New Years Eve
So here we areTuesday 31st December, 2013. The end of another year, and everybody seems to be wilfully entering the mass hysteria of attaching some kind of m...
Posts from 2013
Skating Laughter Fear Anger And Fury
Our younger daughters have been going stir crazy hanging around the house following Christmas, so I finally did something about it yesterday morning.”Get you...
The Days Between Christmas And New Year
I always feel the few days between Christmas and New Year are a little disconnected from the rest of the year. Perhaps this year that sense is heightened bec...
Friday On Call
Today I am “on call” for work. I can’t complain, because I requested the entire Christmas period offtwo weeksand have only ended up having to cover support c...
The Eternal Optimist
While talking to my other half over a drink late last night, we joked about my optimistic outlook oneverything. At the time we were only joking, but when I t...
Christmas Day
I woke suddenly this morning, and took a few moments to gather my senses. I could hear Lady Gaga coming from the children’s bedroom, singing “Bad Romance”. A...
The Desolation Of Smaug
We just got back from taking the children to see the afternoon showing of “The Desolation of Smaug” at the cinema. I’m sure everybody and their dog has writt...
Never Say Never
I almost walked away from blogging this year. More than once. Thankfully, due to the hilariously low number of people that read the words I publish, I don’t ...
Alone On The Internet Ocean
Sometimes the internet can feel very lonely.
The Road Less Travelled
Sometimes, quite by chance, fueled by just the right amount of wine, just the right amount of stress, and just the right sentiments in a movie or book, we qu...
Adrift
I have been sitting in the dark with the faint glow of the laptop screen painted across my fingers for the last fifteen minutes. Rather than write anything I...
A Long Way From Home
After surviving a five hour train journey that took me into the bowels of London and back out to head north for two hours, I’m sitting in a hotel room 200 mi...
Simplification
Given how busy I have been in recent weeks and months, and given the proliferation of places I “exist” online, I’m thinking about killing off the written blo...
Burning The Candle At Both Ends
Its 1:18am, and I’m sitting in a hotel bed a hundred miles or so away from home. My days have been filled with teaching people clever stuff, and my evenings ...
Juggling Too Many Balls
Most people look forward to the weekend with a mixture of relief and optimism. My recent experience has been somewhat different, because invariably the two d...
Home From The Western Front
After a couple of days pretending to be a knowledgeable consultant about all manner of clever things, I am home this eveningnot before something of an advent...
Running Like Mad
The days and nights are running into each other at the moment, but it’s a situation of my own choosing so I can’t really complain. It would help if I didn’t ...
Burning The Candle At Both Ends
After spending the entire day at work fighting with mountains of source code, I returned home to begin all over again. As mentioned a little while ago, I hav...
Starring In My Own Truman Show
While running errands this morning, and attempting to make my way to rugby with the children, I started to suspect a number of camera crews were hidden on ea...
Back Yard Astronomy
After promising myself not to post photographs in the blog, I couldn’t resist sharing this one.
Casting A Wider Net
For the last year or so I have only been following “friends” on Twitterpeople I have come to know over the years that are either real world friends, or that ...
Friday Cannot End Quickly Enough
I can’t believe this week is almost over already. It seems like every day has whistled by, and every evening has been chewed up by something or other. Maybe ...
Working Through Lunch
I’ve been working on a fairly intractable round of changes and bug fixes to a software development project this morningthe same project that caused me to go ...
Visitors From Another World
Many years ago I picked up a copy of a book called “Communion” by Whitley Strieber. It told the (true) story of a series of strange episodes in his lifemany ...
Theme Hatred
You know the one where you choose a theme for your blog pretty much at random, because you can’t find anything you like, and you can’t justify spending any m...
The One Where I Forgot Nablopomo Nanowrimo And Movember
I completely forgot NaBloPoMo (“National Blog Posting Month”) was happening. I’m SUCH an idiot, it’s untrue. I just checked back through the last few posts h...
Headaches Rain And Programming
I’ve been working flat out on a programming project at work all morning (I’ll spare you the details), and now find myself wondering where the morning went. P...
