New Years Day
It always seems like the first post of a new year should have some important news to impart - the story of an adventure, an intelligent insight, or something...
Posts from 2018
Not Making Resolutions
So. Here you are. You made it to the end of another year, and so did I. I seem to have made it by the rather unoriginal method of putting one foot in front o...
One Day Left
At midnight tomorrow night the ball of mud we live on will spin a little further around the vast nuclear reactor it orbits. The day that follows will be pret...
Inbetween
Christmas already seems like a memory - which is a strange thing to say, because it was only a few days ago - but it is already falling into the past - somet...
Christmas
Just glancing at the clock, it’s a little after 10pm on “Boxing Day” - the day after Christmas Day. I’m not sure if other countries around the world call it ...
Christmas Eve
I spent the majority of today working from home - sitting at the desk in the junk room accompanied by my work laptop, mobile phone, and bullet journal. Elsew...
Two More Sleeps
The last few days have been a blur. After visiting friends on Friday night for drinks and curry, I spent most of Saturday washing clothes, tidying the house,...
Falling In Holes
The days are ticking down rapidly towards Christmas. I’m working through the holidays for the first time since having children. They are a little more grown ...
The Sun Doesnt Wait
While listening to a podcast en-route to work this morning, mention was made of a saying that had stuck with the presenter for years - “the Sun doesn’t wait”...
Burning The Candle At Both Ends
I’m not entirely sure how I’m still awake. After an invitation to dinner with friends yesterday evening, arriving home in the early hours, we were awoken wit...
Kaspar
I’m sitting in the junk room late on Sunday evening. Spotify is playing a quiet playlist in the background, and I’m sitting at the desk tapping away at the k...
Making It To Friday
I think there should be an award for making it to Friday afternoon. Or maybe an award for making it to the end of every day. If there was an award for every ...
Sitting In The Corner Rambling
You might think that after publishing somewhere in the region of four and a half thousand posts over the last sixteen years that I would be able to just sit ...
Memories Of The 486
One day, late in the autumn of 1991, my Dad floated the idea with me of selling the Atari ST, and buying a PC to replace it. We hadn’t been using the Atari f...
Unexpected Disasters
While sitting at my desk at work this morning, fielding calls from Germany, and wondering quite why the ridiculously complex invention on the screen in front...
Gulp
If you’re reading this, it means I finally left the relative safety of wordpress.com, and setup a blog outside the city borders. I’m on my own out here, wond...
Trapped In The Walled Garden
This evening I have been quietly working out what it would cost to leave the WordPress walled garden, and go it alone - host my own instance on some webspace...
Breaking Down
We were supposed to be visiting a foster carer looking after a young cat for the RSPCA today (the “Royal Society for the Protection of Animals, if you live o...
Sideways
Every time I sit down to write a blog post at the moment, something happens - or rather, something distracts me. You may have noticed the appearances of huge...
Memories Of West Oxfordshire College
The secondary school I went to didn’t have a sixth form - so after taking your GCSE exams, you had to make a choice between moving to the sixth form at Burfo...
Going Postal
Those that have followed my recent adventures on the internet will have seen both my retro-mac inspired run at NaNoWriMo, and the experiment with “Tiny Lette...
Keeping My Mouth Shut
I almost wrote a furious post at lunchtime about something that happened at the weekend - a series of things that happened at the weekend really - a direct r...
Secondary School
Another excerpt from this year’s NaNoWriMo - Enjoy!
Infant And Junior School
While sitting at the departure gate in Frankfurt Airport, waiting for my flight home, is occurred to me that I might release another chunk of this year’s NaN...
Final Day
I planned to write last night, but got sucked in by the World Chess Championship. Rather than go out for something to eat, I bought food from the supermarket...
9 Davis Close
I took part in NaNoWriMo this year, and set about recording a slew of memories from my early life. This is a small excerpt. Enjoy!
Strange Dreams And Distant Friends
I woke with a start this morning when the alarm clock went off on my mobile phone. I had been having a dream about a baby elephant chasing a guy along a beac...
Monday Morning Airport Club
The alarm on my phone erupted at 6am this morning, and woke me with a start. I don’t remember the dream now, but I remember wanting to return to it. I watche...
The Remains Of The Weekend
It’s 4:30pm on Sunday afternoon, and you find me sitting in the junk room, emptying my head into the keyboard of the old computer. It’s been making strange n...
The Return Of Blogging
Do you ever have the sense that something around you is different - that something has changed? Over the last few days I have become increasingly aware that ...
Bumhole
No, this blog post is not about questionable sexual escapades - apologies if that’s what you were expecting. It’s also not about a lunatic shooting somebody ...
Tinkering
I have spent the evening tinkering with the new “Twenty Nineteen” theme that’s in sort-of-secret development at WordPress. It’s not generally available yet, ...
Procrastinating Famously
I’m sitting at work, in the middle of the afternoon, procrastinating famously. It feels like I’ve been living in a bubble recently - apart from the co-worker...
Phone Charge Anxiety
While traveling home from London on Saturday evening, the battery on my mobile phone died - much to the amusement of my eldest daughter, who I had accompanie...
Black Cats
It’s now a couple of weeks since we said goodbye to Sam, and whispered conversations have begun to gather pace around the house - wondering if George, the re...
Hyperjapan
I’m catching the early train to London tomorrow morning with Miss 18 - we are visiting HyperJapan - an expo of everything to do with Japanese culture - food,...
Disappointed
While noodling around on the web this evening, I looked at a few of the more famous “A-List” blogs - to see if they are still going - and if their writing is...
Crossing The Finish Line
I wonder if it’s against the rules to wrap up this idiotic escapade with a few words about the experience of taking part in NaNoWriMo ?
Nearing The Summit
I’m not really sure why I’m trying to write fifty thousand words during November any more - I’m just kind of “doing it”, because I thought it would be a roma...
