New Years Eve
It’s the final day of the year. The final day of the decade. I’m not sure if the sentiment is shared by others, but I can’t help feeling a little bemused by ...
Posts from 2019
Working From Home
While preparing to bring my Christmas vacation to a screeching halt last night, and thinking through what I might need to prepare in terms of bike helmet, wa...
My Own Worst Enemy
Did I mention that the record player arrived yesterday? The speakers for it arrived today - I re-arranged the lounge slightly, and wired it up before my othe...
The Day After Boxing Day
It’s the day after Boxing Day, the clock is ticking towards 10am, and I was supposed to be going out for a run this morning with my eldest daughter. She is s...
Boxing Day
The children woke up on Christmas morning a little after 7am. After past performances, we considered this somewhat of a let-off. I got up with them, and wand...
Two More Sleeps
We finally made it to the cinema this afternoon to watch the final Star Wars movie (except of course it’s NOT the final Star Wars movie, because the Obiwan m...
One More Sleep
We eventually rolled into bed at about 3am last night. Somehow my other half turned our eldest daughter around, got her talking, and ate an entire box of cho...
Three More Sleeps
I think it’s fairly safe to say that our youngest daughter is winding herself ever tighter at the moment, in anticipation of the arrival of a certain visitor...
Winter Wonderland
Today was the first day of my Christmas holiday. I had daydreamed about spending the day holed up in the warm, reading the book I bought last week, and doing...
Heaven Help Us
The clock just ticked past 3pm - in a couple of hours I will finish work for Christmas - cycle home through the rain that has been falling for the last sever...
Not Playing Well With Others
Over the past few days - since discovering a community of writers within Twitter - I have been putting aside a few minutes each day to respond to questions, ...
Lunchtime Is The New Evening
Lunchtime is the new evening - or at least it seems to be when it comes to me writing blog posts. I guess this is a life-hack of sorts - forcing myself to ha...
Behold The Archive
After posting quite the most forgettable collection of words to the blog earlier today, I found myself with a few minutes to spare this lunchtime. Rather tha...
44 Minutes
After not taking a break at lunchtime, I’m forcing myself to down tools now, and invest the remaining 44 minutes of the day in myself. Of course “down tools”...
Sunday Afternoon Procrastination Club
While my other half stands on the touchline of a rugby field many miles from home watching our middle daughter’s latest attempt to injure herself before scho...
Good Intentions
This evening somehow turned into just the sort of recursive rabbit hole I seem to specialise in. It started out on a Linux laptop late in the evening, with a...
Boromirs Bookshop Conundrum
The rest of the family are sitting in the lounge, watching “The Polar Express”. I’m sitting in the study (read:junk room) writing this. I’ve just finished th...
Away From The Madding Crowd
After sliding into anonymity in recent months, I realised this week that my problem isn’t with blogging platforms themselves - my problem is me.
An Unexpected Discovery
This rather labyrinthine story begins the night before last, when the children decided - after I had already washed up, and cleared the kitchen - that it wou...
Automatic Unplanned Necessary
While scrolling through Twitter earlier this evening, I stumbled upon a random question - “Write three words that describe your style of writing”. Almost wit...
Returning To The Grind
I’m back in the office today, and determinedly taking a break over lunch rather than work straight though. It’s a terrible habit - working straight through -...
Forgetting To Live
While off work over the last several days, I’ve been quietly watching, reading, commenting, and liking posts across the various social platforms on the inter...
Christmas Arrives
After a morning spent sweeping the house for books, toys, games, and clothes that we don’t need or want any more, we visited one of the many charity shops in...
Yesterday
I just watched the movie “Yesterday” - the romantic comedy about the guy that gets hit by a bus, and wakes up to a world where the Beatles never existed. I’m...
Final Friday
Today is the last day of my week off work - apart from the weekend, but that doesn’t count really, does it? I’m spending the day at home listening to the was...
Christmas Shopping
I went Christmas shopping with our eldest daughter today - armed with a list written late last night by my other half. Of COURSE this was how I wanted to spe...
Returning To The Bullet Journal
After dithering quite considerably over the past several months, I have returned to using a bullet journal. There was a huge temptation to dick around with a...
Retro Video Games
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s in the UK, a huge skills gap opened up that the various science, technology, engineering and mathematics Universities be...
Self Imposed Reclusion
Throughout the second half of the Couch to 5K running programme over the last few weeks, I have been battling first a cold, then what appeared to be a second...
The Santa Fun Run
After getting up a little after 7 this morning, jumping in the shower, and having a shave, I pulled on a bright red Santa suit, and joined the rest of the fa...
Cascading Failures
On the way home from work last night a car forced me into the hedgerow alongside the road. When I got home I realised the front tyre of my bike was punctured...
Just Another Day
While many people I know on the other side of the planet have the day off today - to celebrate “Thanksgiving”, it’s just another day on this side of the plan...
Graduation
I finished the “Couch to 5K” running journey tonight. Apparently running 5 kilometres without walking at all is “graduating”.
Turning A Corner
I think my body might actually be starting to stage a fight-back. I have felt better today than I have in several weeks. The snotty nose has gone, and breath...
Sideways
My entire life feels like it’s going sideways at the moment.
Effort
I’m not sure I can really be bothered with trying too hard at this whole blogging escapade any more. Years ago I used to write long meandering posts about th...
