there-could-be-a-sting-in-the-tale

Shortly after lockdown was announced, Debbie returned home after work and was attacked by someone wearing a mask to hide their face as she opened her door. Instead of being scared though, Debbie was excited. The guy wearing the mask was her boyfriend Darren and this was a roleplay sex scenario they had planned in detail over several evenings beforehand. The wild card here was Daz had refused to say precisely when he proposed to put the plan into action. He thought it would add to the drama. Now Debbie knew and she swung into her rehearsed response. Later, when they’d finished, Daz and Debbie lay in bed with the laptop and analysed what had transpired. This was easy to do, as the whole scenario had been filmed. It was an early attempt by them to create a sex video. Daz thought he’d been pretty bloody amazing given the lack of space available. Although he didn’t mention it, he also thought there was little chance Debbie would make it in the porn business. She ticked all the boxes as ...

As woodpigeons go, Sidney is somewhat unusual (see Sidney the Woodpigeon Part 1 for further details). He’s smart, wants to contribute something to society, and can speak to owls. He’s also lamenting the recent death of his best pigeon friend, Cyril, who expired in what Sidney considers a tragic, if wholly unexpected, consequence of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The fallout from Cyril’s failure to avoid being hit by an airgun pellet is beginning to slowly recede now, some seven days after it happened, but Florrie, Cyril’s widow, remains inconsolable. Rita, Sidney’s other half, is doing sterling work keeping Florrie busy and occupied, but it’s obviously hard work. When she gets back to the roost under the canal bridge after a day with Florrie she’s mentally and physically exhausted. Fortunately, Sidney is at a bit of a loose end work-wise at the moment, so whilst she’s out he’s plenty of time to keep the roost tidy and prepare a few nibbles for her to eat whilst she unloads the e...

Although it wasn’t obvious to the onlooker, the lockdown was hurting some members of the pigeon community as well as the human one. We will concentrate on some of those belonging to the common woodpigeon (genus Columba Palumbus) group. The two fat woodpigeons were perched on the ridging tiles of the roof of the detached house on the bland estate, just looking. Nowadays, they had no plan as such; they were waiting for either inspiration or a fright to galvanise them into action. Inevitably, it was the latter that happened first. A car door would slam, or a window open nearby. Occasionally, the house owner would spot them and clap their hands to scare them away. It usually worked, but not for very long. Once airborne, it was a simply a question of identifying a suitable garden in which to land and begin the process of pecking around to see what was available. Maybe trash a few flowers as well; possibly leave a black and white calling card on the patio paving. Our woodpigeons had rece...

It’s very depressing when the numbers of people dying from or testing positive for Covid-19 are released each day. Everyone wants the numbers to come down, but whilst the testing figures are suggesting better things, the deaths figure remains stubbornly high. A reduction here would surely provide the population with some much-needed good news, and possibly signal a further easing of lockdown restrictions. The desperation for explanations, answers and future concerns about the virus is evident in all newspapers, which speculate on who is more likely to contract the virus (it varies according to your newspaper of choice), how it will affect you (it varies according to your newspaper of choice), and how long the virus will be around (it varies…see previous comments), confirms there is a real need for accurate statistical information to be made available that allows informed decisions to be reached and policy formed. Without this, uninformed opinions and misinformation spread across soci...

As we all go about our lives we bump into people (a phrase not perhaps absolutely accurate in the days of lockdown) wherever we go. It’s inevitable. We live in a society that needs to communicate, directly or indirectly, to survive. We don’t know anything about the vast majority of these individuals, yet statistically they aren’t all as wonderful as we would hope to think they are. Just look at the stories on TV, in newspapers or described in more lurid detail in social media posts each day. Everyone is entitled to keep their private life, well, private but how much of a person’s past should be revealed to the world at large if the person in question is trying making efforts to put a dark past behind them? And should society be allowed to judge someone now for errors, mistakes or misguided behaviour in the past? Consider Michelle, for instance. A long time before the words ‘coronavirus’ and ‘pandemic’ entered common parlance, and the daily briefing related to a Sky Sports feature, Mi...