Category Archives: gone west

The saddest dog

Posted on September 9, 2024 by j futrell

This began some weeks ago as a sort of tribute to the saddest dog I’ve ever known. A dog with a quality of life many  less fortunate creatures could only dream of. Yet despite everything he seemed forever glum, his … Continue reading →

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Families – who needs ’em?

Posted on January 8, 2024 by j futrell

You know that feeling, when you think you’ve heard it all and then…you realise you haven’t got anywhere close. I had such an experience the other morning on a chill Harlyn Beach having been introduced to a woman in a … Continue reading →

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The case for porkies – Harlyn House

Posted on August 2, 2023 by j futrell

  I knew I was going to like this place the second I heard Little Feat’s Dixie Chicken coming over the tannoy; one of several notable firsts at The Pig. That’s not entirely true because I knew I was going … Continue reading →

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Endelienta – Amen to that

Posted on October 17, 2022 by j futrell

Times are definitely changing. Take a recent music concert in which I was expected to say, after a brief initiatory prayer, ‘amen’.  The fact that I was in a church may have had something to do with the religious angle … Continue reading →

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For Sonia

Posted on March 11, 2022 by j futrell

  I can see her over 20 years ago when she will have been younger than I am now in a black one piece swimming costume, slender and erect. The waist of a model and the shoulders of an athlete … Continue reading →

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Taking To The Hills – Malvern

Posted on January 25, 2022 by j futrell

  The most significant change to my life since being dumped from The Sunday Times by a man with a name synonymous with lavatory cleaning is no longer automatically being shown the best room in the hotel. Nowadays I must … Continue reading →

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A bigger SPLASH

Posted on November 5, 2021 by j futrell

  The most important thing for Kim and I to remember today (November 5) is to empty the bath. It remains half full or thereabouts for much of the week and sometimes longer, depending on how infrequently either of us … Continue reading →

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Ever been to south west London

Posted on June 3, 2021 by j futrell

…the riverbanks, avenues and playing fields, beat clubs and bars and clothes shops that were the architecture of my first twenty or so years; the first three in Manchester notwithstanding. An adolescence upon a  stretch of Thames that winds south … Continue reading →

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happy birthday

Posted on April 25, 2021 by j futrell

  When winter’s gone and chills are scant, Our thoughts do turn to Polyphant. Therein amid a blaze of grandiflora blooms,  A steadfast clock and sun drenched rooms, Each one radiant with wood and dust and webs and brass. Where … Continue reading →

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It’s a dog’s life on Tregirls

Posted on December 28, 2020 by j futrell

The oceanic panarama at Tregirls’ changes all the time. This half mile stretch of sand from St.George’s Well to Harbour Cove, washed by the Atlantic and patterned with a patchwork imprint of thousands of webbed feet, changes from one hour … Continue reading →

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