Home Alone
The rest of the family have gone to the cinema to watch the new Frozen movie. I’m staying at home in the warm (and will be tomorrow too). I’ve now been sick ...
Rain Rain And More Rain
The heavens opened on me during my cycle to work this morning. Despite wearing waterproof over-trousers, and a supposedly waterproof top, I got soaked throug...
Switching On The Christmas Lights
After finishing work early this evening I wandered into town with Miss 19, met up with my other half, and joined the growing crowd in the high street awaitin...
Cannot Catch A Break
On the way to work yesterday morning a four wheel drive monstrosity driven by a trophy mum forced be into the hedgerow alongside the road. She had just passe...
Emptying Your Head
You know the funny thing about emptying your head? When you expose your thoughts for others to read, judge, and react to, you have to be damn careful.
Killing Time
I’m sitting at my desk at work, watching the clock. Everything I wanted to get done today is done - ticked off - complete. There is still an hour left. Befor...
Falling Into Shadow
It feels like I’m slowly falling away from the moving crowd. I find myself sitting, lost in my own thoughts, rather than reading and contributing to the onli...
The Week That Never Was
I returned home from work on Wednesday lunchtime, and went straight to bed. Actually, that’s not entirely true - I cleared the kitchen, tidied the lounge and...
A Few More Miles
I went to the running club again this evening, and put a few more miles in the bank. I quietly got on with the run, and kept half an eye on Miss 19. I’m not ...
I Still Havent Read Moby Dick
I got home a couple of hours ago, and opened the back door to a kitchen full of the smells of roast dinner, and an unfolding scene of mayhem in the kitchen a...
Finally Getting Better With No Bacon
After perhaps fourteen days, a thousand cups of tea, countless cups of boiling water laced with paracetamol, boxes of tissues, an entire pot of vicks, and th...
Kingdom Of Snot
I’m at home. I emailed work this morning and let them know I wouldn’t be in. My head seems to be in the curious position of generating vast quantities of sno...
Where Do I Get My Medal From
I just got in from running with my eldest daughter - the one that fell off the “Couch to 5K” wagon spectacularly over the last couple of weeks. She really, r...
Missing Days
I’m trying to convince myself that the sporadic updates to the blog are just a product of life landing on me like a grand piano from a tenth floor window, ra...
The One Where The Name Changed
After dithering about it for several weeks, I finally changed the name of this blog last night. I’ve been thinking about doing it for some time - to create s...
In Between
I feel like I’m in limbo at the moment. I’ve had a week off work, and have not gone anywhere or done anything of consequence. I suppose having a bad cold all...
Signs Of Life
I feel like I’ve fallen off the blogging bike again. In a strange sort of way, the longer you don’t post anything for, the less you have to say when you retu...
Panic Stations
My parents are coming to visit. Tomorrow. For the first time in ten years. It’s worth mentioning that they live down on the coast, and we get on famously - i...
Testing Myself
After a day spent cheering on both of our younger daughters at back-to-back rugby matches this afternoon (literally back-to-back - they were playing on paral...
Lagunitas
We went out for a few drinks with co-workers last night - to a bar in town that was refurbished some months ago. It’s worth noting how rarely we make it out ...
By Any Other Name
I’ve been wrestling with the idea of changing the name of this blog over the last few days - away from my name to something vaguely interesting and different...
Nine Minutes At A Time
I went to the running club with Miss 19 again tonight - we’re now half-way through the “Couch to 5K” programme. We ran three lots of nine minutes, with one m...
The End Of A Very Long Stick
I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year. I’m keeping it at the end of a very long stick. There’s a very strong possibility that I may never do NaNoWriMo again. If ...
Let There Be Light
If you’re visiting this blog post via WordPress, you’ll have noticed a rather drastic re-design has happened. Given that autumn colours are surrounding us at...
Saturday Evening 10Pm
I knocked on Miss 19’s bedroom door earlier this evening, and enquired if we were going running. Given that she was still in her pajamas, and that I was stru...
Finishing Last
We attended yet another fund-raiser quiz last night - this time for the local hockey team. My other half put a call out on social media for team mates, and w...
Getting Better All The Time
After work this evening I headed out with Miss 19 and put another few kilometres in the bank. I’m not sure what she’s been eating - it might have something t...
Sitting In The Dark
I have been sitting in the dark of the junk room in front of the keyboard for an hour. Nothing seems to be making it through my fingers and into the keyboard...
Putting The Work In
Four sets of six minutes running, and one minute walking around the back streets of town this evening with the running club. The running intervals are slowly...
As Little As Possible
When I went out for the regular training run last night, I knew there was some tightness in my chest, but dismissed it as a virus of some kind - all sorts ha...
Bill Bryson Rugby Sevens And Late Night Running
On Saturday night we visited Oxford - the city I think of as my real home - to see Bill Bryson present a show at the New Theatre in George Street. I had no p...
Running Around In Circles
After getting in from work last night (and eating home-made pizza), I finally made it out with Miss 19 for a training run - the one that was supposed to have...
Two Miles With Miss Fourteen
Ever since the children were little, we have tried to eat dinner at the table as a family. I suppose it started as an excuse to talk to the children, and to ...
Little To Report
I have never let the absence of anything interesting or exciting going on in my life stop me from writing at length about it, and I’m not about to start now....
Cycling On Canvas
I had a decision to make this morning - either walk to work again, or repair the punctures on my bicycle. Given that the walk takes perhaps three quarters of...
