Good old bad old days of smoking

Remember the good old bad old days? We all smoked, sometimes behind the bike shed at school. It’s a no-no now.  Movies dating back pre-1990s had police detectives, spies and gangsters all puffing away madly. Smokey bars, clubs, casinos and crooks’ offices were the norm. For atmosphere, twirls of blueish smoke rose from ashtrays. Not any…

Read More

I am not the one

An old African saying goes like this: I am not the one It means denial. Did you take my bicycle? I am not the one  It also shifts the blame. The British are blaming Putin for all their strikes and troubles. Grant Shapps, a senior Tory Secretary of State, put it this way the other…

Read More

Plain to see, fair play’s gone

Once upon a time here at home in Zimbabwe a swap meant a fair swap – in the playground, two marbles for two crayons, one football card for another, licorice sweets for toffees, unless the school bully has had a hand in it. Later on, we swapped phone numbers. Today fair play exists neither in…

Read More

Mr Churchill the wiseacre (… er, wiseass)

If you saw my offering on schools in Zimbabwe, here are some of Winston Churchill’s quotations, wisdoms or otherwise that pupils at Churchill School might enjoy. (Sources credit:everywhere.)      I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us, cats look down on us, pigs treat us as equals.      An appeaser is…

Read More

A tale of two schools

  Mr Churchill and Mr Roosevelt enjoying humour at the height of WWII. Churchill apparently could be quite an amusing fellow. Here it looks like FDR is having a good belly laugh. Was it a somewhat risqué joke? The two men never got on well with each other; they were very different personalities. Comparatively straight-laced…

Read More

Babes do it better

In parts of the English speaking world builders and plumbers in loose trousers, when bending down for tricky tasks, show what’s known as ‘builders bum,’ or more politely rear-end cleavage. It comes in all shapes and sizes on building sites everywhere. This new dress shows how babes in the fashion industry can indeed do it…

Read More