What should we talk about today?
The world according to Kirkey
Our thumbs are useful for gripping, allowing fingers to click and acknowledging when things are OK or not so good. I also remember it being used in an elegant metaphor for night shift town centre foot patrol when I was a copper in the then concrete jungle of Bracknell’s pedestrianised shopping centre in the early … Read more
What seems a lifetime ago, aged sixteen, I was at college trying to figure out life, the universe, and what lay ahead. Cocooned with my college chums, often in the refectory smoking Gauloises cigarettes supplied by the rich Persian students, I realised that most of us didn’t have a clue what we wanted to become, … Read more
Watching Notts County demolish Barnet at The Hive this afternoon (I don’t often use that word when referring to Notts) I wondered how the opposing press reporter would spin such a battering? Then I thought about my time as the pitch side hack for Whitegrove Arrows, the local team that my son Adam played for … Read more
Who hasn’t watched the classic Farrelly brothers comedy ‘Dumb and Dumber’ without wishing they had worn incontinence pants? Observing the idiocy of others at close quarters whilst sitting comfortably in isolated judgment provides our egos with the propellant necessary to literally laugh out loud! Yet is stupidity, arguably a compelling human trait if based on … Read more
Whilst watching a classic speedway meeting on YouTube during my morning ablutions, as is my want, I smiled when the commentator cried out, “And that is a fairy-tale ending for Hans Andersen!” Referring to the Danish Speedway star, as he battled to a fine win in the Speedway World Cup, there was an unambiguous link … Read more
COVID-19 has forced many of us to reconstruct our leisure time. West End shows have been replaced by a slow shop in Waitrose whilst the car boot experience has been substituted by a meander around Aldi. The centre aisle of the budget supermarket is a cornucopia of chattels from mini flamethrowers to violin cases and … Read more
The former Prime Minister David Cameron’s willingness to respond ‘positively’ to requests for evidence in the Greensill scandal reminds me of the famous Richard Nixon quote, “There can be no whitewash at the White House” in his first Watergate speech in 1973. Those of a certain age will know how that poorly scripted contrition ended. … Read more
Buildbase FA Trophy semi-final Notts County 3 v Hornchurch FC 3 (Hornchurch FC win 5-4 on penalties) After that result I’m popping out to the shops. In 2007 The Daily Telegraph revealed that Notts were the most stressful team to support. Today they became the most embarrassing. Yet tomorrow I will wake up and still … Read more
When did we actually get mugged by the big corporates? Why can’t I simply buy a pair of black plimsolls and walk with my head held high? How come we yearn to be labelled? Like the perimeter advertising hoardings that enclose the Meadow Lane pitch of Notts County. And when did buying a cup of … Read more
Two events, separated by hours, which collided one Sunday afternoon connected several seemingly diverse subjects: the British Royal family, the cover of a magazine containing words of a foreign language I do not speak, court jesters, a psychological theory developed in the 1960’s, and my mum. The common thread holding together these odd bedfellows is … Read more