Sunday Night
I went out running with my eldest daughter again this evening - another ten sets of two minutes running, one minute walking. Our next run will be on Tuesday ...
Saturday Morning In Starbucks
I overslept this morning. Spectacularly. Well - spectacularly for me. I didn’t scrape myself out of bed until 9am, and then my head reminded me that I drank ...
First Training Run
After walking nearly 5K to and from work today (thanks Mr Farmer for puncturing my bike tyres with your hedgerow annihilation device), I ate dinner, washed u...
Theres Something In The Air
I’ve been here before. When life gets in the way, I think about shutting the blog down. I’ve followed through on it in the past, only to return a few weeks o...
Couch To 5K
My other half “suggested” that I might like to accompany our eldest daughter to the running club in town this week - to start on their “Couch to 5K” running ...
Departure Daydreams
It’s been an interesting day - not least because the huge project that has devoured my life over the course of the last few months has gone live, and is sudd...
Running Shoes
I just ordered a pair of running shoes from Amazon - they will arrive tomorrow morning. I haven’t run any sort of distance in 10 years. I’m still wondering w...
Making It To The Weekend
I’ve been sitting in the dark of the junk room for last last hour, with every intention of writing something, but instead tinkering with this and that, daydr...
Into The Netherworld
Just as I thought I might be hitting my stride with this whole “blogging nearly every day” thing, work took a colossal dump on my life.
As Night Falls
The clock just ticked past 10pm. It’s been an eventful evening. After a long and stressful day at work, I received a call moments before leaving - asking if ...
This Beautiful Fantastic
Late yesterday evening, while looking for a movie to watch with my temporarily incapacitated better half, I stumbled upon perhaps the most wonderful movie I ...
Retro
In-between washing clothes, tidying the house, and achieving very little of consequence today, I happened upon a rather pointless exercise that ate much of t...
Accidents Will Happen
My other half left early this morning to begin dressing a truck to carry children from the school she works at in the town carnival. While she did that I wan...
Switching Off
After being immersed in source code all day, I sometimes find it difficult to switch off. A huge system I have been working on for the last few weeks is edgi...
Fine With That
It’s heading towards midnight, and I’m sitting in the junk room, thinking back through the day. Unfortunately sitting in front of a desk all day writing soft...
Simplification
I removed all the stock photos from my blog posts earlier. I intended to write about it when I did it (at lunchtime), but one thing after another happened, a...
Unexpected Gifts
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room at home, typing this on the old computer that I’ve often written about - the one made up from various spare parts. I...
The Barn Dance
Last night I attended my first ever “barn dance”. I think it was arranged by a group of local churches as a fund-raiser for two charities - one providing aid...
That Friday Feeling
I was late for work today. I took a detour through town to get my mobile phone battery replaced, and to get a haircut. My hair had reached the curious “start...
Stop The World
Having been back from holiday for a week and a half, I already feel like I need another holiday. It feels like I’ve been submerged since my return, and am lo...
The Angry Little Man
Last Wednesday morning I found myself sitting in the foyer of the Holiday Inn in Leeds, Yorkshire, killing time before a meeting. I had scraped myself out of...
An Inconvenient Observation
Every time a politician, or person of faith sends “thoughts and prayers” following a shooting, the tide of resentment rises against them. The fact that such ...
Becoming A Grumpy Old Man
Before I start, it’s worth noting that my daughters would enthusiastically volunteer that I am already a grumpy old man, and my other half would confirm it w...
Seduced By Minecraft
If you’re wondering where I have been for the last several days - while not working, travelling, working some more, travelling some more, picking things up, ...
Four Trains And A Short Walk
After a dash home from work late this morning, and a madcap run around the house clearing up, tidying up, washing up, and fighting the on-going battle agains...
Back To Work
After two weeks with no schedule, no plans, no obligations, and no expectations, today arrived with something of a thump.
Making Time To Read
It’s been twelve years since I began commuting into London with work each day. For the better part of two years I would get up at 6am each day, catch the 7am...
Back To Reality
After a week of walking headland footpaths, eating pub lunches, building sandcastles, and paddling in the surf, we finally arrived home late yesterday evenin...
A Few Days Away
Tomorrow morning we fill the car with bags, and head to the coast to spend a few days with my parents. I’m not entirely sure I’ll be posting to the blog whil...
The Sleepover
At lunchtime yesterday a number of teenage girls - school friends of our youngest daughter - started arriving at our house for a sleepover in a tent in the g...
Sunday Evening
Usually on a Sunday evening I would be making sure the kids have clean clothes for school, putting things in my work backpack, washing up, tidying up, and ge...
16 Days
I’m officially on holiday. Two weeks off. Sixteen Fifteen days until I return to the office (I began writing this post late last night, but didn’t get around...
A New Chapter For Tumblr And Wordpress
While cycling to work I typically listen to podcasts. You might think this a rather dangerous thing to do while cycling, but the reality that most non-cyclis...
Stepping Off The Path
It’s heading towards midnight. Yet again I find myself wondering where the last several days have gone - every day seems to have become the day before. Thing...
Reconstruction
I began writing this post five hours ago. Somewhere along the way Sunday caught up with me, ran me over, and dragged me along the road for a bit before rever...
End Over End
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room in front of the old PC, tapping away at the keyboard in a text editor. It’s Friday night. While the imagined rest of...