Not Trying On Purpose
While cycling to work this morning through rain that was worse than I thought it was going to be, I started thinking about bloggingas I usually doand why I m...
Fireworks Retro Themes And Late Night Rambles
We took the kids out to see a firework display tonightour part in celebrating either the capture, or the hubris (depending on your thoughts about it) of Guy ...
Where The Hell Did He Go
It occurred to me this morning (when somebody kindly let me know about the nuclear spam bomb I inadvertently set of off on Saturday afternoon) that I didn’t ...
Oops
While monkeying with WordPress on Saturday, it appears that I inadvertantly spammed everybody following me to death. Something in the order of 175 notificati...
Tired And Hungry
A little while ago the sky darkened so much overhead that I began looking for “The Dark Mark” in the clouds. For a few minutes rain fell like it had only jus...
Winter Is Coming
This post is not a homage to the houses of Baratheon, Stark, Lannister and Targaryen (although I wish it was)it is in reference to the weather changing drama...
Being Lonesome George
The rest of this post is going to make little sense if you don’t know who “Lonesome George” was, so I’m going to give you the background first.”Lonesome Geor...
The Universe Slows Down On Friday
I wonder if any famous (or secret) mad scientists have ever measured the amount of time Friday takes to pass by. I’m pretty sure today is taking longer than ...
Getting Back On The Freelance Web Development Horse
I’ve decided to throw my hat back into the freelance web development ring. Just a few projects in my spare time. While the money will be nice, the real purpo...
Unimaginable Complexity
I wrote an insane chunk of programming todaywhile sickand am quietly pleased with myself. Just the fact that I was able to wrap my head around a multi-dimens...
Monday Can Go Suck It
I haven’t taken my temperature todayprobably for the same reason I rarely take tablets, or any kind of medication for anything really. I justknowI feel like ...
An Experiment In Cross Posting
For the next few weeks I am going to cross post to WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and LiveJournal. I’m not going to do any clever analysis of the platforms, but ...
Falling From The Knife Edge
It is in my nature to do whatever needs to be done to make those around me happy. You might liken it to walking along the edge of a knifewhere nobody really ...
And Then There Were Five
Miss Nine is home from her school trip. She spent the last week at an outward bound center, several hundred miles from home, with the rest of her school year...
Man Down
The virus that has swept our house for the last few days caught up with me this morning. Given that the team in the office is relatively small at times, it m...
We Could Power Monsteropolis
While walking home from town with our eldest daughter last weekend, she suddenly stopped, and crouched down to retrieve something from the side of the footpa...
Morning In London
This morning began a little before 6am, when my body clock anticipated the alarm clock by a few minutesit’s funny how it does that. While (I thought) quietly...
A Week Without Miss 9
A little voice crept across the landing this morning, and called outuncertainly to wake usafter waiting for my eyes to focus on the radio alarm clock, I told...
Larry Crowne
While flicking channels earlier this evening, and contemplating turning in for the night, I stumbled upon the opening scenes of the movie “Larry Crowne”, and...
Old Friends And Past Adventures
Memory is a curious thing. A single thread pulls away at a seam on the edge of your recollection, and before you know it swathes of past adventures are falli...
Words And Pictures
I’ve been wondering how much benefit photographs really bring to a “journal” style blog. Are they really necessary?At Tumblr you almosthave to post photos to...
The Apocalyptic Rage Of An 8 Year Old
While attempting to shepherd our daughters towards their beds at a somewhat acceptable time yesterday evening, the balance of power began an imperceptible sh...
Out Of Sorts
For the past few weeks I have struggled to find anything worth sharing with the small number that continue to read. In the quiet moments of the day, I have w...
Counting Friends
Last night we headed out with friends to a big hotel on the outskirts of town, ate a wonderful meal, applauded the local radio station awards, drank rather a...
The Benefits Of Cycling
I just came across this list of “benefits” of regular cycling while looking at another website, so thought I would go through them, and comment.1. Cycling gi...