Halfway There
It feels like I’ve broken the blogging or journaling habit. While writing upwards of two thousand words a day for “National Novel Writing Month”, it hasn’t e...
Watching From Afar
The last 24 hours have been an interesting experience - watching results roll in from the American mid-term elections. I have no part in the circus - I live ...
Goodbye Sam
While running back and forth through the hallway to our front door last Thursday, Sam sat in the way - cleaning himself. He didn’t seem too keen to move, and...
Lots And Lots Of Words
I stayed up until midnight on Wednesday night, and wrote eighteen hundred words before falling into bed a little after 1am. I then wrote during lunchtime yes...
The Good And The Bad
While cycling home from work this evening through the early-evening darkness, an entire family walked out in front of me. The family comprised of two adults ...
Ignoring Hints From The Universe
I should really be taking the hint from the universe about attempting to complete NaNoWriMo this year. Life and work seem to be conspiring to warn me off it ...
The Stars Return
While walking into town this evening with Miss 13 on a doomed mission to purchase tea lights for the pumpkins the children have been carving for Halloween, I...
Oh To Be Thirteen Again
It’s been a strange day. I got up early, and after having a shower and getting dressed, noodled around with this and that around the house - putting things a...
In Fear Of The Mountain
A few days ago - when I made the decision to have a crack at NaNoWriMo this year, it seemed kind of like a mountain in the distance. I could see all of it, a...
The Calm Before The Storm
With seven days left until the idiocy of NaNoWriMo begins, it feels very much like the calm before the storm.
Sixteen Hundred Words
While tidying the study this evening, I looked at the games console and flat-screen television that have been taking up the desk in the corner, and that have...
Brain Dump
I’m not entirely sure where to start. I haven’t really sat down for longer than ten minutes all day. I’ve cleared all the washing, hoovered downstairs, clean...
Making It To The End Of The Week
So much could have been written about this week. So much. Of course none of it would have been useful, insightful, or interesting. It would have been cathart...
Resurfacing
I’m not doing very well at posting on anything like a regular basis, am I. Let’s just say that this week has been challenging, and I’m not going to write abo...
Never Ending
Today didn’t slow down, and certainly didn’t stop. The morning was spent filing expenses for last week’s adventure in Germany, and the afternoon knee deep in...
Rain
I’m sitting in the junk room at home, trying to warm up after spending the greater part of the morning in the rain, watching our middle girl take part in rug...
Recharging
While working my way through chores around the house today, a huge wave of tiredness has rolled through me. I think this is just the after-effects of working...
Friendship And The Internet
Being a distant friend on the internet is incredibly difficult sometimes. When those I have come to know are facing problems, my first instinct is to try and...
Padlocks
I made it through the third and final day working on-site - I fly home in the morning.
The South Side Of The River
After work this evening I went for a bit of a walk - the original intention had been to find a Japanese restaurant I’ve eaten at before, but discovering a nu...
Unintentionally Faking It
After work this evening I wandered back to the hotel, got changed, and made my way up the street towards the faux American bar I’ve visited a few times durin...
Monday Morning 9Am
The clock has just ticked around to 9am. I’m sitting in the heart of Heathrow Airport in London, a few yards away from one of the departures boards. My fligh...
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Opera
If you were expecting a blog post vaguely resembling the plot of the little known movie “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, you’re going to be ...
Preparing To Travel
A travel case sits on the desk across the study from me, filled with clean clothes ahead of another week in Germany. I’ve decided to hedge my bets about the ...
Miserable
After waking to a blanket of grey skies this morning, the weather has been growing steadily worse. A fine mist of rain is now falling, painting the roads and...
Missing A Day
Somehow, missing a day in the blog has become a “thing”. As I was getting ready for bed yesterday evening, it occurred to me that I hadn’t posted anything. I...
An Unexpected Movie Night
When I leave work on an evening, I call home. Invariably Miss 13 picks the phone up - she has been trained by my other half as an evil receptionist - this be...
Contradictions
It’s almost half past seven in the evening, dinner is finished, the washing up is done, the kitchen is clean, the washing machine is on, and I’m in the dark ...
First Eye Test In 5 Years
While sitting at work last Tuesday morning, I rubbed the tiredness from my left eye, and pain shot through my eye. I thought perhaps I had pulled an eyelash ...
Going Out Out
I’m sitting in the study at home (a rather grand title for the junk room, but it sounds sophisticated), at the old desktop computer, trying to think of where...
In Need Of The Weekend
Step away from the keyboard. Just step away from the keyboard. For a few minutes. Those are the words I find myself repeating - to myself. Take a break. Walk...
Finding A Reason
My writing used to be so much better than it is now. Well crafted posts. Explorations of thoughts and experiences, wrapped in a literary style that I’ve lost...
On The Outside
While scrolling through Tumblr this morning I started reminiscing about the “meetups” they once helped their users stage. You could register a meetup on the ...
The Fool On The Hill
Sometimes it feels like I’m this crazy person, sitting under a tree on a hill-top a little way out of town, typing away furiously on an imaginary typewriter,...
Autumn Arrives
It’s mid-morning on Monday and I’m taking a break from the mayhem for a few minutes. The day began in somewhat chaotic fashion, due to my other half picking ...
Apples And Pears
I hadn’t planned on writing a second post today, but after spectacularly losing several games of chess in a row online against lower rated opponents, I thoug...
Sunday Morning 9Am
While out for dinner with the newly crowned Miss 18 and the rest of the family and in-laws last night, I suggested that I might take her to London today - to...
From Keyboard To Screen
I have re-installed both my old desktop computer and laptop with “Elementary OS”. It’s a flavour of Linux that has been growing in pupularity over the last f...
Miscellaneous
Memory is a curious thing. While clearing the kitchen up last night I had a really good idea for a blog post. Unfortunately all I can now remember is that I ...
Returning To Frankfurt
I’m returning to Frankfurt again - during the second week of October. I still need to book a taxi transfer to the airport, but everything else is now in plac...
