Michael Harling's Blog, page 15

A Man Walks into a Pub

Last Friday I went to my April Book Club meeting. I haven’t talked about Book Club on this blog because, well, the first rule of Book Club…

Anyway, this month was The Hearts Invisible Furiesby John Boyne, and if you haven’t read it, you should. I warn you, about halfway through I was tempted to fling the book across the room because the main character did something I couldn’t abide, and I lost all respect for him. If that happens to you, I encourage you to persevere. You’ll thank me. If, on the ...

1984 – 37 Years Later

In 1980, I bought a paperback version of 1984, figuring I should read it before the fateful year arrived. Forty-one years later, I’m still carrying that book around and I still have not read it. But this week, I finally picked it up and managed to move beyond its famous opening line:

“It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking 13…”

I’m well into the narrative now and I’m finding it unsettling. I think, if I had read it when I meant to, I might have taken it as a warning of wh...

1984 – 37 Year Later

In 1980, I bought a paperback version of 1984, figuring I should read it before the fateful year arrived. Forty-one years later, I’m still carrying that book around and I still have not read it. But this week, I finally picked it up and managed to move beyond its famous opening line:

“It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking 13…”

I’m well into the narrative now and I’m finding it unsettling. I think, if I had read it when I meant to, I might have taken it as warning of what...

By the Numbers

All of my working life, I had a dream: when I retired, I was going to take up painting. It was a dream that sustained me through many long years of gainful employment, thinking about what I could accomplish once I no longer needed to earn a living.

And so, one happy day, I retired, and my dream immediately foundered on the rocky shores of reality. Not only did I lack the time, I also found myself bereft of talent, or any noticeable desire. After all those years, it turns out I didn’t really want...

You Learn Something New Every Day

I have decided that 2021 is the year to put that bit of folk wisdom to the test. The challenge, however, is not merely in the learning.

For example: on the first day, I learned that scenes from the 1947 film Black Narcissus were filmed at Leonardslee Gardens, which is just down the road from where we live. This gave me unexpected delight and prompted me to begin this year-long odyssey.

The second day, I learned something, then forgot what it was. Later, through great mental effort, I managed to ...

A Dangerous Year of Reading

This past year may have been one huge cluster-fuck of bad news, but one of the good things to come out of it was I had a lot of time to read. So much so, that I have finished 2020 having read more books than ever before (I have a spreadsheet; of course I do). The not-so-great news is, even with all this reading time, I still only managed to finish 44 books, which tops my current record by a slim margin of 1, leaving me, in equal measure, pleased and chagrined. Additionally, and in the spirit of ...

An Early Christmas Present

 “Ask about getting a Shingles vaccine,” my wife says, as I prepare to leave for my flu jab.

Shingles? Isn’t that some medieval affliction, like cholera, typhoid fever, or the Black Death, and similarly consigned to the fringes of society? She assures me it is not, and is, furthermore, something I do not want to have.

And so, I ask the needle nurse about getting a Shingles vaccine. She tells me I won’t be eligible until I am 70. I am comfortable with that. I have never given Shingles a thought, an...

Lockdown 2.0

I ended my first Lockdown Diary on 18 July, and posted to this blog about it. The post ended with a mocked-up photo of my fictional, future Lockdown #2 diary. I don’t recall thinking that it would really happen, but here we are.

Lockdown 2.0 isn’t much like Lockdown version 1, however. In fact, if I didn’t know a lockdown was in progress, I might not even notice. (That, however, would mostly be down to me being so unobservant.)

The traffic is lively, but lighter, if you notice those sorts of thin...

Strange Coincidence

Long ago, in the Before Time — before Breixt, before Trump, before COVID — I began writing a fantasy/adventure series for my grandsons. Any dedicated reader of Postcards… will be aware of this, as I keep banging on about it. Previously, however, I have only talked in general about the series; today I am going to mention something quite specific.

The series involves Arthurian legend and a stone—an obsidian Scrying Mirror called the Talisman—that holds the power to save the Land or, in the wrong h...

Holiday II

We’ve just returned from holiday and, as usual, it already feels like we never left. There is laundry to be done, dishes to wash, and it seems that no one did the hoovering while we were gone.

Wait a minute! That’s the same thing I wrote last month. It’s like deja vu all over again.

But the truth is, we went on holiday. Again. This time up north, to Yorkshire, where we enjoyed the “atmospheric” (Read: clouds, rain and wind) scenery, which truly was stunning.

Scenic though it was, and even though we...