Haircuts And Mobile Phone Hell
Before arriving at the office this morning, I delivered myself to the local barbers in the faint hope that the picture of gorgeousness that cut my hair last ...
Turning Thirteen
Our eldest daughter becomes a teenager this weekand celebrated her birthday a few days early by being taken shopping with her friends, and having a sleepover...
Unsuccessfully Unblogging
A little while ago I wrote a post called “Unblogging”a call to arms against the seemingly endless army of SEO experts, “professional” bloggers, and “social m...
Wrecking Ball
While searching for something new to listen to last night, I tripped over the biggest elephant in the internet room in recent memory”Wrecking Ball”the next r...
Chess
I don’t remember learning to play chess.
Truthful Tuesday
Earlier this year I lost the best friend I ever had. We would catch up with each other online every few days, share good times and bad, and confide thoughts ...
The Friendship River
Imagine your life is a river. It starts quietly, calmly, and slowly, but as time passes it travels, grows, experiences turbulence, droughts, floods, good tim...
When Candybar Phones Ruled The Earth
Late last night my pocket began singing to me. Given that I had not been drinking, I wondered if I was going mad. A far more plausible explanation provided a...
Revisiting The Raspberry Pi
The “Raspberry Pi” is a $35 computer that has been developed over the last few years to be sold into education, and the developing world. It uses off the she...
Katy Perry Roar
While listening to the radio this evening, I caught the end of the charts, and heard that Katy Perry is number one this week with “Roar”. A secret part of me...
100 Followers At Wordpress
I know it looks narcissistic to post about a particular number of followers being crossed, but given the number of times I have switched blog platforms over ...
Saturday Morning 8Am
The weekend is here, and the entire family seems to be exhaling, and relaxing into it. The children have only been back at school for a few days, but lurchin...
Somethings Got To Give
I am in a blogging black hole of my own making. Written posts go to WordPress. Words are cross posted to LiveJournal by hand. Photos go to Instagram. Photos ...
Back To School
The alarm clock woke me with the local radio station at 7 this morning. After a few moments daydreaming, and staring aimlessly at the ceiling, my other half ...
Forcing Change
Now the media has finally turned it’s attention to far more important things (like which countries are going to dare help Syria), I just wanted to say one th...
Swindon
Tonight finds me holed up high above the ground in the Holiday Inn Express, in Swindon town centre. Originally I planned to commute to and from the client si...
Camping With Friends
The remains of the school holidays were burned up this year with a group camping expedition organised by my better half, and several close friends. If the ho...
One Post At A Time
Once upon a time I could conjure words onto the screen as readily as water comes from a tap. They would flow, splashing across the page, dripping from one id...
Getting Back On The Horse
I’m back in the office todayfor the first time in several weeks. I’m not sure how I feel about it at the moment. On the way in this morning there was a creep...
Disconnected
Over the last few months I seem to have been edging slowly away from the online community. I wouldn’t perhaps describe it as “not trying”, as much as “not ca...
Sunday Morning With Sonic
The morning has gone something like this so far; get out of bed, shower, brush teeth, get dressed, wander down the road to buy milk, make coffee and toast, m...
The Doctor
While walking into town a little while ago, I passed two elderly ladies, chatting in the middle of the footpath. One was perhaps 75 years old, and the other ...
Every Wedding Ring Tells A Story
This is my wedding ring. I would like to say it was forged by goblin silversmiths in the fires of Mount Doom, but that wouldn’t be entirely true. It was actu...
Brain Dump
I’ve fallen completely off the blogging wagon in recent months, and I’m not entirely sure why. I’m resisting the temptation to explore the reasons, because i...
Snail Mail
After pedaling through driving rain on the way home tonight, I arrived home and met a tangled puzzle of childrens mountain bikes, heaped just inside the gard...
Reticulating Splines
If you’re wondering what on earth this post is all about, join the clubI don’t have a clue either. The title is a reference to the loading screen of Sim City...
Days Slip By
I took this week off worka gap opened in the calendar, I had days to use up, and I lunged at it. When the email confirmation arrived I was more surprised tha...