Missing Out On Life
I should re-title this blog “every other day” given the frequency I seem to be posting at the moment. It’s not a conscious decision to slow down either - jus...
Remembering Who I Am
It’s already Monday night. Whatever happened to the ENTIRE weekend? I seem to remember last posting a few words on Friday night, and not really having time t...
Slowing Down Switching Off
It’s finally the weekend. After ordering Domino’s as a special treat, watching a ridiculous movie, and drinking a can of beer, I’m starting to switch off.
Just A Few Words
I can’t help feeling the title of this post is lifted from somewhere - perhaps Immortal Beloved? I’m not entirely sure. Anyway - just a few words this evenin...
Show Me Your Fingers
Yet again I find myself asking the universe what it did with the greater part of my day. Each day seems to fall into the next at the moment - a bit like the ...
Distractions
I started writing this post an hour ago. Somewhere along the way I ended up playing two games of chess, made a cup of coffee, and ate a load of rubbish - all...
In Search Of The Weekend
I wish I knew where the weekend went. There seems to be some sort of anomaly in the space time continuum - specifically located at the cross section of me, a...
Changing Things Around
In something of an experiment this evening, I’m writing this post on the old Apple iMac perched on the spare desk in the junk room at home. The last time it ...
Friday Night
I just spent the last few minutes standing in the back garden, waiting for the International Space Station to pass overhead. After a week of clear blue skies...
Sitting On My Hands
After drinking several beers last night and announcing a half hearted withdrawal from the internet at large, I’ve decided today that I might have been a litt...
What On Earth
I just re-wired MailChimp. Something a friend wrote in an email to me recently resonated - that all of the big platforms - WordPress, Tumblr, and so on - rea...
Hot
It’s heading towards 10pm, and you find me sitting in the dark of the study at home, trying to write this quickly before I melt. I bought some beer from the ...
A Summer Of Song And Laughter
There was a moment this afternoon, while our house was filled with fourteen year old girls, that I couldn’t help smiling - even though they were thundering u...
The Online Friendship Dilemma
We empty our heads into the keyboard, or share brief moments in photos and videos, and often come to know each other better than those that surround us in th...
The Climb
After a pretty spectacular falling down episode last night, I agreed to meet our eldest daughter for lunch today - to provide her an escape from work for hal...
The Struggle Is Real
I’m beginning to wonder when life will give me a break. While projects at work loom over me like an avalanche waiting to happen, the parenting adventure thre...
Going Around In Circles
I’ve returned photos to the WordPress incarnation of my blog. If nothing else, they brighten it up a bit. Publishing purely textual posts becomes awfully rep...
Whats It All About
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room at home, the soft glow of the computer screen lighting my fingers as they dance over the keyboard. I sat down to wri...
What Happened To The Weekend
Douglas Adams once wrote “I love Deadlines - I like the whooshing sound as they fly by”. I’m starting to think the same way about weekends. Since finishing w...
Staggering Towards The Weekend
I started writing this post an hour go. I’m not quite sure where that hour went. Perhaps it had something to do with the bottle of wine I bought on the way h...
A Nocturnal Adventure
After making it to bed a little after midnight last night, I had just put my book down, turned the light out, put the phone on charge, and was drifting off t...
Sideways
Today was one of those days where I tried valiantly to go forwards, but ended up going sideways, no matter how hard I tried. Have you ever had a day like tha...
Experimenting
While writing these words, a python script of my own invention is slowly delivering the motherload of all blog backups to write.as - the blogging platform I ...
Sunday
While sitting in Starbucks with Miss 18 this morning I installed the latest Harry Potter game on my phone (by the same company that made Pokemon Go). I won’t...
Slowly And Quietly
It’s the weekend! Finally a chance to decompress from work, kick back, watch movies, read books, and remember that life still exists away from source code, c...
Always
When I leave the office on an evening I usually try to call home - to see if I need to pick anything up from the supermarket along the way. This evening I go...
Exchanging Packages
I have nothing to report, which of course isn’t going to stop me from emptying my head into the keyboard for the next few minutes, because this is me, and th...
Almost Getting Run Over
While cycling to work this morning I was almost hit by a car. I was busy cycling along, minding my own business, and about to pass a junction. A car approach...
Dark Corners
While making a cup of coffee a few minutes ago, it occurred to me that I might write a quick blog post, and perhaps make it into bed by 10pm. While holding t...
Anti Social Media
I just checked the temperature on my phone - it’s 33 centigrade, at 10pm. Madness. I’ve been hiding out for most of the day on the shaded side of the house -...
Friday Nights And Conspiracy Theories
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room - sometimes humorously referred to as the “study” - with some quiet music playing, all the screens nearby switched o...
Memory Failure
While walking across the green outside our house this evening - en route to the corner shop to buy drinks and snacks to get us through England playing in the...
A Quick Question
For as long as I can remember, I have been searching out free stock photos and adding them to the top of my blog posts.
Ice Cream And Movies
There is a tub of chocolate ice cream waiting in the freezer for me. I bought it during a trip to the local store with our youngest daughter this evening. Sh...
Twenty Minutes To Midnight
I really don’t know why I do this to myself. I sat down in the junk room an HOUR ago, with all the intentions in the world of sitting down to write a blog po...
Godzilla
We have one of my school books from infant school somewhere - a book where half of each page is given over to a drawing, and the other half is ruled with wid...
