Until a few minutes ago, I thought the letters VHS meant Video Home System, one of the two competing video systems of my younger days. The other was called Betamax, a coinage based on the Japanese beta-beta, "all over", but which sounded more like it was claiming only second place, like beta in the Greek alphabet.
Everyone likes to have cheap food – but there are limits, and one limit that’s been hiding in plain sight over the last ten years or so finally saw the light of day last week.
A poem about Lockdown, but not at home...
My arm has often felt like a pincushion. A good example of this was during the SARS epidemic in 2002, when both myself and severe acute respiratory syndrome were at work in Hong Kong at the same time.
Eight years ago I acquired a car, by acquired I don’t mean I nicked it, I was given it. The car sounded a bit clunky at the rear end and I immediately thought, shock absorbers.
Have you ever stared at a clock face that is caught in a large mirror? Well if you have, you will understand the dilemna that was created, as I sat there in the barber's chair.
A couple of years back I was informed that as a resident I had to have a Portuguese driving licence. As my wife and I were due an annual flu jab I waited until we saw our doctor in the Autumn, had the jab and I asked her for the necessary health certificate I needed to get a driving licence. She scribbled something in Portuguese on a bit of paper and handed it to me.
A poem, 'Covid' by author, Fred Steel.