Turning Eighteen
At dinner last night I gently reminded our daughter about the reality of the situation she would face this morning. Yes, she can now buy alcohol, watch adult...
The In Between
I feel like I’m in-between everything at the moment, and I don’t know how to explain it. Not just in-between doing things more like I have fallen into some k...
Chess
While browsing YouTube videos late one evening a few months ago, I happened upon a presentation about the Google Alpha Zero project. If you’ve not heard of i...
A Very Short Post
Just a few words to tell those of you that follow me that everything is fine, there is nothing wrong, and the gaps in my almost-daily posts are just down to ...
Another Normal
After escaping late from the office this evening I returned to the hotel, folded my work clothes back into my case instead of preparing them for the morning ...
Walking The Streets
This post was going to be a rant-laden bucket of foaming invective about the failures of the Germany rail network, and the catalogue of first world failures ...
Departure Lounge
It’s 8:55am, and you find me sitting in the middle of the departure lounge at London Heathrow airport. I woke at 6am, had a shower, then made bacon sandwiche...
Footholds
I have somehow ended up with almost identical blogs at WordPress, Tumblr, and LiveJournal. Yes, LiveJournal still exists - stop laughing. Anyway - cutting a ...
Unbeliever
There was a knock at the door a few moments ago. A rather loud and confident knock. I made me way to the door, wondering if it might be the little boy that l...
Falling Into The Weekend
I’ve been sitting in front of the computer in the junk room for the last hour, thinking I should post something or other, but no words are appearing on the s...
Perceptions And Assumptions
Several times in the last few days I have caught myself worrying about what people might think about entirely innocent situations I write about, or find myse...
Things That Go Bump In The Night
After reading a few posts about various people’s personal experiences with ghosts recently, I thought it might be interesting to share my own. Only they are ...
Scattered Memories
Today is the last “official” day of my holiday. My other half has returned to work, our middle girl has returned to school, Miss 17 starts her new college co...
The Journey Home
Sound filled the room at 3am this morning, rousing me from fitful dreams and causing me to stumble across the room to reach the phone it was coming from. Aft...
Preparing To Travel
Today feels like we are in a curious sort of limbo. A taxi will arrive outside our house at 6am tomorrow morning to take us to the airport. From there we wil...
Slowly And Quietly
I’m writing this a few minutes after 9am on Sunday morning. Summer seems to be ebbing away - the mornings are becoming a little colder - a little less inviti...
Books Movies And Music
This evening finds me filling an Amazon tablet with books, movies, and music ahead of a week spent largely offline. A week away from the internet. A week fil...
Swimming With The Sharks
Miss 17 received her exam results this morning. The good news? She’s on the design course next year that she failed to quality for this year. The bad news? S...
Every Other Day
I seem to only make it to the blog every other day at the moment, which is ridiculous because I have the week off work. Im knocking around the house doing ch...
Sixteen Thousand Steps
Sixteen thousand steps. That’s what the Apple Health app tells me, on the shiny new iPhone that’s been in my pocket all day long. Nearly thirteen kilometres....
Two Weeks Off
I finished work at 5:30pm this evening, and cycled home through quiet roads towards home. The majority of the people that would normally be passive aggressiv...
Better Late Than Never
If all goes according to plan, at the weekend a parcel will arrive in the post with five iPhones in it. Both mine, and my other half’s phone contracts have c...
Distractions Abound
While working on some code this afternoon one of my co-workers wandered over to check if I had keys to the office. I glanced at the clock, and realised it wa...
Forty Thousand Winks
I’m not entirely sure why I missed a day on the blog yesterday. I suppose life happened. I’ll go with that. While I was at work, and the children were at a h...
The Floor Is Lava
Other people have relaxed weekends filled with rainbows, laughter, smiling faces, restaurants, sports, cakes, drinks, and all those other nice things. They p...
The Day Vanishes
Do you ever have days when you wonder what you did - where the day went? I know I spent quite some time signing my younger daughters up for XBox Live account...
Time To Dream
I’m not entirely sure where today went. A conference call with Germany first thing this morning uncovered some strange behaviour within the system I have bee...
Chess And Melrose
Welcome to the junk room. I’m one can of cider down, and have just closed the web browser in order to remove distractions. It’s just me, Scrivener, and the l...
Home Alone
Wednesday evening finds me sitting at a desk in the study, listening to Spotify, and wondering how much of today’s thoughts to empty into the keyboard. I’m a...
Walls
It struck me late last night just how expert I have become at constructing walls around myself. Rather than expand upon my own thoughts and feelings, Im more...
Trying Scrivener
I’ve owned a copy of Scrivener for years - since my first proper tilt at NaNoWriMo back in about 2007 if memory serves. If you’ve not heard of it, Scrivener ...
Over And Over Again
I sat down at the desk in the junk room to write a blog post an hour ago. All I have done so far is listen to music on Spotify. Music from my distant past. W...
Saturday Morning In The Bookshop
The day began with the clock radio bursting into life, and filling utter dross. I squinted my eyes open and watched the seconds and minutes pass on the bedsi...
Medication Banned Books And Conspiracy Theories
Today I am “working” from home. In reality, I called the client this morning and informed them that the likelihood of me getting much done today was pretty s...
Keep Taking The Tablets
Our eldest daughter has been in the wars - and that’s something of an understatement. For the last two weeks she has been fighting tonsillitis, and losing. S...
Half And Hour Left
I have half an hour left until I get to switch my computer off, climb aboard my trusty bicycle, and pedal my way back towards town. I’m already wondering wha...
Is This The World We Created
I started watching “Orange Is The New Black” last night. Yep - that’s right - I just started with the hugely successful TV show that’s headed towards it’s si...
Let There Be Pictures
This morning I took the earth shattering decision to start adding photos to my blog posts, and set about working backwards through the first few, choosing su...
