The world according to Kirkey
When I was about eight years old my mum donned a large headscarf, equally enormous earrings, and looked into a crystal ball. I vividly remember this spectacle since she was performing a charade as a clairvoyant at the local school fete. It was a crude and rather comical caper, although people still paid to have … Read more
One Christmas Eve, aged around ten, I heard some odd shuffling noises coming from the landing. Tucked up in bed I decided to investigate, but I had to be cunning since my parents had given me a clear directive, “If you don’t go to sleep Father Christmas won’t come!” Lifting myself gingerly onto the chest … Read more
When SCB referee Si Humphrey-Kennett kindly agreed to talk to me I thought it only fair that I meet him on his own turf in Kent. Waiting patiently outside Specsavers I was a little disappointed when he left and walked straight past me. I hollered out, “You cannot be serious!” Perhaps not exactly a true … Read more
What’s in a brand? Surely if you like something you simply buy it. Maybe so, but what makes you want to select it in the first place, and often remain loyal? According to research by Nielssen and Meijers in 2011, overt displays of high-end consumer consumption promote positive behaviour in social interactions. Field research showed … Read more
The really important moments in my life are usually accompanied by tears or, at the very least, a glazing of my eyeballs. These trigger events don’t necessarily have to be dramatic, seismic, or signal loss and tragedy. My bouts of significant self-reflection are often partnered with the most ordinary events, like a trip to the … Read more
As a kid I remember being traumatised if I had to sit with my parents in the living room whilst any political programme was being aired on the telly. I vividly recall Sunday afternoons being hijacked by an epically long monologue presented by the late (and great) Brian Waldron. Remember that in those days of … Read more
I often daydream. Indeed, as I have matured this pastime has become more regular, extended, and bizarre – culminating in forgetting to do stuff I had promised to do; for example, turning the oven on for dinner, putting the bins out or making that call. Laying on the beach without the same domestic pressures bearing … Read more
The cold evening chill against my face only added to my already heightened sense of anticipation. Slayings, subterfuge, and the sinister story of London’s first recorded serial killer was only moments away. How was I so certain? This was at least my fifth walking tour of the killing grounds of Jack the Ripper. Standing on … Read more
As World leaders gathered in Glasgow in a battle to save the planet, a somewhat lesser conflict was about to erupt in the same city. I didn’t see any premiers at the Peugeot Ashfield Stadium where Glasgow Tigers took on the Poole Pirates in the first leg of the Championship play-off final, although the old … Read more
Come with me on a journey connecting the solar system with the ground beneath your feet. No, go even deeper than that to the very core. The DNA that makes you you; where the past, present, and future collide in a triumphant spectacle of the molecular and the mega; where life, death and the very … Read more