There is a belief in the modern world that anything to do with the latest technology must be good, must work properly, and is always worthwhile. I tend not to hold that belief, among other reasons for this: if technology is so perfect in what is produced, why do we need a new telephone, with…

One of the things which many people forget, when concocting their wonderful histories of the rise and fall of civilisation, it is that much relies on chance. Not everything is planned, and most certainly not everything planned comes out as it should. There are far too many factors involved, far too many things which we,…

I can well understand how a person who has been deserted or ignored for much if not all of their lives would suspect, after a very short period of time, that nothing has changed, that this relationship – in whatever form it might be – is going to go the same direction as all the…

Friendship is one of those strange things you have to work at, which changes from one day to the next, which rises and falls according to our emotions, our environment, reactions and opinions of others and, above all, our level of contact. Maintaining a friendship with a person you have known personally, who is no…

It seems to be a strange trait in humans, but we love looking into the dark side of things, exploring the depths of the soul for sinister mannerisms and peculiarities, attributes which explain our behaviour – after something has happened – or which clarify thoughts and desires which tend to be slightly off the mainstream…

If you cannot attract someone’s attention in the first sentence, you might just as well go home and give up on all your life plans right from that moment onward: there is no hope for you; you have failed; you will be destitute for the rest of your natural-born life, have no friends and die…

I keep all of my memories in a box. Well, that isn’t quite true, but I do have several boxes which contain nothing but letters I have received from my pen friends over the last year, and also a few boxes stored away which hold even older ones, from the Eighties and Nineties. And, of…

One of the wonderful things about letter writing is that occasionally a missive lands on your mat – or in the mailbox in my case – from a sender you do not recognise, have never heard of, have never suspected existed. Some people go out of their way to advertise themselves, while others simply take…

One of the highlights of my day, at least Monday to Saturday, is walking out of my house, the cat mewing at my heels because she knows I am going for a walk without her, turning right on the main street, and heading into town and the small substitute post office tucked into a corner…

There are some things which are slow, and some which simply take their time, and are often all the better for the extra waiting time involved. I must admit to a certain amount of surprise that a letter written by you takes eleven days to leave the facility, but I suppose everything has to run…