Stretched
Reaching the end of the week feels like being tipped from a wheelbarrow into the weekend. It’s been a tough one. Not emotionally or physically - just mentall...
Finding Time
It feels like I haven’t found time to do much of anything recently - the huge project I’ve been battling with at work continues to grow - swallowing up devel...
Fathers Day Funfairs And Goats
I woke with a start at 4am, and blundered my way through my phone while trying to find the radio app - to listen to the Tyson Fury boxing match. The fight fi...
Slow Saturday
I have achieved very little today. I’m almost proud that I’ve achieved so very little. While most people look forward to the weekend, kicking back, and resti...
A Perfect Cup Of Tea
A long time reader of my blog has asked if I might describe how I make a cup of tea. Apparently being English introduces some kind of hoodoo into the process...
Tea Solves Everything
After a quite beautiful weekend, the sky decided that enough was enough today, and not content with rolling dark clouds across the hereabouts, it dumped seve...
Entitled And Aloof
While walking back from town earlier with groceries I turned a corner and came across a man in his mid-thirties walking his dog. The dog was attached to him ...
Wonderland
I woke up with a start at 4:30am this morning to an empty bed and a silent house. After a few moments scrabbling around to find my phone, squinting at the sc...
Single Handed
I’m sailing the ship single handed this weekend - my other half is taking our youngest daughter to France to watch the England ladies football team play in t...
Switching Universes
After a number of questionable corporate decisions recently, I’ve decided to quietly untangle myself from Google. This has meant walking away from their mail...
Dark Trivia
I’m sitting in the darkness of the junk room, listening to an internet radio station, and pretending I’m a writer. Of course we all know I’m really a softwar...
Nothing Of Consequence
The clock is ticking towards midnight, and you find me sitting at the dinner table in the lounge with the laptop. I started writing this post fifteen minutes...
Returning To The Well
After writing off much of yesterday, I finally got to the cinema with my eldest daughter on Sunday afternoon - a promised trip to watch “Rocketman”. A second...
Ending The Madness
After sitting on the green outside our house last night with friends drinking wine, and talking rubbish for several hours, I essentially lost the greater par...
Typographical Procrastination
Yesterday lunchtime I discovered quite by chance that the latest beta of Scrivener for Windows doesn’t crash in quite the same way the old version used to - ...
Written Hints From The Universe
Even though every logical part of my being tends to support the idea that the world is random, chaotic, and therefore the product of our interactions with it...
Every Other Day
While cycling home from work this evening through steady rain, I started thinking about this blog - that after months of posting nearly every day, I seem to ...
Bank Holiday Monday
The rest of the family are out for the day - leaving me here to wallow in my own silence, and hopefully get a bit better. My body still hasn’t got the note a...
Rocketman
I’m sitting in front of the keyboard at fifteen minutes to midnight, racing to empty my head. I guess this is one of those times where you realise you really...
Falling Into The Weekend
After a seemingly never ending week filled with stress and drama I can’t write anything about, the weekend has finally arrived - and not just any weekend - a...
Has Anyone Seen My Horse
We’re heading towards a month since I was last “well”, and I’m only too aware that I’m starting to sound like a scratched record. I’m certain my co-workers a...
12 Hours Sleep
After getting in from work yesterday evening I ate dinner, took some decongestant medication, went to bed, and slept like I haven’t in a long time. Of course...
All Good Things
The Game of Thrones has finally finished. It’s over. Done. Eight years of television has come to an end. The actors involved can all move on to other project...
A Chip On My Shoulder
I spent the greater part of yesterday working on the garden - cutting the grass, cutting the hedge, chopping back all the dandelions that had taken over the ...
That Friday Feeling
It’s Friday afternoon, and I’m taking a break from work for a bit to empty my head into the keyboard. The chest infection is slowly clearing up, replaced by ...
Crash And Burn
You know that whole idea I had about using Scrivener for writing projects? Yeah. That’s not going to happen any more, after it decided not to like the graphi...
Small Thoughts
After a week away from writing anything on the internet, I’ve not so much had time to reflect, as time to not think about anything. Actually that’s not entir...
Falling Off The World
I can’t quite believe I’m writing this, but it’s been a week since the last post to the blog. I can’t remember missing so many consecutive days for years, le...
Back To Work
The clock is ticking towards midnight, and you find me sitting in the dark of the junk room after watching the latest chapter in the Game of Thrones saga. I’...
Not Going To London
I was up at ridiculous o’clock this morning, showered, shaved, dressed, and ready to go. While brushing my teeth a small black cat stood in the doorway of th...
But First Another Cup Of Tea
I was going to open this post with “it’s Saturday morning”, but having looked at the clock, it’s already 2pm. Where they hell has the day gone already? Oh ye...
A New Laptop
Well… when i say “new”, I really mean “new to me”. For the last couple of years I have been carrying around a hand-me-down laptop that used to belong to one ...
Time To Go To Bed
The huge project I’ve been tinkering with during the evenings this week is starting to take shape. What started as a disconnected jumble of bits and pieces i...
Venting
The big problem with working all the time is you end up with very little to write about. Stories tend to require stepping outside the front door. For the las...
Unfathomable
After a self-imposed seclusion from the internet for the majority of today - while attempting to shield myself from any and all spoilers about Game of Throne...
