Unexpected Polish Inquisition / February 20 2008
It is no wonder I sometimes feel paranoid.
Walking past the market place at about 8am this morning, I heard a gruff male voice call out, ‘Hey, Steve! You dog bloody bugger!’
It was one of the small congregation of Polish immigrants who assemble every day outside the cake shop awaiting the minibus that ferries them to [...]
Fabulous Animals / October 5 2007
I popped down to the shops last night to buy porridge and apples and was confronted by an unusual sight. There is no night-life to speak of here in the village so I was astonished to see a gaggle of heavily made-up and garishly dressed young women standing around outside the pet shop.
They were being [...]
Problem Solved / May 29 2007
Waiting in my inbox this morning was an email from a woman requesting urgent and personal congregation with me.
She appears to be East European though she does not specify exactly where she is from – but who the hell cares?
She begins her message in a very encouraging style:
‘Hello please. I like you introduce in perfect [...]
Gangmaster Flash / March 21 2007
The new people who have moved into Bernard’s old flat across the road from Audrey and me are from Belarus; six young workers in a one-bedroom apartment with hardly any furniture (there is no room for any!) and no curtains, in a village in Derbyshire.
I was talking to one of them, a bluff and amenable [...]
Neighbours / March 13 2007
This morning, Audrey and I are spying, through our net curtains, on the new tenants who are moving into Bernard’s old flat. (Bernard was the idiosyncratic old man who we used to occasionally meet in the street and who died recently - unexpectedly and completely alone.)
Unfortunately, they have a boom-box playing loudly in the uncarpeted [...]