The Connection Corollary
While sitting here upon my Batman like perch, high above the social networks watching the posts drift past, I often see familiar shades of angst, loneliness,...
Getting Up Early When You Dont Have To
It’s Sunday morning, and for some reason known only to the depths of my brain, I was awake at 6:45am, and got up. Why is it that on work days, I will stare a...
Truthful Saturday
I’m good at mis-titling memes. That’s not the “truth” I set out to write about though. I’m also good at thread-drift, but that’s not what I was going to writ...
Taking A Stand
I keep reading postsnearly one a day at the momentfrom someone or other stating their “rules” for participation in either a particular social network, or an ...
Contemplating Darkness
While sorting through the various detritus in the study last night (we laughably refer to it as the studyit has more akin with Monica’s junk cupboard in “Fri...
The Girl I Used To Work With
We sat across from each other for the best part of three years. In some ways she reminded me of my younger selfher ability to remember everything, and to wor...
When 2 Hours Take 5
We left a distant client site in searing temperatures at 5pm last night, and set out on the journey homea journey that should have taken 2 hours only it didn...
First New Bicycle
I took our eldest to the bike shop in town yesterday morning to “look” at mountain bikes. She had no idea that I had already agreed a budget, and we might po...
The Weekend Arrives
It doesn’t really feel like the weekend has arrivedmore like I’ve managed to make it to the weekendon my knees, half stumbling, half falling across the line.
That Thing That You Do
Several people have asked what I do for a living recently, and it occurred to me that I very rarely give much away on the social interwebs any moreso I guess...
Better Than Life
It appears the incredibly lazy “journalists” at the Huffington Post just caught up with the series of photos that have been floating around the internet for ...
A Moment Of Clarity
For the last week or so I have been playing with LiveJournalperhaps the “last man standing” of the old blogging platforms. It was there at the start, and it ...
According To Greta
The living room is dark, the patio doors wide open, the house lights off, a fan is forcing air around the room, and a movie is quietly painting light across ...
That Was The Week That Was
I’m not quite sure how I got through this week, but I didor rather all evidence points to the face that today is indeed Friday, I am no longer in the office,...
And The Wheels Keep On Turning
The last few days have felt like I’m stuck in some kind of giant world-machine, swirling around, being thrown from place to place, and never being spat out. ...
The Remains Of The Day
I’m sitting in the study at home, listening to a compilation of soundtrack music from an old TV series called “One Tree Hill”. I’ve never actually seen an ep...
Haircut City
Before dragging myself into work this morning I stopped in town to get my hair chopped off by the prettiest lady possible. Normally this would mean the chain...
The One Where Sunday Ran Me Over Twice
Sunday could have turned out very differently. While my other half went out for the morning with our youngest, I tidied up, washed up, and made lunches for a...
Friends
The local brewery opened it’s doors for it’s bi-annual open weekend this morningand a group of us made our way to it in scorching temperatures to partake of ...
Un Friending
I wonder if the term “un-friending” is in the Oxford English Dictionary yet? Perhaps it should be, given that I felt compelled to un-friend somebody today. A...
Busy Going Nowhere
I seem to have been “off the radar” for months nownot really recording stories and thoughts as I used to. Sure, I’ve experimented with different blogs, diffe...
Monday Should Come With An Escape Plan
At about 6am this morning the sun was shining outside, the sky was blue, and that appeared to be all the encouragement the chickens needed to tell the entire...
The Things We Do To Avoid Being Shouted At
I don’t think it would be entirely innacurate to make the statement “I hate gardening more than anything else in the world”. Actually, there are a few other ...
Winning On Friday
I’m not entirely sure what happened to this week. It started badly, carried on being bad, and has now kind of fizzled out into the weekend (which will in all...
The Start Of Something Marvellously Idiotic
After posting a scruffy cartoon of myself on Tumblr the other day, a couple of friends around the internet banded together into an army of two or three, and ...
Procrastinating With Style
There should be a warning sticker on my forehead when I go to job interviews”if given pens and paper, will get nothing done”. While not entirely true, it’s t...