Another 8 Hours
I just worked straight through Saturday. On the minus side, I lost a day of my weekend - on the plus side, I progressed the project I’m working on enormously...
Burning The Candle At Both Ends
I’m sitting in the dark of the study, surrounded by half-filled boxes of material, sewing, knitting, and the various bits and bobs associated with those acti...
Just A Few Words
The clock just ticked past midnight. I haven’t written for a couple of days, so thought it might be an idea. I’ve been working around the clock this week - t...
Submerging
After spending an hour yesterday cleaning my bike, and replacing the brake blocks (I’ve been cycling around with no brakes for the last few weeks - don’t tel...
Easter Sunday
I got up an hour ago - a little after 8am - and still find myself sitting alone downstairs. I can hear noises from the upstairs bedrooms, but nobody has appe...
The Life Of Brian
We went out to a local cinema last night for a “night out” (read: couple of hours out). My other half saw an advert online for a 40th anniversary showing of ...
Distractions Abound
While noodling around on the internet earlier this evening it occurred to me how many wonderfully distracting destinations there are. It also occurred to me ...
Embracing The Quiet
While walking into town to get groceries this morning I forgot to take headphones with me so instead of filling my head with a podcast or music, I had only m...
Humpday
How is it already Wednesday? How are there only twenty minutes left until the end of Wednesday ? Where the hell has my week off gone ? So many questions. The...
Quiet Discoveries
I have this week off work. I suppose in some ways today was the first “real” day off - because until now each day has been a bit manic - packing clothes, tra...
The Rugby Tour
After filling the car with bags of clothes, kit, and birthday cake on Friday, we set off late in the morning for a park just outside of Tewkesbury, in Glouce...
Disconnecting
We leave in a few hours, and won’t be back until Monday afternoon. After posting so frequently to the blog for so long, it’s going to feel strange storing th...
A Few Days Off
After cycling home from work this evening, buying pizzas for everybody from the supermarket and cooking them, I opened a bottle of fizzy wine and downed two ...
Winding Down
Tomorrow will be my last day in the office for a week or so. We’re headed away on Friday for a “rugby tour” with our middle daughter’s rugby team, and then n...
Losing My Quiet Corner
I’ve just moved the junk room around - giving up the desk the old iMac used to sit on so my other half can take it over with her sewing machine, in preparati...
Caramel Chew Chew
There is a tub of caramel ice cream sitting in the freezer - waiting for me to finish writing this blog post, stream a movie from the internet, and hole myse...
An Adventure In London
I woke with a start at 7am this morning. I don’t remember the content of the dream I was having, but remember a sense of loss when I came to my senses and re...
A Quiet Saturday
It’s mid-way through Saturday afternoon. All I appear to have done all day so far is wash clothes, tidy up, and noodle around on the internet. I had grand pl...
Unexpected Compliments
While winding down a series of meetings yesterday afternoon, I received an unexpected compliment. One of the ladies I had been working with all week noted th...
Chocolate Fudge Cake
I’m not entirely sure why I dragged myself out of a very comfortable hotel bed at some unearthly hour this morning in order to make it to breakfast on the st...
The Pretty People Theorem
I woke with a start at 6am when the alarm went off on my mobile phone. I have vague memories of a riveting dream, but it’s entire subject matter seems to hav...
Preparing To Travel
It’s just gone 2pm. My other half is at a rugby tournament with Miss 15, Miss 18 is in her room filling out various health and safety assessments for her new...
A Drink With Dad
I remember weekends. Or at least, I have a memory of what I think weekends should be, but I’m not sure if that memory is real or not any more. It involves wa...
Mr Foggs Residence
I’m not entirely sure that I know where to start - I just know I need to before the memories of the evening leave my head. I’m sitting on the train home from...
Preparing For London
A suit, a pair of shoes, and a dark grey t-shirt are hanging behind me in the junk room at home - waiting for me to return home early from work tomorrow afte...
Full Circle
After a somewhat epic journey around the internet over the last few months, I’m back where I started, and somehow enthused about writing something worth read...
Slowing Down Is Difficult
After several weeks of preparations, and a manic weekend trying to juggle everything involved in a major birthday party for my other half, sixty guests, cate...
The Morning After
It’s half past 10 in the morning as I sit down to write this. I’ve been up since about a little before 9am - showered, fresh clothes, and a relatively clear ...
The Calm Before The Storm
Nearly everything is now in-place. The hall is ready - tables covered - table decorations done - balloons filled - stage set - sound system in-place - lights...
Tentative
Earlier this year I holed myself up on an internet island of my own creation for a while. A respite of sorts from the avalanche of conversation that tends to...
Building Resistance
After tipping myself out of bed at 6:30 this morning, having a shower, putting some coffee on, and cooking a round of bacon sandwiches for the kids, I wonder...
Bookishly
It’s my other half’s “official” birthday tomorrow - the party is on Saturday night. I just bought her “official” birthday present from me - a subscription to...
Another Coffee
It’s Wednesday the 20th March 2019. I’m sitting at my desk in the office. I’ve been half-watching my email in-box all morning. I’ve made two cups of coffee f...
Working From Home
I didn’t plan on working from home today.It all began when I was cooking bacon for the children’s breakfasts at 7am this morning. Miss 18 wasn’t getting up, ...
Sunday Morning At The Rugby Club
It’s been a bit of a morning so far. My other half is out for the day at some sort of arts and crafts course, leaving me to shepherd Miss 15 to rugby. We cau...
