Get A Grip
Like so many over the last year, every Sunday, 6 o'clock for me, 5 o'clock for them, my family come together on Zoom and catch up on the past week's events. Recently my brother has had an issue with his front garden which has had a lockdown makeover. The fresh topsoil has been irresistible to all the cats in the Crystal Palace area, who have travelled far and wide to 'curl one out' on his flower bed to be. After trying various ineffectual things he has resorted to spreading some brambles across the protected area. To his annoyance a cat, like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible , tiptoed between the thorns and cocked his nose at my brother by burying an offering in his substrate. The family consensus was he was getting things out of proportion and needed to 'get a grip' as my mother used to say. This type of irrational thinking made me reflect on my school days and Mrs Darby who was my French teacher and form tutor (a very nice, rational, level headed w...