Living With Psychotic Maniacs
This photo (and the events of this morning, which I will get to later) are all the proof anybody should ever need that cats are not nice, cuddly, friendly cr...
Falling Through The Cracks
This post has sat in an open window on my desktop for over an hour so far. I guess most of the reason it got no further than half a sentence (that I just del...
Secretly Despicable
This afternoon we have secret tickets for a family outing to the cinema to see Despicable Me 2. The children have no idea at allin an outrageous exploitation...
Deep Under The Ground With Minecraft
Welcome to my refuge from the lurking horrors of the dark. It might look like a fairly ordinary bedroom, replete with books, pictures, torches, and a bed, bu...
A Healthy Fear Of Telephones
The telephone just rang on my desk, and a wave of dread crashed across the desk. I picked it up on the second ring, and went through the usual “work greeting...
Philanthropic Thoughts
This morning I have been reading about an organisation called “Code Club”. They back volunteer driven after-school clubs to teach children how to program com...
Is It Really Only Wednesday
I don’t seem to have anything earth shatteringly interesting to write about today, but I’m not about to let that stop me. I need a break from the stuff I’m d...
Apparently We All Suck
Last night our eldest daughter couldn’t find her socks for school. The same socks she had been running around the house flicking her younger sister with, and...
A Victim Of My Own Creation
For the last year or so I have struggled to find a voice while writing blog posts; struggled to find anything that I perceived to be of interest to write abo...
Resurrecting Buried Code
This is one of those rare times when I can talk about what I’m doing at work, although I’m not going to be tremendously specific about it. I’m resurrecting s...
Sunday Ends With Random Thoughts
I’ve installed a new theme into the WordPress blog, and am wondering how much more minimal I can getthis one gets pretty close to the limit. Given that I onl...
Man Of Steel
I had planned on taking our eldest daughter swimming this afternoonbut then the post arrived this morning with her school report, and all plans went out the ...
Please Let Friday Go Well
I was kind of hoping that Friday would redeem the week for me. I can’t say the signs are great, to be honest.
The One Where The Children Remind Me How To Smile
After enduring yet another horrible day at work where I figuratively bit my tongue, and buried all manner of bile and spite, I was kind of looking forward to...
Catching Up With Captain Slow
On the cycle into work this morning I managed to catch up with Captain Slow (the new guy) again. I was in the middle of listening to Carly Rae Jepsen on my m...
A Wanderer Returns
After a couple of days away with work, I return this evening to a mountain of email, a Tumblr dashboard a mile long, a neglected WordPress installation fille...
48 Hours Of Extremes
I sometimes wonder how much I understand about the world. While sailing a fairly straight course over the last few days, chaos has surrounded me.
Troubled
There used to be this little girl that lived across the road from usshe was always out playing in the park, or inviting herself into people’s houses. Her mot...
The Real Life Of A Software Developer
While most think we sit in darkened rooms, surrounded by junk, typing gibberish into screens full of gobbledegookwe do, sometimesthe reality is somewhat diff...
Its Friday Friday Gotta Get Down On Friday
Anybody else remember the Rebecca Black song? Just me? Finebut I bet it’s in your head nowor you’re about to go and search for it on YouTube, which will then...
Transcribed
A few excerpts from today’s brain dump in the notebook while sitting in the cafe next to the park; This little dog is running between the tables, off the lea...
Life The Universe And Everything
After spending the greater part of the afternoon and evening doing chores, cooking on the barbecue, and resolving numerous children’s arguments, I now find m...
The One Where Winning Made Me A Sore Loser
We have had an XBox 360 at home for the last year or so, with an online account so we can access movies and so on. During that time I’ve also played games, b...
Revenge
This afternoon I connected to XBox Live one more time - to “Forza Motorsport 4”. I had never played Forza 4 online either, and thought it might be interestin...
Thursday Thoughts
After a week or so playing with Google+ comments, I’m disconnecting them from the personal blog. They make sense for the techie blog, but not for this.
The One Where We Pretended To Know What We Were Doing
Yesterday evening I raced home from work and set about helping tidy the house up ahead of visitors arriving. Ever since adopting children, from time to time ...