Weekend Chores
I didn’t write a blog post yesterday. I’m not entirely sure why. I always write a blog post - every day. Even writing those words sounds like a lie now. Life...
Being Miss 15
It’s been a long day. Up at 6:30am to have a shower, shave, make breakfasts, lunches, clear the kitchen, and then somehow get the children out of the house. ...
Forty Five Minutes
I have roughly 45 minutes until Wednesday becomes Thursday. I’m trying to convince my mind that the end of the day is a deadline of sorts, and if I don’t pos...
Running Out Of Chocolate Spread
I’m having a night off from “the blog” tonight. I’ve been sitting here, staring at the screen for the last half hour, coming up with this and that - but noth...
How Is It Only Monday
There are ten days left in an idiotic sprint towards the end of the project I have been working on for the last year. Ten days to finish as much as possible,...
Living In The Gaps
I’ve been thinking about the John Lennon quote today - “life is what happens while you’re making other plans”. It’s so true. I’ve spent most of the weekend d...
Losing With Style
The school our youngest daughter goes to holds a charity bingo night every couple of terms. Tonight was one of those nights. We took supplies. We had such ho...
Made It To Friday
If there was a shop selling cake nearby, I might go and buy one. For me. It’s been that kind of week. If there was another shop selling toy medals and trophi...
World Book Day
Our household was a hive of activity this morning, owing to the arrival of “World Book Day”. Both my other half, and our eldest daughter work in schools - re...
Books Books And More Books
My brother-in-law gave me an Amazon token for my birthday last weekend. After spending quite some time perusing the internet behemoth’s online store, I ended...
Recreating A Year
I’m still waiting for Tumblr to sort out HTTPS on the account I setup yesterday. I’ve back-filled all the blog posts as far as July last year - tomorrow I wi...
Retracing My Steps
After a long and rambling journey around the internet over the last few months, I think I might have found a home for my blog. Tumblr. Yes, Tumblr - the very...
46Th Lap Around The Sun
Today marks the beginning of my 46th lap around the yellow dwarf main sequence star we call “The Sun”. I have somehow managed to wake up 16790 times in a row...
Sleeping All Day
When I got up this morning I felt awful. Really, really awful. While it would be easy to write it off as caffeine withdrawal after stopping drinking coffee a...
No Sugar No Caffeine
Two of my family informed me this morning that they are going “sugar free” for March, so I thought I might join them on their crusade. By “sugar free” they j...
First Day First Job
I’ve always been pretty good at getting up early. If I set an alarm, invariably I wake up a few minutes before it’s due to go off, and usually disable it bef...
One Day After Another
My bullet journal tells a story this week. Of course I can’t show you it, because the pages are filled with details about commercial projects that I’m not su...
Smoldering Embers
I’ve been sitting in the junk room, procrastinating for the last half an hour. It’s been a day. A long day. A good day in parts. The fiery exploits of yester...
Fiery Comets
Today started badly and got worse. I’m not going to go into what went wrong, why, who caused it, or anything like that. It was more a case of dancing among t...
Casting A Beautiful Net
It’s 7pm on Sunday evening. The weekend is almost over. I’m just trying to take stock - trying to fit together where the day went. One of our friend’s childr...
Overload
I’ve had the strangest feeling recently - like there’s just too much of everything. Too many websites. Too much information. Too many people. Too many conver...
A Walk Along The River
I had the day off work yesterday - a day away from the office, programming, computers - a day away from everything. The children have been on half-term this ...
Out Of Steam
I have the day off work tomorrow. I’m almost giddy with excitement. Ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. In all likelihood I’ll be taking the kids down...
Rugby Referee And Hockey Goalie
The children are on half term at the moment - which under normal circumstances would mean the house is relatively peaceful on a morning. Of course normal cir...
Almost Seduced By The Marketing Monster
In-between conference calls, writing an endless stream of source code, cycling home, washing up, clearing the kitchen, and paying my children to tidy their r...
Where Did Monday Go
How is it already 9pm? Where did Monday go? How did I manage to make it through the day after falling asleep at 2am, and waking up again 4 hours later? Why d...
Saturday
It only occurred to me this evening that I didn’t post to the blog yesterday. After flying home from Germany I raced home to continue working for several hou...
Winding Down
This evening I feel like a clockwork toy that is slowly winding down. It’s not that I’m particularly tired - just weary.
Counting The Hours
It’s half past nine in the evening, and you find me sitting in my fifth floor hotel room with the window open to the night air. Richard Marx is singing about...
Tuesday In Frankfurt
I woke with a start this morning, and took a few moments to get my bearings. Ah yes - a hotel room in Frankfurt, Germany. Far from home. After groping across...
Annoyed On A Plane
The card not working in the ticket machine in the railway station * People walking up to me, starting conversations in German
Ready To Go
It’s just gone 10pm on Sunday evening. My bags are packed, and I’m ready to go once again. Tomorrow morning I will get up a little after 6am, and go through ...
A Race Against Time
It’s heading towards midnight, and I’m racing to post something to the blog before Friday becomes Saturday. Yes, this is a mania to make sure I have at least...
Thursday
Do you ever have days when you sit down to empty your head into the keyboard, and you just sit staring at the monitor ? I’m having one of those days - and it...
