Legend of the Liathmór
Irish mythology tells of the Liathmór, a vast and malign entity that would cover the entire world with a thick, grey ‘Blanket of Dispair’ for years at a time. The sun would be completely obscured and the people condemned to a cold and dismal subsistence. So long would the Liathmór’s blanket block the light that, indeed, […]
Toast: An Insight To The Mind
Time and again, proper science research has shown that you can tell a lot about a person’s character by how they butter their toast. Typically, the shy and retiring scientists have always chosen to shun the limelight and this research has languished in dusty, though worthy, tomes in The Big Library Of Science. Until now. […]
The Circle Of Life
1. Wife buys various flora with plans to plant in gargen. 2. Wife leaves them in back yard until she gets around to it. 3. Plants keep blowing over and rolling around garden. 4. I repeatedly pick them up—scooping back up as much compost as I can—for four to six months. 5. Plants die. Go […]
I Need Some Time Alone
I think future generations will not know how to be alone*. I’m relatively certain that’s a rare enough skill now but, next time you’re out for a drink, keep an eye on any pair of people in the pub. When one leaves to use the bathroom or queue for a pint, the person left behind […]
IMG: Testing
Testing WordPress from iPhone. Fully expect this to go awfully, horribly wrong.
Christopher Hitchens
Hearing of the death of someone you don’t personally know, yet whom you admire, is always a little odd. You can feel that your distanced sense of loss is a little disingenuous; that it hasn’t been earned. When the deceased is well-known and likely to be the subject of much tribute, there’s also the natural disinclination to […]
The Rest Is Silence
Dark. Nothing. Not nothing. Faint and faraway, an electronic heartbeat. Rhythmic. Even. Then a voice, distant too, somewhere in the black. “…And then brain death will occur.” Sympathetic sounding; a nurse. I know it’s a nurse and I know I’m dying. No idea how. Know it, just know it. Suddenly cold. Not uncomfortable, just a […]
Healthy, Wealthy and Wise
I am certainly not one of those things. The other two are reasonably debatable too. What I am is a, reborn, early-riser. I am up and about before even the sluggard larks have bothered stretching their sleepy wings and hopping out of their cosy nests. Lazy lark bastards. It pains me greatly that the beginning […]
Count The Cost
I am attempting a new regime. Since my daughter started the latest term of school, a couple of changes from the previous year have altered my/our routine. The upshot of these changes is that I have less time to do certain activities and what time I do have is fragmented. This has led to a […]
The Beginning Of Life?
It is my birthday. I am no longer a young man. It’s official now. It is the birthday that dare not speak its name. The birthday at which life is supposed to begin. I’m unsure about this. It seems the stuff of well-wishers and self-deluders. That said, I don’t feel any different than I did […]
keep looking »Gerry Hayes
I mostly sit around all day and drink tea. Occasionally, I write stuff and send it to strangers so they can humiliate me and deride my efforts. Other than the self-harm to dull the shame of failure, it's not a bad life. Like I say, there's tea.
More information...