Once upon a time in their marriage, Andrew did something really stupid. His wife Moira chewed him up for it. He apologised; they made up. However, from time to time, Moira would mention what he had done. ‘My dear,’ Andrew finally said one day, ‘why do you keep bringing that up? I thought your policy was ‘forgive and forget.’’ ‘It…

A good old friend of mine recently visited me with one of his sons as part of their father-and-son summer road trip. They stayed overnight at my place, a “quarter-star B&B”, as I call it due to its modest offerings. We had a good time catching up and sharing stories over delicious Indian food, which the early-primary-school-aged boy enjoyed as…

A stalk of freshly picked rhubarb, dipped in a small, designated bowl of white sugar for each bite, is my childhood memory of summer days spent at my granny’s allotment. Further down memory lane, a slice of bread dampened with water and sprinkled with white sugar was a toddler’s snack; in its fancier version, it was a slice of bread…

Let’s get political for the first time in my career! You might have heard that we have a new Prime Minister, appointed only last Monday. Political commentators and journalists had a great time in the run-up, analysing the man in question, speculating about his future agenda, and predicting who would form his government. One aspect of those ponderings that caught…

Coined about sixty-five years ago by American economist Thomas Schelling, the phrase “collateral damage” entered the US military’s official language during the Vietnam War to concisely describe any incidental and undesired death, injury or other damage inflicted, especially on civilians, as a result of military activity. Critics of the phrase claim it is a euphemism that dehumanises non-combatants killed or…