Experimenting With Tumblr
I’ve put my mad professor coat on this lunchtime, and set an experiment up. After leaving Tumblr a couple of months ago, swearing I would not return, I have ...
Haircuts And Lost Money
I left the house a few minutes later than normal this morning, and left a note on my work calendar - “haircut”. After the second attempt at cycling into town...
Tinkering
I jumped down a rabbit hole of my own making today. Before describing the rabbit hole expedition however, it’s probably worth filling in some back story.
A Walk In The Park
Rather than let another weekend slip through our fingers while consumed with endless rounds of tidying, washing, and whatever else, I dragged two of our chil...
Winding The Clock Back
I’ve been playing with the old Apple Mac this morning - the one I used for NaNoWriMo last year - the one I told myself would provide a distraction free writi...
Snow Day
After dire predictions about an apocalypse the likes of which the country had not seen for some time, the much talked about and endlessly forecast snow final...
Morning Story
My body clock performed the curious feat of waking me up two minutes before the alarm on my mobile phone this morning. I’m not sure how it does it, but my bo...
Early Night
You know how you promise yourself an early night, but somehow one thing after another crops up, and before you know it the clock is ticking towards half past...
Preparing For A Snow Day
The weather forecast over the last few days had been predicting a night of heavy snow. It’s worth noting that anything more than about half an inch of snow t...
Finding A Few Minutes
It’s heading towards midnight, and I find myself sitting in the junk room in the dark, emptying the remains of my thoughts into the keyboard. Claire de Lune ...
Resurrecting The Imac
Over the course of the last week we have begun decluttering around the house - digging out long forgotten things from the back of cupboards, and the attic - ...
Catching Up
It’s Sunday morning. Actually, it’s nearer to Sunday lunchtime than Sunday morning, but we’ll try not to think about that too much. The washing machine is ru...
One Step At A Time
I thought it might be a good time to re-visit progress with the rescue kitten we took delivery of a few weeks ago - that the children named Kaspar. I’m not s...
Departures
It’s just gone 9am, and you find me sitting at a cafe in the departure lounge of Terminal 1 at Frankfurt Airport in Germany. My flight isn’t for another coup...
Not Going Out
As hinted at in the title of the post, I’m not going out tonight. The temperature on the streets of Frankfurt hasn’t got above zero all day. A few hours this...
Table For One
Oh how the mighty fall. After a wonderful evening out last night, this evening saw me braving sub-zero temperatures as I determinedly strode the - oh - two h...
An Unexpected Night Out
While packing my bag before leaving work this evening, the guy I have been working with over the last several months invited both myself and another contract...
Tuesday Morning In The Hotel Room
It’s 7:30am on Tuesday morning, and I’m back in the hotel room after breakfast. I had been thinking of going for a walk along the river, but it’s below zero ...
London Heathrow Terminal 2
It’s just gone 9am, and I’m sitting in the departure hall of Terminal 2 at London Heathrow. The gate has just been called for the flight, which is scheduled ...
Preparing To Travel
Throughout the day I have been quietly getting ready to travel to Germany again. A taxi will arrive early tomorrow morning and spirit me to London Heathrow, ...
Not Again Surely
If you just wandered into this post, and know my recent history on the internet, you’re probably thinking “not again, surely?”. Erm. Well. Yes actually. Agai...
Hello World Again
It seems only natural that a blog should begin with a post called “Hello World”. This isn’t really a beginning at all though - it’s the result of an endless ...
Contemplating Submersion
I’m contemplating submerging my blog once again - disassociating it with the “real world” me - disconnecting my name from it. I’m not sure if it’s a good ide...
Alone On Thursday Night
I’m home alone this evening while the rest of the family travel a hundred miles or so to watch our youngest daughter in a music concert that her school are t...
The Ticking Clock
My hosting plan at WordPress runs out in four months. Being completely truthful, I don’t know if I’m going to carry on - or even if I want to carry on. I kno...
Bullet Journal Productivity Tip
You know how everybody seems to be going on and on and on and on and on and on about Bullet Journals at the moment? I have a cunning tip to aid you in your p...
The Brand New Testament
I started watching an unexpectedly wonderful movie last night. Everybody else had gone to bed fairly early, and I found myself sitting in the lounge on my ow...
Nothing In Particular
We made it to Friday again! Do we get cake, or party poppers or something? It feels like we should.
Kicking Myself Up The Arse
This blog has been unspeakably rubbish recently. There. I said it. I’ve been churning out posts like some sort of cheap sausage machine - more because I thou...
Recycling And Resurrection
A little while after finishing chores last night and sitting down quietly to survey the remains of the evening, my eldest daughter sidled up to me, and caref...
Manic Monday
I have “Monday Monday” by the Bangles bouncing around inside my head today. It won’t go away. I think “Eternal Flame” by The Bangles may have been the first ...
Sunday Afternoon
After a Sunday morning standing in the cold on the touchline of a rugby pitch for two hours, stamping my feet and making conversation with other parents, I’m...
Every Other Day
I seem to have fallen into a pattern of posting every other day at the moment. This is not intentional. Hell - posting every day was never really intentional...
The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society
It’s funny how the universe works sometimes. After discovering our eldest daughter in floods of tears last night, I suggested a late night movie on the sofa ...
The Vanishing Cat Trick
The phone on my desk at work rang at lunchtime - it was my other half. Miss 18 was at home (she goes back to work tomorrow) - and was freaking out, because s...