"Tartan Blanket" (circa-1968) From the day their mother and father informed family and friends that their daughter, Victoria had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, it took less than four months before her battle against the disease finally ended and her life slipped slowly away. In the last few days of her life her body had been reduced from a nine ston...
I guess it started back during my six years in the forces. Walking past a barbers shop in Turkey, Tom bet me that I would never be able to shave myself using the cut throat razor that the proprietor of the establishment in question wielded so effortlessly. I told him that I would have it nailed in two weeks and that I would even be able to do it without cu...
Chapter 40: The Start of a New Career To my surprise I woke up early and managed to get out of bed without waking them. I prepared coffee and sat the table, put a Mozart horn concerto on the CD and tried to finish my book. The weather was bad; it was pouring rain and winds were strong. Suddenly Maureen appeared. "James, you got up and left me alone. How cou...
Chapter 02 Accepted as a schoolgirl Unusually Bablee didn't wake up with the sun rising. Last night had been a fearsome experience, and she didn't get to sleep until late. The girls were lazy westerners and predictably were still asleep. She lay there thinking about that boy she had been in bed with. He was only eighteen, yet they had a sexual experience...
V: An explosive end to a career Chapter 37: The Blowup To my surprise, all of us were led to the First-Class Lounge and the explanation was Jenny's proud smile; Miss Efficiency in motion! Shortly before departure Jenny was called and came back smiling: both had been upgraded to First also. I have to admit that flying First Class is definitively more comfo...
Chapter 1 When Maisie Lott was in her late teens, her mother Emily sat her down, looking serious. Maisie braced herself for a lecture about the birds and bees and wondered if her somewhat out-of-date mother would then invite her front-running daughter, in terms of reading knowledge, to be informed about how the modern woman behaves in bed or on the kitchen...
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Chapter 27: Work and Fun in Sydney When we opened the door, we heard a noise and suddenly Mary Ann appeared. She had flowers and a vase in her hand and was as surprised as we were. "I expected you an hour later. I'd have finished everything and would have been gone!" Maureen went over to her, took the flowers out...
Winners, they say, are born. It is not just a question of the right combination of genes that combine to create a the particular physical or mental abilities, but a special quality of self belief bordering on arrogance at times, and the willingness to take risks when prudence would suggest caution. The other side of the coin is that apparent losers too, appe...
He has never met anyone quite like himself. At least he doesn't think so. And that's where the problem lies. If we could read the minds of others, would we find more similarities than differences? If so, what would be the consequences? To uphold the accepted values of our society we like to sit in parsimonious moral judgment of others. But do we secretly e...
Chapter 10: A Deepening Relationship The next two weeks were busy. We won a medium-sized account, but lost a slightly bigger one. I visited the customer in Sydney, I could not convince him, however, to stay with us. His argument was that the competitor had a lower price. I showed him that just the change from one system to the other and the re-programming o...