THE NEW LOOK GENE

Readers will recall that I made big new year's resolutions for 1st January 2019. 

So far so good. A vegetarian diet and no spirits. I drink only wine and beer now - mostly Chianti and Budweiser. Tuborg, my favourite, isn't so easy to find. I now drink in the Metropolitan or The Queen's Head both located in Windsor Street, Uxbridge.

I also on 31/12/2018 ceased shaving my head. It's now over twenty years since I first sported the shaven-head look. Then I was in my forties and it was a young, hip, cool, stylish look. Now that I am in my sixties I don't think it is appropriate anymore. My hair is now about a centimetre in length all over and is snow white - as is my goatee beard. Thankfully it's still very thick with just a little thining at the crown. It changes my appearance radically. I get people doing a second take and comments like, "Is that a wig Gene?" Also, absurdly, I get comments like: "There's something different about you. Have you had a haircut?"

Still, I think I cut an impressive figure as I walk through Uxbridge wearing my fawn duffel coat - exactly like that one worn by Trevor Howard in 'The Third Man'.