THE pattern is roughly the same each time. My wife is watching something on the screen. Every so often she’ll make the cringing expression as one of the characters does something cringeworthy or an “mm-TsnAWWW” when the heartstrings are tugged.

YOU could find out in advance, but it’s better to wait for the surprise. Walk along the carpeted corridor in anticipation. No it’s left, not right.

I CAN’T remember much from my formal education — just useful snippets: “Stony grey soil of Monaghan you burgled my bank of youth”; the stages of development of an oxbow lake; how long it takes for an oven to cool if the oven-door is left open; and the Hardness Index.

It may surprise you to know that these columns sometimes are a bit of a struggle to write. I know! You’d be thinking - surely there can’t be much skill required in horsing out 600 words off the top of one’s head on a topic you’ve no formal qualifications to write about?

THEY say that music hath the power to soothe the savage breast. 

LOGOS. They’re everywhere. We take them for granted. But as soon as you change them ... well, be prepared for a backlash.