The One Where I Had To Tell Them To Put Their Clothes Back On
Our younger daughters had a friend over last night for a sleepover. A boy. Which was fine. Right up to the point where I discovered a scene straight out of L...
Behold The Archive
After a lunchtime spent hacking around with an export from Google Drive, and a pile of disjointed and horrendously written Python code, I have uploaded the m...
Slowly Burning Out
It’s been a weekend. Really. Those are the only words that come to mind to describe it. I’m not quite sure where it all went (well, I am, but forming the las...
Eve Online
I’m in the process of downloading Eve Online - a massively multiplayer online role playing game where you get to play at being a starship captain. I doubt I ...
Falling Off The Edge Of The World
For the last few days my balance has been all over the place. At first I thought it might have had something to do with going on crazy fairground rides with ...
Returning To Azeroth
I’m installing World of Warcraft on the desktop machines at home. I played it under a free account last year for a while, and although I liked it, didn’t hav...
Rock The Moor
Anyone who follows me on the social networks will have seen the stream of photos appearing throughout yesterday of my family and our friends at a music festi...
Standing On The Precipice
I seem to be an agent of change this week. I deleted my Tumblr and Instagram accounts, removed KIK from my mobile, dived headlong into the newly recharged Go...
A Hummy Kind Of Week
I’m taking the chance to write a few words because I didn’t stop at lunchtime. My bizarre mental ethics are telling me to get on with some work regardless.
While busy monkeying with nothing in particular for the greater part of last night, I happened upon a news article listing announcements from Google IO - the...
Random Thoughts As The Sun Goes Down
A browser tab sat open on a blank blog post for several hours today, and nothing got typed into it. It’s been that kind of day - going further sideways than ...
What Can Happen Will Happen
I got up early this morning, with hopes of an easier morning routine - time to spare - time to sit down - time to eat breakfast with the children. Apparently...
Oatmealing Game Of Thrones
I watched two more episodes of Game of Thrones this evening - almost catching up with the broadcast schedule. We don’t have HBO, or Sky, so our only route to...
Reticulating Splines
In case you were banging your head against the desk, trying to recall where you saw the title of this post, let me put you out of your misery - it’s from “Si...
Questions And Answers
Compiled from a list of random questions I found on the interwebs for your interest and amusement… What kind of car do you drive?
Chasing Unremarkable
Since arriving back at WordPress I have been trying to get away from deep, thoughtful blog posts. Instead, I have endeavoured to record the mudane, the incon...
The One Where I Didnt Run
The local running race took place this morning in town - the same race that I half-heartedly began training for several months ago (if you can count going ru...
Obsessive Compulsive
Year by year, I’m getting worse. I’m not sure if it’s a reaction to living with quite possibly the most untidy, disorganised person in the world, or just bec...
One Dimensional Dance Show Shenanigans
For the last several weeks we have been keeping a secret from our children - a secret that nearly got blown on Friday morning, when several T-Shirts were acc...
Choosing A Birthday Present
This morning I was tasked with whisking Miss 8 into town aboard the rattliest scooter in the known universe to search out a birthday present for the little b...
Behold The Blogroll
In spite of original thoughts to keep this place bare bones, simple, and minimalist, I’m slowly adding, extending, and growing it’s virtual tentacles. It’s n...
Friday Morning 1Am
I’m playing that game where you avoid the arrival of tomorrow by staying up late tonight. Except it’s already tomorrow, so the game doesn’t really work at al...
An Hour To Go
I’m in a curious limbo hour this afternoon. I didn’t really stop at lunchtime, which means technically I could pack up and leave now - except I won’t - becau...
This Blog Needs A Banner
I’m working on it. Honest. Stupid really, isn’t it - I can write code that would floor most people, I can design websites, create WordPress themes from scrat...
Thinking Outside The Box
For the last several years I have only really followed a handful of blogs - most of them discovered during the inaugural running of “NaBloPoMo” (National Blo...
Splendid Isolation
In a perverse way, I’m kind of enjoying the fact that very few people have either found this blog, or are reading it so far. Of course this faux-anonymity wi...