Tired
I didn’t get up until nearly 10am this morning. This is unheard of, but not altogether unexpected after not falling asleep until 3am. Of course now my body i...
Backdated
I’m writing this post at 1:21am on Saturday night. The blog will show the date as Sunday. We all know that the early hours of Sunday morning are still Saturd...
The Weekend Arrives
I’ve started writing this post several times over the last hour. I’m still not entirely sure where I’m going with it. Rather than actually write anything, I ...
Big Thoughts
Several years ago - before children, when time was a thing to be toyed with and spent frivolously, I would write long, rambling blog posts about life, the un...
Down The Rabbit Hole
The clock is ticking towards 10pm as I begin writing this, and it’s really the first chance I have had all day to empty my head. If I was going to be lazy I ...
Lunchtime
It’s lunchtime at work, and I’m forcing myself to take a break. On a given day I sit here for hours - sometimes not leaving the chair all day, and then wonde...
A Case Of The Mondays
I’m back drinking coffee again. Or at least, I am this morning. I had a cup yesterday too. Before you roll your eyes, and say “I knew you wouldn’t last”, it’...
The One Where Miss 17 Cut Her Own Hair
When I came downstairs this morning I looked in on Miss 17 and reminded her that I had bought a subscription to “Crunchyroll” yesterday, which appeared to be...
Pool Party Shenanigans
You know how you head into the weekend sometimes, and you have plans to do so many things - things for yourself - time to yourself. And then the weekend arri...
Home
I’m at home today. I’ve been suffering with balance problems all week, and they seem to be linked with tiredness. I admitted defeat this morning, and decided...
Winning And Losing
We spent the greater part of yesterday evening sitting in a packed auditorium at the big school in town - watching a local celebrity hand out awards to stude...
Worky Worky Work Work
Apologies for the ridiculous title to this post. Or rather, no apologies what so ever. The last two days have been filled from top to bottom by work stuff. I...
The Weekend
The weekend. Where to start? I suppose literary history tends to point towards “starting at the beginning”, so that’s what I’ll do.
Home Again
I got up ridiculously early yesterday - or rather, I tried to get up. You know the room spinning feeling when you go to bed after a night out? It felt like t...
Thursday Morning
It feels like I’ve been in some sort of bubble during this visit to Frankfurt. Since arriving from the airport on Monday afternoon, I haven’t really gone any...
Thursday In Frankfurt
It feels like I’ve been in some sort of bubble during this visit to Frankfurt. Since arriving from the airport on Monday afternoon, I haven’t really gone any...
Lunch And Dinner
The alarm on my work phone woke me with a start at 6am this morning, right in the middle of a dream that seemed significant at the time, but is now completel...
Tuesday In Frankfurt
It’s 7:34am on Tuesday morning and I’m sitting in the hotel room. It’s cold outside - for the first time in weeks. Although I slept with the window open last...
48 Hours
A lot can happen in 48 hours. A blog can be removed from existence, and fifteen years worth of posts - four and half thousand of them - can vanish into the e...
All Good Things
I’m seriously considering drawing a line under this whole blogging adventure again. I nearly did it a couple of months ago, and then returned. I’ve soldiered...
A Quiet Weekend
After finishing work on Friday evening I cycled home via the supermarket with Miss 17, and picked up all manner of goodies to help out with dinner. The barbe...
Taking Your Daughter To Work
Late yesterday evening - while sitting outside watching kindling burn in the old chiminea that sits on our patio, Miss 17 appeared in the doorway of the hous...
The Dying Of The Light
After a day spent fighting virtual fires within the software leviathan I have been constructing for the last six months, I’m now sitting in the garden, slowl...
The One Where I Lost My Phone
You know how I switched back to a basic candy-bar phone at the start of the year? I’ve been using it mostly as a destination for text messages when logging i...
In Limbo
I commented recently that I had fallen off the blogging horse. The months of daily posts came to a crashing end, replaced with television, books, video games...
Im Still Here
Yes, I know I haven’t posted anything for several days. Since returning from Germany, everything has been ever so slightly mad. I got home late on Friday aft...
Flying Home Tomorrow
Another week in Germany comes to and end. Another three day development sprint, working like a lunatic while the project owners test, make changes, and call ...
A Few More Words
Very few words this evening, because it feels like I’m running out at the moment (of words, I mean). Perhaps an early night, a good book, and a long sleep wi...
Just A Few Words Tonight
Today was a long day. I woke a little after 6am, scraped myself out of bed, had a shower, got dressed, and wandered down to the breakfast area in the hotel. ...
Terminal 2
I’m sitting in the heart of Terminal 2 at London Heathrow airport once again. I have an hour until the gate is announced for my flight. I’m sitting here in c...
Whats In My Bags
Here we are again - packing bags ahead of an early morning taxi ride to the airport. It’s all becoming a bit routine. I thought it might be interesting (to m...
Saturday
This morning I was supposed to be tagging along with my other half to visit a nearby town to buy some clothes. Somehow the trip never happened. This kind of ...
Juggling
It feels like I’m juggling too many balls at the moment - somehow managing to keep them all in the air, but expecting to drop them all.
Struggling
I seem to have fallen off the “post every day” horse quite spectacularly in recent weeks. I’m thinking this is a good thing. I know one or two people look ou...
Silence Descends
The younger children are in bed already, put to sleep by watching the England team play their opening game in the World Cup. They had such high hopes, but co...
Falling Off A Rowing Machine
I’m not quite sure how it happened. One moment I was finding out just how difficult rowing might be, and the next the seat had slipped from under me, and I w...
Maximum Power Output
For a long time I kept up the routine (or habit?) of posting to the blog every day - sometimes a few words, and sometimes hundreds or even thousands of words...
Tick Tock Tea
After surviving a couple of days drinking water, and hopefully making it through the withdrawal from tea and coffee, it occurred to me this evening that I co...
Detox
I stopped drinking tea and coffee today. Completely.
