’ve known since high school – and he was gravely ill. I was in England to watch a band, a trip I’d planned months in advance, and found that I had enough time to call in to see him before I headed to the airport to catch my flight home. He was in ICU and you can’t just walk in off the street, you have to get past a desk manned by well-meaning but…

Describe your dream chocolate bar. My dream chocolate bar would have to be made from dark chocolate. I don’t want any of that wishy-washy milk chocolate nonsense, and don’t get me started on white chocolate (which shouldn’t even be allowed to call itself chocolate). So, dark chocolate, and I want it to contain nuts, and not just any old nuts. Peanuts alone will not do. I want my bar to be…

How did I end up suffering in 40c heat on a dilapidated charabanc in Kos while still wearing the same clothes I had on when I went to the pub in Manchester the night before? The answer is quite simple really: My housemate Baz accidentally bought 200 tabs of acid. Yep. That’ll do it. He’d recently broken up with his long term girlfriend and he hadn’t taken it well. If he were older you’d say he…

Benidorm doesn’t have a great reputation with travellers and holidaymakers, and yet, people flock there in their millions. When people talk about it, they usually tell you about the worst aspects of it: The smell of sewerage, the overcrowded beaches, the hordes of inebriated Brits etc., which makes it sound like hell on earth, however, those same people keep going back year after year. Why is…

The telephone rang in the hall as the early evening sun illuminated the petals of a bunch of drooping white carnations which occupied a cut glass vase on the small table at the bottom of the stairs. Mother’s house. Untouched by modernity. The same carpet, the same wallpaper, the same appliances, since? Well, since forever. Even before Dad died they hadn’t redecorated for years. “It’s fine as it…

My latest ramble took in the glorious peak of Djouce (ryhmes with mouse, not moose) and the spectacularly unspectacular War Hill. It had been raining in the days leading up to the walk so I opted to tackle Djouce from the starting point of Ballinastoe car park overlooking Lough Tay, AKA the Guinness Lake, as the bulk of the trail leading up to the final ascent is on a railway sleeper boardwalk so…