Alive & Twitching

At an early stage of the uproar following the Russell Brand radio show last month, there was an item on the BBC1 News in which members of the audiences of two BBC shows were briefly interviewed. Some were people attending a gardening programme and the others, Never Mind the Buzzcocks. The first were clearly intended to represent older adults and the second to typify the younger generation. read more »

Sister Mary entered the convent.

The Mother Superior said, ‘Sister, this is a silent convent. You are welcome here as long as you like,
but you may not speak until invited by me to do so.’

Sister Mary lived in the convent for read more »

For those of us who enjoy reading novels but were unable to indulge that pleasure to a large extent during our working lives, retirement provides a great opportunity of catching up with some of the books we wanted to read but didn’t get round to, as well as enjoying the best of contemporary fiction. read more »

Tom Petty is one of my rock heroes and the only artists who are better represented in my CD collection are Neil Young and Bob Dylan.

Petty has enjoyed a highly successful career in the States, starting in 1976. He has had numerous platinum discs, received prestigious awards for his performing and song writing and been nominated no less than 18 times for a Grammy award. According to Wikipedia, he is in the category of recording artists who read more »

Is there anyone out there who doesn’t enjoy music in one form or another? There is such a variety to choose from that there should be something for everyone. There are, however, people who do not listen to music other than incidentally. I know this because my mother is such a person. read more »

Probably the most significant recent development in recorded music has been the arrival of the MP3 player in 1998, of which the most widely used is the Apple iPod, introduced in 2001. read more »

One of my pleasures in life, which I have been able to indulge more since retiring, is watching films. I prefer, generally, to watch films at the cinema rather than at home. Most films are best viewed on a large screen. My wife, however, does not always share my tastes in films (or music!) and I am sufficiently pathetic not to want to go to the cinema on my own. read more »

Working people often ask retired people what they find to do during the day. Well, here is an amusing story that my brother emailed me. read more »