Detox
I stopped drinking tea and coffee today. Completely.
Back To Work
After the adventure in Germany last week, it was back to earth with a bump today - emptying the dishwasher, making breakfasts and lunches, washing my bike, f...
Nimrod
I bought a music magazine this morning for the first time in years. I was wandering around the local stationery shop with Miss 13 - who had some money burnin...
Home
I woke ten minutes before the alarm on the phone this morning, and showed my face for breakfast in the hotel a little after 6am. After downing a coffee and s...
Home In The Morning
I made it to the end of three days on-site in Germany. There is already talk of further visits later in the year - another in two weeks that is already booke...
Walking The City Streets
After work this evening I dropped my bag at the hotel, changed my clothes, and set out along the river to the bar I have visited for the last several nights....
One Day Down
The day began at 6am when the alarm clock went off on my mobile phone. This wasn’t the first time I woke up this morning of course, because guess who fell as...
Departure
It’s 9:04 on Monday morning, and I’m sitting in the departure hall of Terminal 2 at London’s Heathrow Airport. I’ve chosen to sit right in the middle of the ...
Alongside The River
After arriving at Frankfurt Airport, and picking my way through the various hurdles that have become so familiar, I finally found myself standing in the queu...
Preparing To Fly
At breakfast time tomorrow morning a taxi will hopefully arrive at the end of our drive, waiting to whisk me to Heathrow Airport, ahead of another week in Fr...
The One Where I Met Greedo
Miss 17 and I took the twentieth bus out of town this morning - it would have been the first bus, but I couldn’t find any dynamite to explode her out of bed....
Second Thoughts
I’m having second thoughts about living on my own remote blogging island, out in the middle of nowhere. Just so you know. Does this mean I’m coming back ? Ma...
From One Disaster To The Next
You know the one where your other half delivers your youngest daughter to the final day of football camp, then drops the car off for it’s MOT (Ministry of Tr...
Thunderbolts And Lightning
The thunderbolts, lightning, cats, dogs, and whatever else that were forecast to fall on the United Kingdom today are conspicuous by their absence. The vario...
Rainy Days Off
It’s just after lunch. I think it’s Wednesday - it’s hard to tell - the days are running into one another. I wonder how retired people keep track of the day ...
New Broom Sweeps Clean
This morning I have been going through the various blogs I follow on the internet - removing those that stopped posting some months ago. It feels strange, un...
Bank Holiday Monday
It’s a bank holiday in the UK today, so everybody is out in their gardens cutting hedges, moving lawns, and all those other things that are unofficially on t...
Broken Shears
I woke a little before 8 this morning, and stared at the bedroom ceiling for a while before a switch of some kind flicked in my head. I hate that switch. Bef...
Little Or Nothing
After scraping myself out of bed a little after 9am this morning - perhaps the latest I have been up in many months - I busied myself with the usual round of...
Making Friends
It’s Friday night, I’m on my second glass of wine, and I have the prospect of a week off stretched ahead of me like a glorious savannah full of possibilities...
Soaked To The Skin
I was going to write a long, meandering, nerdy post about my writing process - about markdown formatting, and version control, and compiling blog posts into ...
Slowing Down
Two more days in the office, and then a week off. A week of working in the garden, tidying the hell hole of a house up, cleaning bathrooms, cutting trees dow...
Rabbit Holes
I have spent the greater part of this evening tinkering with a pretend computer that hasn’t existed for thirty years. That’s right - not even the real thing....
Sunday At Home
I’ve been home alone today for the most part - plodding on with the endless routine of chores and tasks that come with a family and a house. I was supposed t...
Love And Betrayal
How do I describe the events of yesterday ?
A Very Royal Wedding
While a great many people both in England, and around the world watched Harry and Meghan tie the knot in St. George’s Chapel, we stood on the touchline of a ...
How Is It Only Thursday
It’s just gone 9am, and I’m sitting at my desk in the office at work, still not really awake. I woke at 5 this morning, then fell back asleep for a couple of...
Perhaps Not The End
A few years ago I watched a wonderful movie called “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, about a young Indian man with a dream to run his own hotel. In the middl...
Persisting
For the past several weeks and months I have been perched atop a precarious knife edge - on the one hand deleting, cancelling, and purging huge swathes of my...
Everything Changes
After a day or two turning the idea over and over in my head, and an afternoon spent figuring out what needed to be done, I have migrated this blog over from...
Sunday 6Th May 2018
Yesterday (after going for a madcap ride in Dad’s new car - a Jaguar XF), I walked down to Talland with Laura, and then over to Polperro. We both got sunburn...
Saturday 5Th May 2018
Laura and I travelled down on the train yesterday - leaving Marlow just after 9 in the morning, changing at Maidenhead and Reading en-route. The train journe...
Defying Expectations
I asked a friend recently if they could recall any “sliding door” moments during their life - moments where a decision was made that took them in one directi...
Is This What The End Looks Like
Over the weekend I found myself repeatedly turning a thought over in my head. Why do I write a blog? What’s the point of it all? I suppose the seed of the th...
Staff Table At The Quiz Night
Last night I joined the staff table for a fund-raising quiz-night at the local infant school - the one my other half works at. I’ve been to countless similar...
Making Plans
It’s Saturday. The washing machine and tumble dryer are rumbling away in the background. I’ve just made lunch for everybody - I expect I’ll be washing up beh...
Tiredness Abounds
I’m not sure that I have a blog post in me tonight - and yet here I am, sitting in the junk room, tapping away at the keyboard. I’m grinning - remembering a ...
Work Work Work
I’m writing this from the junk room at home. I got back about an hour ago, and am still decompressing. My other half and the younger girls are at their dance...
Working And Writing
I realised today that the mountain I’m climbing at work is steeper than I thought. I’m tempted to dig in and work nights to get ahead of the game, but I’m no...
