Relatively rude
Switzerland has minted a gold coin so small you’d need to look very closely to see Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue at you.

Cool for cats
Not being the owner of a cat I had never realised that those feline fiends are scared of cucumbers. Apparently it’s all down to ‘biological preparedness.’
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Pranked outback
An ITV reporter was tricked into donning body armour to protect her from the dangerous ‘drop bear’ she was holding in a report on the Australian bushfires.

Home alone
Spotify has launched playlists and podcasts for dogs to listen to when they are left at home alone. Read more ›››

Weirdo
The latest to answer Dominic Cummings call to recruit ‘weirdos’ and ‘misfits’ to join the civil service is that shrinking violet Uri Geller. Personally, I think we have enough weirdos and misfits in Whitehall already – I call them politicians.

Name game
Lucius, Acasius, Earl and Grey are among the 21 boy names predicted to be all the rage in 2020. Speaking of names Read more ›››

Having accepted an offer on our house and with nowhere to go we embarked on a hectic round of twenty viewings over two weeks in June.

We saw bungalows, houses and apartments but none quite ticked all the boxes. There is small and then there is too small. Others were lovely but out on a limb as far as amenities are concerned while others were madly overpriced. Read more ›››

As I wrote yesterday, with both me and Mrs P happily retired and the kids having left home it seemed the right time to move house.

Don’t get me wrong, we loved what had been our home for nineteen years but with its dozen or so rooms we found ourselves rattling about our Victorian semi. And if I’m honest, it was looking a little tired and in need of a new family to make their mark on it. Read more ›››

2019 was a funny old year for all sorts of reasons. We had the madness that was Brexit with the country polarising into two irreconcilable camps of unicorn chasers and sunny upland scoffers.

Brexit saw off Theresa May to be replaced by the serial liar and all-round buffoon Boris Johnson. He called a general election in which the Tories increased their share of the popular vote by 1.2% that translated into a net gain of 47 seats. Read more ›››