The Abercrombie And Fitch Paradox
A friend posted on Facebook this evening about Abercrombie and Fitch’s marketing strategy - the fact that they don’t sell clothes beyond a certain size in th...
Taking The Red Pill
A dramatic title for a dramatic act. I just deleted all of the content from my Tumblr account, and posted the rabbit hole quote from The Matrix. After marvel...
Halfway Through The Week
Weeks that begin with bank holidays always seem a little strange. Somehow it’s already Wednesday. The morning is whistling past like some kind of fast train ...
Hello World
Writing some kind of “hello world” post would appear to be the “done thing” at this juncture - the beginning of a breadcrumb trail leading on to all manner o...
Freedom
There is a curious sense of freedom associated with “starting anew”. This blog can be anything I make of it, and I can choose to use it how I see fit. I’m th...
Foul Mouthed Old Women
Before leaving work this evening I called home to see if I needed to stop and get anything on the way. Silly question really. Twenty minutes later I found my...
Sunday With Friends
After a slightly crazy morning running here there and everywhere, the remains of Sunday were spent with good friendslaughing, telling stories, eating badly b...
We Danced All Night
I have been wandering around all morning humming music, and grinning.After racing home from work last night, and trying to clear the house up before the baby...
Have Skills Will Travel
For the past couple of days I have been falling out of bed at a ridiculous hour, thundering across the fields towards London, diving underneath the ground, a...
Late To The Batman Game
While wandering back from the swimming pool on Saturday afternoon we accidentally on purpose found ourselves in the local Computer Exchange place (read: nerd...
Cycling Home
While cycling home tonight I found my thoughts filled with the girl I have worked with for the last three years, who spends her last day working with me tomo...
The Final Tag Rugby Match Of The Season
Our middle daughter has played tag rugby for the past year - not the typical sport for a girl to be involved in, but then her little sister does Judo, and he...
Swimming With Miss 12
Midway through the morning my better half quietly wandered into the study and asked if I would take Miss 12 swimming. She has her first rowing lesson at scho...
A Night Out With Friends
To mark the departure of the girl I have shared an office with for the last three years, a group of us headed out yesterday evening - first to the local pub ...
The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants
Our eldest has been going through a tough time recently, so last night while her sisters were at Brownies I pushed everything else to one side, and gave her ...
Man Of Steel
I’m wonderfully contradictory when it comes to comic books - I love the idea of them, and I love the artwork, but I’ve never sought them out - never bought t...
Life At 40
In early March this year I passed a so-called significant milestone - 40 years on this ball of mud, spinning around our reluctant sun (or at least it seems r...
Another Weekend Rolls Past
I’ve been sitting on the couch for the last ten minutes, wondering what to write that might describe the weekend. I’m struggling to come up with anything wor...
The One Where Friday Didnt Happen
I fell out of bed a little after 7 this morning, stumbled down the stairs, jumped in the shower, transformed myself fromNeanderthalto homo sapiens sapiens, a...
Finding Time To Write
Saying “I do not have time at the moment” is the easiest excuse in the world. Of course we have time - we can make time. How many hours do we spend each week...
Books To Read
I’m thinking that perhaps if I share the list of books I would like to read some time soon (most of which I already own, or have borrowed from friends), it m...
The Remains Of The Snow
After waking from a strangely vivid dream in the early hours of the morning, the murmurs of little people eventually forced me to look at the alarm clock, an...
The Mobile Phone Waiting Game
I nearly caved this weekend. The contract is up on my old mobile, and I’m finally able to upgrade.
The One Where We Nearly Achieved Warp Speed On A Sledge
There had been plans to wander into town this morning in search of a new mobile phone. Somehow that plan got relegated after looking at my other half (who ha...
A Year Of Living Dangerously
Since focusing my blogging efforts over the last few weeks, a tap of sorts has been turned - a tap that pours words. It has left me wondering if my blogging ...
Through Different Eyes
I was talking to a wonderful friend on the other side of the world earlier, and the question of perception came up - how we see the world, and perhaps how th...