Nightmares
When I was young, I sometimes had a recurring nightmare about walking through the subway beneath the road behind our house. The subway lead to the nearest pl...
Strange Dreams
It’s rare that I remember dreams. I sometimes wonder if we only remember them if they happen just before we wake up - that’s what happened this morning. Of c...
Reaching Out
If you see a friend request on Facebook from me, I decided to give up on the whole ‘cut Facebook back to close family and friends’ thing, because I ended up ...
Headache From Hell
I left work early today, after fighting a headache that kept getting worse. It got to the point where I was squinting at the computer screen in front of me, ...
The Rugby Tournament
After scraping ourselves out of bed this morning, we all set about filling the car with boot-bags, mouth-guards, and collosal quantities of food before setti...
About Last Night
Last night we were invited to spend the evening having a barbecue with old friends. It was needed. If you’ve been reading these posts for the last few weeks,...
Barbecue Friends Beer
I have been invited to a barbecue this evening - hosted by a wonderful friend that lives across the way. I’ll stop on the way home to buy beer and wine. Afte...
One Hour
I’m forcing myself to take a break from work for an hour. An hour to empty my head into the keyboard. An hour away from all thoughts about programming, workf...
Blank
I’ve been sitting in front of the computer for the last hour, wondering what I might write about, and vanishing down any number of internet rabbit holes whil...
Tuesday
I had the best idea for a blog post earlier. Unfortunately all I remember about it now is that I had an idea. I have no idea what that idea was, or how inter...
Reconnecting
After surviving a fit of bravery at the weekend, and connecting Twitter, Instagram, WordPress, and Tumblr together, it occurred to me this evening that I sho...
The Pretty People
Instead of standing on the touchline of a football pitch for several hours earlier, I found myself stuck at home doing chores once again - filling the washin...
Almost The Weekend
It’s almost the weekend. I’m watching the last few minutes of Friday tick down. I need this weekend - but of course I’m not going to get this weekend. Far fr...
Hurtling
This week is flying by. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m continually busy, or because time has spontaneously shortened without anybody realising. I’ve worked...
Just A Few Words
For the last few weeks I have been working on a colossal project. I turn up at the office, sit at my desk, and work straight through until I get up to leave....
Surrounded By Idiots
I just watched the entire testimony between Mark Zuckerberg and a number of United States Senators in Washington live. Nearly six hours of it. I have some th...
Dark Skies
I got up from my office chair this afternoon, and realised I hadn’t got up since arriving in the office in the morning. I knew this because my legs didn’t se...
Differences Attract
It’s no secret that my favorite TV show of the last several years was ‘Community’ - a comedy about a group of misfits that end up at community college togeth...
Give And Take
This morning I gave my Chromebook to my other half, leaving me without a laptop. She had been soldiering on with a second-hand laptop from the place I work f...
One Foot In Front Of The Other
My entire life seems to be a continual treadmill at the moment. Get up, shower, go to work, stress out for several hours, go grocery shopping, come home, eat...
From A Distance
Making friends on the internet is a curious thing. While some of us are open books, posting our daily adventures for anybody to read, many are not. While som...
Eight Thousand Lines
I wrote code from the moment I sat down this morning, straight through until the moment I got up to come home. I stopped for a few minutes to make a coffee, ...
Bank Holiday Monday
Today is a bank holiday in the UK. I’ve been up since 8am, and haven’t really got anything done. Sure, I fed the animals, and let the chicken out (we’re look...
The Weekend
We invited the in-laws over for lunch today - Easter Sunday - which necessitated a frenzied cleaning of the house such has not been seen for quite some time....
Ready Player One
I finally got to the cinema yesterday to see Ready Player One, and came away not really disappointed, but not enthused either.
For A Friend
There is a laptop on the desk in the junk room - it’s been there since yesterday evening. It belongs to a teaching assistant at the school where my other hal...
Every Other Day
I seem to have fallen into a pattern of posting to the blog every other day. I’m not sure how it happened, but it does feel less forced. I really don’t lead ...
Distant Friends
I’m not entirely sure why, but I’m always surprised when anybody notices me - particularly if they have discovered me via this blog. I have been writing onli...
Something And Nothing
After a weekend filled with stress, arguments, standing on rugby pitch touchlines, school fundraisers, doing endless chores, and then being accused of doing ...
Back To Earth
After the somewhat epic journey home yesterday, and a pizza and movie night with the children (we watched ‘Justice League’), this morning has very much been ...
The One Where I Almost Missed My Flight
After waking up at 5am, 6am, and 7am this morning, I finally scraped myself out of the hotel bed, stumbled into the shower, and then set about folding clothe...
Last Night
I fly home tomorrow morning. I did a little work this evening, but nothing like the epic slog the last few evenings turned into. You don’t even want to see t...
2Am
I’m sitting in a king size bed, looking out over Frankfurt from the enormous window of my 15th storey hotel room window. The clock is ticking towards 2am. Af...
Tired
I’m wiped out. I scraped myself out of bed at 7am, arrived in the office ay 8:30am, and worked straight through until 5pm. The first two hours of day were st...
To Frankfurt Once More
It’s 9:27am, and I’m sitting in the middle of Terminal 2 at Heathrow airport, London. The taxi transfer arrived at our house precisely when it should this mo...
Snow Day
I woke at about 7am this morning, with a pounding headache. Downing several cans of craft cider the night before will do that to you if you’re not used to dr...
Saturday
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room at home, sheltering from the bitter cold outside. The central heating is on flat-out, the curtains are closed, and t...
Pretending To Be Busy
I finished writing technical documentation for the project I’m working on a little after 11am this morning, and have been scratching around for anything to d...
Other Peoples Lives
While walking back from an emergency grocery shopping trip late this evening, I spotted a cafe that opens late, filled with people laughing, smiling, relaxin...
Drifting
I’m sitting in the junk room at home, listening to the soundtrack from the movie “Hackers” (Voodoo People, by the Prodigy right now), typing this into GEdit ...
