Author Archives: malcolmsmusingscom

We walked beside the sea yesterday afternoon. There was the usual assortment of seagulls, including youngsters in their juvenile feathers. One comical-looking herring gull caught our attention. He was a beautiful glossy grey and white adult – with a juvenile brown fluffy head. Not quite grown up. A young head on a mature body. TheContinue reading “Seagull, Emma, Jacob and Maturity”

Consider the lilies of the field,How they grow, how they grow.Consider the birds in the sky,How they fly, how they fly. Sometimes life seems so complicated. World problems – pandemics, terrorism, earthquakes, hurricanes, war, injustice… apparently no solutions. And personally… damaged relationships, broken promises, family problems, insoluble disappointments, incurable illness… more complications. He clothes theContinue reading “Consider the Lilies”

George Bennett has come on holiday to Great Yarmouth each year for the last 75 years. He first came in 1946. The war had just ended. There were de-mining operations across Yarmouth. Rationing was still in force. He recalled his 1966 honeymoon in Yarmouth… the year that there was a swarm of poisonous jelly fishContinue reading “George Bennett…Justin Welby”

Last night I watched ‘To Sir With Love’. Again. It addresses the social and racial issues of a 1960’s tough inner city school… Mark Thackeray (Sydney Poitier) takes on a teaching appointment in the East End of London… Most of Thackeray’s students have been rejected by other schools; their disruptive behaviour drove the last teacherContinue reading “To Sir With Love”

We’ve been listening to the Prime Minister’s announcements on funding increases for the NHS and social care sector and how this increase will be paid for… Stories have been told of families paying hundreds of thousands of pounds on the care required for elderly relatives… Local children with rare illnesses get much deserved sympathy. WeContinue reading “Best before… Sell-by Date”

Musing… The ‘hall of mirrors’ at the funfair… curved mirrors that give a humorous, scary or flattering image – depending on which of my bits were enlarged, diminished or distorted… Musing… the old children’s rhyme: There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile, He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;Continue reading “The Hall Of Mirrors”

Yesterday I was musing on the grand prix, re-tyring and pit stops… Pit: ‘A hole in the ground’. I remember Bible stories: Joseph and Jeremiah thrown into a pit and left abandoned. Animals used to fight in pits… Dogs trained to fight in pits were pit-bull terriers; cock-fighting took place in pits – hence theContinue reading “The Deep Dark Pit…”

Yesterday Jim asked me: ‘Do you miss school?’ Without hesitation I replied, ‘No!’ …This is the 14th September that I haven’t returned to school for the start of a new school year… I told Jim: ‘It seems like a different life, I was a different person’… We reflected on the jobs we used to doContinue reading “Retired… Re-tyred”

T There are many people, who will say they’re ChristiansAnd they live like Christians on the Sabbath dayBut come Monday morning, till the coming SundayThey will fight their neighbour all along the way I considered several possible ‘Sunday Songs’. One was emotional and worshipful, another was meaningful and thought-provoking… I finished with a fun song…Continue reading “You Don’t Love God…”

One of the most bizarre pictures this week was of Michael Gove, wearing his politician’s suit, dancing at ‘Bohemia’, an Aberdeen nightclub. At 1.15am the Guardian says he was   ‘…giving it his all…His hands flailed wildly, and occasionally swung in time to the music.’ Gove’s ‘wild night’ was a non-story, but it entertained me.Continue reading “Tales of the Unexpected”