Going Against The Flow
Somebody I have followed for years, but never struck up conversation with collided with me mid-wander a few days ago as we quietly passed through each other’...
To Strive To Seek To Find And Not To Yield
While reading the posts of far flung friends this evening, I found myself drawn into their lives, their hopes, their happiness, and their sadness. It struck ...
Birthday Bowling
We took the little girl formerly known as Miss Eight bowling with her friends yesterday afternoon. After tipping out of work early, I made it home in time to...
Whats That Whistling Sound
I’m sitting in the study at home with a thick jumper on, trying to warm my body up after another Sunday morning stood at the edge of the rugby pitches in nea...
Angry Isnt The Word
This morning our eldest daughter stood at the side of a football pitch for an hour while the rest of the team played. She stood in near freezing temperatures...
One Chicken Down
When I left the house this morning, I filled the chicken food bin, opened the door to their run, and only two appeared. Normally we don’t worry about itthe r...
On Being Discovered
I swapped war stories recently with a great friend online who had their blog “discovered” by their family. I have been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
If Blogs Could Talk
Hello blog. I’ve never addressed you directly before, so thought this might be fun. I haven’t given it a great deal of thought before doing so, so you’ll for...
Hilarity On The Underground
While stood on the underground train travelling east beneath London, we arrived at one of the stations and a young guy with a beard and headphones scampered ...
Surfacing
On Friday afternoon the lovely girl that sits behind me wandered through the office and remarked “oh, you’re not in on Monday, are you”. I had no idea why sh...
Old People And Corner Shops
After extensive testing and field research, I have come to the conclusion that no matter what time you enter a corner shop, and no matter how empty the shop ...
Mathematics
Although I didn’t study mathematics past college, it’s always been something of a nerdy secret interest. While it’s true that math occasionally crosses paths...
Is The End Approaching
I’ve been caught in two minds about writing a personal blog over the last year - while I like to share thoughts, ideas, and opinions with the world, it all s...
Creative Failure Abounds And Yet We Persist
I used to write with so much more confidence than I do now. Well crafted posts - exploration of thoughts and experiences, wrapped in a literary style that I ...
Close Encounters Of The Scissored Kind
This morning I survived a close encounter with a pretty lady brandishing scissors. I had planned to go to the usual place where a disgruntled guy cuts my hai...
Busy Doing Nothing
I have been sitting here since tucking the younger children into bed an hour or so ago, and have achieved absolutely nothing.
A First World Problem
Our eldest daughter came home from School yesterday - her first day back after the Christmas break - and murmured something about her school friends getting ...
Embracing Your Inner Weirdness
Over the last month or so I have been trying to find more time for myself - listening to my own music, writing my own words, sharing the various photos I tak...
Saturday Morning 1015
It’s Saturday morning, and Miss Twelve is at football practice accompanied by W - who is no doubt huddled at the side of the pitch with her Kindle. I went to...
Old Friends In Dreams
While asleep, what little spare capacity seems to be left in my head decided it was time to crank out something worth watching - and created an entire play f...
The Reality Of Life With Three Young Children
While recognising that it has become increasingly rare for me to write about the children, I thought it might be timely to recount some of the observations I...
On Friendship Self Censorship And Deep Thoughts
It’s easy while working, commuting, washing up, tidying up, and generally doing your best to not offend, let down, or annoy anybody to forget who you are - w...
The Day The Internet Died
One afternoon some time ago, a small red cross appeared in the Windows system tray (this was back in the days before the Chromebook, or the Macbook).
Cycling To Work
I live close enough to the office to ride a mountain bike to work, and do so through sunshine, rain and snow.
Moleskine
The level of attachment I experience to such a seemingly trivial thing is a surprise - I can now understand why people become obsessive over notebooks, diari...
George
A little after eleven each evening - like clockwork - one of the three brothers arrives in the house, circles a spot on the sofa in the lounge, and settles d...
A Review Of The Year
2012 began with me working on a long term project that involved staying in hotels for weeks on end - missing most of the run-up to new year, and huge chunks ...