Tuesday
For no particular reason at all, I’m writing this post in a text editor within an Amiga emulator on the Raspberry Pi. Let me explain that a bit further - a v...
Decompressing
I don’t think “Monday from Hell” really covers it. Lets just say that when a teenager stops taking her anxiety medication, the wheels will eventually fall of...
Tinkering
It’s just gone 10pm on Sunday evening, and I’m in my usual bolt-hole - hiding out in the junk room, listening to music, and emptying my head into the keyboar...
Bingo
After spending the entire day walking back and forth from town, clearing up after people, re-filling the washing machine and tumble dryer, and putting things...
Amateur Dramatics
Please excuse me while I do a regulation “Thank f*ck it’s Friday” happy dance. Of course I’m not really doing a dance - I’m still sitting on my ever-so-sligh...
Relentless
This week seems to be going on indefinitely. I’m sure there’s an end to it somewhere, but I’m not entirely sure where that might be. It probably doesn’t help...
Elementary
I just finished installing “Elementary OS” on the old desktop computer at home - the one in the junk room that I tend to sit at while writing blog posts. On ...
Coming Home
After falling into bed a little after 10am last night, I woke with a start at 3am this morning. I’m not sure what woke me up, but I was unceremoniously yanke...
Another Train Another Hotel
Greetings from a hotel room several hundred miles from home. I’m in Leeds for the night, ahead of a day spent in quite the most imposing building I visit amo...
Terrifically Unfair
So much has happened in the last 18 hours. I’m having trouble processing it - struggling to arrange it all into a coherent story. Perhaps I’ll start at the b...
45Th Lap
It’s official - I have now been standing, sitting, or lying down on this ball of mud, rock, and water for 45 laps of the sun. 45 is kind of a nothing age, is...
Snow Day
The local schools closed one-by-one yesterday evening. The children are all home today - as am I. My other half hasn’t been so lucky - she has walked to work...
Not Leaving The House
I’m “working” from home today. While sitting in the junk room, surrounded by my work laptop and phone, a cup of tea, the bullet journal, and the various bits...
Last Day Of February
Where on earth is this year going? While it feels like I only just returned to the office after Christmas, somehow it’s already the end of February. Does lif...
Coming Home
I came home from work mid-morning. I’ve most probably picked a virus up of the kids. While I don’t feel that dreadful, it was causing me to have trouble conc...
Why Are Mondays So Awful
I woke at 5:30am this morning. I’m not entirely sure how or why. I was suddenly wide awake, checking the radio alarm clock, reading email, and wondering abou...
A Wanderer Returns
You know the one where you start the year disconnecting yourself from social media, blogging, instant messaging, and everything else - swearing that you’re d...
Where Has The Weekend Gone
How do you go about writing a blog post when utter mayhem surrounds you ? While writing this Miss 12 is playing “Bomberman” next to me at full volume, the ra...
Everything Changes
It’s all over again. Miss 17 called an end to the relationship that has caused her so much frustration and heartache in recent weeks. We’re trying not to say...
Avoidance
I’m sitting at my desk at work, struggling to find the enthusiasm to drag the thing I’m working on over the finish line. There isn’t a finish line as such th...
Fallout
While preparing for dinner yesterday evening, we received a text message from our eldest daughter, asking if it would be alright to stay at her friends house...
Working From Home
Today has been a day to forget so far.
Tiredness Growing Up And Growing Old
I nearly fainted this afternoon. I had been working flat out all day on a technical problem. I didn’t get up from my desk from the moment I arrived in the mo...
Scrivener And Dropbox
Sunday has been remarkably quiet so far. The girls went to rugby practice first thing while I got on with chores around the house. They arrived home early th...
Never Say Never
At the beginning of the year I walked away from much of my “presence” on social media. For several years I had been posting into Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, I...
Saturday
The radio alarm clock went off at 7am this morning. On a Saturday. I woke up, switched the radio off, and promptly fell back asleep, waking up again at 9am.
Audibly Exhaling
It’s late on Friday evening, and I’m racing to write a blog post before Friday becomes Saturday. It’s not so much a case of wondering where the evening went,...
Another Mass Shooting
I’ve been reading various news stories today, following the mass shooting in Florida that happened yesterday. In the hours afterwards, all the usual suspects...
Almost Ignoring Valentines Day
If the marketing people would have you believe it, millions of people will be making all sorts of extra effort to woo, appease, or apologise to their existin...
Here And There
I missed another day on the blog. You might think I would therefore have an entire extra day of adventures to impart, but sadly not. Nothing I want to share ...
Missing
Yesterday morning our eldest daughter got herself up, dressed, washed, brushed her hair, then announced that she was going into town. We raised eyebrows at e...
Saturday Afternoon
It’s heading towards 3pm on Saturday afternoon, and I’m holed up in the junk room, listening to Spotify, writing this while the rain falls outside. In the sp...
Conspiracy Theory
If I didn’t know better, I would say the old desktop computer in the study has got it in for me tonight. In the last ten minutes it has crashed twice. Perhap...
Pretend Computers And Holidays
I suppose technically this is being written on Friday morning. I thought I should write something, given that I didn’t post anything yesterday - breaking a s...
The Forgettable Day
It all started at breakfast time this morning. After sliding out of bed, waking the children up, having a shower, brushing my teeth, getting dressed, feeding...
Sleep And Chocolate
I have nothing earth shattering to report. I’m not going to let that stop me filling a blog post with very little though. If nothing else, writing this post ...
Sunday Rugby And The Superbowl
It’s Sunday evening, dinner is busy cooking, the clothes are mostly washed, two of the children are watching TV in their rooms after a day on the rugby field...
Beans And Cheese On Toast
After the relentless questioning from Miss 12 grew almost continuous, I caved and made lunch for everybody - well, everybody except my other half who has gon...
Relatively Unscathed
This week has been something like a firework - starting off burning fiercely, then finally letting go with an explosion, leaving a debris field full of smoki...
