The Scribbler

I've just finished watching the last episode of ER. I can't think of many series that I've followed from the very first to last show, particularly over a period of some fifteen years. ER has always held a special place in my heart, not least because I saw the characters grow through the years, leave the hospital, in some cases even die off - but I knew that come January, my Monday/Tuesday/ Wednesday/Thursday (delete the appropriate night because Channel 4 kept on changing its mind) would be taken henceforth until the summer rays lit up firstly my parental home, then our first abode and finally the home in which I sit writing this up. Back in 1994, whenever the new medical drama called ER was first televised throughout the British Isles, I had recently completed my undergraduate degree. My MA hadn't been started and I really didn't have a clue about what I was going to end up doing or indeed, being. Life as a single man was interesting to say the least. Not many of ...

Many people have different ways of celebrating the arrival of spring and then summer. Some gingerly remove the clasps on their convertible roofs and push the lever that liberates their car from it's winter hibernation. Others choose to mark the occasion by freezing their bodies in early morning swims in Hyde Park's Serpantine lake. I take a different tact. I slip one band's music into my car stereo and as I'm listening to the Beach Boys' "All Summer Long" CD, I know that the wonderful season we all crave for can't be that far away. Let's talk about the last two days, because in the parlance of the Boys, they have indeed been filled with a lot of fun. On Sunday, my parents and I (Dana was unfortunately unable to join us) took the girls to Regents Park, a location that holds many fond childhood memories. The experience that I wished to share with them was that of boating on the lake. After waiting in line for a tad too long, we finally got into our r...

I have vivid memories of Pesach 1987. As usual, our family was staying in the Grand Beach Hotel in Tel Aviv, enjoying the luxuries being offered to us by the then manager, a very amenable chap called Benny who had befriended my parents. My dad bought the Jerusalem Post every day and I read the biggest news in Israel at that time - the ongoing trial of John Demjanjuk, under charges that he was Ivan the Terrible, a notorious SS guard who had committed the most indescribable savage atrocities at the Treblinka Concentration Camp between 1942 and 43. I'm not exaggerating that Israel was gripped by the events. This being before the onset of the first Intifada that December. It was without a doubt, the biggest news story of the day. This was the closest experience I could have of an Eichmann type trial, seeing that I hadn't been born when the former took place. I read the reports, watched the TV footage of the proceedings and continued to follow events when I got back to London and i...

I wonder who he got it from?

I know myself. There are certain things that I can guarantee I will always do, day after day after day.Exercising is not one of them. Well, that's not quite true - or doesn't seem to three-and-a-half months on. Do you remember that post I wrote back in January, telling you all about the fitness regime that I was undertaking in the humble surroundings of my living room? You can read the original post here . That was back in January and to my surprise, I'm still doing it, quite a few months on. So what's my secret? It's twofold. a) I've incorporated it into my "getting up" routine as I like to name it. I wake up, look at the alarm clock, do a few other morning things (which I won't go into here!) and make my way down to the darkened living room. I then lay a blanket on the parquet floor and use it as my exercise mat. Every day. Like clockwork. In the dark. This is augmented by a Rocky-style regime of three steps up and down the staircase, carried out...