February Begins
How is it the beginning of February already? Where did January go? If I were to believe the various posts I have seen while dipping my toes into the acid lad...
Backing Up The Known Universe
After completing the epic Tuesday night slog yesterday evening (meet Miss 17, go for coffee, buy groceries, pick up Miss 13, change her into football kit, dr...
The Struggle Is Real
You know the whole “slash and burn” drive I’ve been on just recently? I have expanded it this morning to include the backup of my blog, and all of my work no...
Tour Of Destruction
Today started kicking my butt as soon as I arrived in the office this morning. It then kept kicking my butt throughout the day. I’m still standing though, wh...
Not Going Out
It’s heading towards lunchtime on Sunday. There are some bagels with my name on them on the kitchen counter, waiting for me to fill them with cheese and what...
Fishing For Friends
Sometimes I spend an hour randomly following links from blogs to comments, and on to further blogs - reading, commenting, and reminding myself what it is to ...
Interactive Fiction
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.
Standing Behind Mary Berry
On our way home from parents evening at our youngest’s school yesterday evening, the clock struck “can’t be bothered to cook anything” o’clock, so we stopped...
Home Alone
It’s heading towards midnight, the children are fast asleep in bed, and I’m sitting alone in the study typing up a blog post on the old desktop PC. I can hea...
Withdrawing
I walked away from Tumblr yesterday. Perhaps permanently this time. After posting to a Tumblr account more or less consistently since the platform launched b...
Returning To The Bullet Journal
Throughout the last few months of last year I tried out using a Bullet Journal for day-to-day tasks, notes, and so on. By the end of the year I convinced mys...
A Day To Forget
The day started so well. Up early, showered, dressed, breakfast with the children, coffee. A few moments after our eldest left for college the wheels started...
Rabbit Holes
Today feels like it has slipped through my fingers. I rolled out of bed a minute or so after the radio alarm clock erupted into life at 7am, and stomped off ...
The Invention Of Lying
After playing a spirited game of “Settlers of Catan” with the children last night, I sat down late in the evening with my other half and said “shall we watch...
Disconnecting
I’m not sure when this feeling started - maybe a few days ago, or a few weeks, or even a few months ago. It feels like I’m slowly disconnecting from the soci...
Saturday
The day began at 7am when the radio alarm clock burst into life, filling the bedroom with the local radio station. Nobody actually staffs the radio station a...
Working From Home
After a mammoth session recording expenses for this week’s adventures in Germany, I returned home after lunch to keep Miss 17 company. Her teenage friends se...
Departure
This is a story about cost cutting gone mad. I arrived at Frankfurt Airport this morning, expecting to follow the usual routine of baggage check-in, and secu...
The Early Bird Catches The Bacon
I’ve become quite the expert - at this hotel at least - at making bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast. My creations are nowhere near as neat and tidy as t...
Preparing For Departure
My work in Germany has come to an end - for now. The only clothes left out in the hotel room are clean clothes for the morning. After breakfast in the hotel ...
To The Apotheker
I learned something new this evening. After work I had a splitting headache, so thought “it’s fine - I’ll buy something to eat from the supermarket, and have...
Headaches And Early Starts
I’m supposed to be in the office at 8:30 this morning - not a huge problem, seeing as the hotel is directly across the road from the office. This is why I li...
Good Morning From Heathrow Airport
It’s heading towards 10am - I arrived at the airport a little before 8:30am and strolled straight through security. I’m getting too good at it - while removi...
Arrival
The flight from Heathrow to Frankfurt was remarkably routine. Although officially recorded as “delayed”, the flight crew did everything in their power to rus...
Welcome To The Jungle
We took the newly crowned (as of this morning) Miss 14 out to the cinema last night to watch “Jumanji : Welcome to the Jungle”. She had no clue the tickets w...
Bags Are Packed
A variety of clothes have been washed, ironed, folded, and packed. My work backpack has been emptied of it’s usual ephemera, and re-filled with the bare esse...
A First Job Interview For Miss 17
I walked into town with our eldest this morning - moral support for her first job interview - at a local coffee shop. I coached her with the kinds of questio...
Procrastinating Famously
I’m busy clearing the decks at work this morning. I travel to Germany first thing on Monday, so there’s not much point getting involved in doing anything of ...
Running Late
Before arriving in the office this morning I paid a visit to the local barbers, and sat quietly while a nice lady called Mary, from Tipperary in Ireland cut ...
Returning To Frankfurt Again
A taxi will arrive at my house early on Monday morning, and take me to Heathrow Airport, just outside London. I’m returning to Frankfurt in Germany once more...
One Week Into The Nokia 3310 Experiment
It is now a week since the Nokia 3310 arrived, and I performed a factory reset on my previous phone (a rather lovely Honor 8 that now resides in my other hal...
Frozen
No, this post isn’t about two little girls growing up in a far away land where one has magical powers, the other falls in love with a dastardly bastard, and ...
Back To The Future
Friday night has somehow become “Pizza Night” in our house - a lazy reward of sorts for making it to the end of the week. It started some time ago, when some...
Meetings Cycling Blogging And Nothing
I survived my first day back in the office! The expected meeting to plan out the next year happened, and thankfully didn’t really decide anything beyond anot...
Everything And Nothing
I’m sitting at the desk in my office, kicking around various bits and pieces - researching cloud stuff, brainstorming, and talking with the other developers ...
Cycling To Work
I cycled to work today, and tried out the camera. It really didn’t help that the sky fell on my head for the entire journey, covering the camera in water and...
Ends And Beginnings
I’m sitting at the desk in the junk room at home, writing this on the old desktop PC. Sia is filling the room with “Chandelier” via the Fire TV wired up to t...
Slowly And Quietly
I don’t go back to work until Thursday, and am trying to keep well away from my work phone, which sits in the pocket of my backpack, just across the room fro...