New Years Eve
It’s mid-morning on the final day of the year, and you find me perched on the office chair in the home office / junk room that I have lived in for much of th...
Posts from 2021
Adventures Yet To Come
The end of one year and the beginning of the next is often associated with the opportunity to make changes. Change to one’s surroundings, one’s self, or to s...
The Days In Between
If you’re not working - which I’m not this year - the days between Christmas and New Year seem like a kind of vacuum - especially the last couple of years. W...
Boxing Day Morning
It’s the morning after the day before. A very different Christmas than those that have come before - certainly when compared against the last decade at least...
Counting Down The Hours
I have a couple of hours left at work before I stop for Christmas. Of course “at work” is a bit of a stretch - I really mean “sitting in the junk room in fro...
Two Sleeps Left
One more day of work left. Two sleeps left. I can’t imagine I’m going to get a lot done tomorrow, given that I’ll then have the better part of 10 days off. G...
One Day Closer
One more day down. One day closer to Christmas. Things are starting to slow down at work, although a continual stream of meetings has succeeded in filling ea...
Sunday Becomes Monday
The weekend is almost over. I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room in front of the computer, scratching around the darker corners of the recent past for an...
Reflections On A Year In The Medium Partner Programme
Late last year I signed up for the “partner programme” at Medium. If you’ve not heard of Medium, or it’s partner programme, I’ll quickly explain.
Becoming Santa Claus
After a night of broken sleep - caused no doubt by the COVID booster injection I received yesterday afternoon - I got up this morning and set out on a rather...
Charlie Brown And Half A Bottle Of Sherry
It’s a few minutes before midnight, and you find me sitting in the dark, drinking a glass of sherry, eating leftover crips, and listening to the Charlie Brow...
Charlie Brown, And A Bottle Of Sherry
It’s a few minutes before midnight, and you find me sitting in the dark, drinking a glass of sherry, eating leftover crips, and listening to the Charlie Brow...
The One Where My Uncle Died
It’s been a day. I heard a few hours ago that my Uncle died last night. The father of the cousin that died of cancer a couple of months ago. I can’t imagine ...
Monday
It’s Monday, and that’s all I have to say about that. The morning has been filled with meetings and administration work ahead of the start of a new project. ...
Monday Monday Na Naaa Na Na Na Na
It’s Monday, and that’s all I have to say about that. The morning has been filled with meetings and administration work ahead of the start of a new project. ...
No More Subscribe By Email
If you have been receiving my blog posts via email, I’m afraid your regular updates are about to end. I had been using “Mailchimp” to deliver them recently, ...
Late Night Radio
I’ve been learning something new over the last week. A technology, platform, and language that has been around for a few years, but that I’ve never crossed p...
Im Still Here
I’ve been sitting in front of the keyboard with an empty text editor for the last ten minutes. The well of words I have so often visited seems to have dried ...
Long Time No Write
Somehow a week has passed since the last blog post. I can’t remember the last time that happened. I suppose I should really fall back on the John Lennon quot...
You Never Forget
While reading the posts of distant friends, I sometimes find myself drawn into their lives - their hopes, dreams, happiness, and sadness. It fascinates me th...
Coffee Break
The clock is ticking past four in the afternoon and I’m taking my first break of the day. I have a pretty bad habit of not stopping - I tend to work straight...
Neverending
As the clock ticks past 11pm I’ve cracked open the programming text editor I’ve been using for the last several months to write blog posts. I guess when it c...
Retracing Seasonal Paths
Every so many months I find myself retracing paths I have walked before. Repeating decisions. Revising judgement. Changing my mind one way or another. Becomi...
The Great Blogging Escape
I’m sitting in the junk room listening to the radio, typing into a text editor. The clock is ticking towards 9pm and I’m wondering where Saturday went.
Recovery
After going into surgery to repair her broken leg on Monday morning, Miss 16 came home on Tuesday afternoon. For the next few days she has swapped bedrooms w...
Postscript
She was scheduled to come out of surgery early this evening. We took a chance and jumped in the car - making the hour-long trek to the hospital. After parkin...
Broken Bones
The last thirty-six hours have been something of a whirlwind. While playing rugby on Sunday afternoon my youngest daughter tripped, fell awkwardly, and broke...
Going Out Out
We went “out out” last night. We took part in a charity fund-raiser quiz in town - held by the local rotary club. If you’re never heard of such a thing befor...
In Other Words
It’s Friday. The end of another week. I’m sitting in the junk room in front of my work laptop, picking through source code of a recent project written by a c...
Kindred Spirits
In the early days of the pandemic the office owned by the company I work for was closed, and sold. Ever since I have spent my days sitting in the dark of the...
Dangerously Addictive
It’s been five days since the last blog post. How does that even happen?
The Bullet Journal Returns
After several weeks experimenting with all manner of technologically sophisticated productivity solutions, I retreated back to a paper bullet journal tonight...
Still Star Struck After All These Years
It’s the morning after Halloween. In the UK Halloween remains very much an import from the USA - I remember it gaining traction when I was young in the early...
Behold The Fediverse
I’m trying to think of something clever to write about diversification. I’m not coming up with much. Perhaps if I take a looked at a definition of fediverse ...
Bootstrapping
The first computer science teacher I had was called Mr Nicholls. He died young, as far as I remember - a few years after I left school. My memories of him ar...
The Magical Floordrobe
The rest of the household are home at the moment - the schools are on “half term”. You might think this would mean chaos, noise, arguments, and running battl...
Seeking Solitude
I’m becoming increasingly fed up with being called upon to help others with stuff (outside of my direct family, obviously). While it feels good to be able to...
Infinite Rabbit Holes
For the last two hours I have been sitting in front of a computer with the intention of writing something. Instead I have tumbled down rabbit hole after rabb...
Not Working
Today was the first day I have called in sick since the pandemic began. That’s about two years, isn’t it? Both of my younger daughters had gone down with som...
Psychopathic Cats
While waiting for the computer to download some updates, I’m taking the opportunity to empty my head into the keyboard. Hopefully you’ll forgive me if this p...
Escaping The 24 Hour News Cycle
Eleven minutes ago the clock ticked past midnight. It’s officially Monday now, but I’m going to go on pretending it’s Sunday at least until I fall asleep.
It Only Takes One Idiot
At 9pm this evening we walked into town - to the pub where our middle daughter waits tables, to meet her from work, have a drink, and walk home together. A q...
Cutting Most Of My Hair Off
I downed tools a few minutes ago for the first time today (read: pushed back away from the work laptop), emptied the washing machine, filled the washing mach...
The Lunchtime Reunion
For the first time in two years I met up with some of my co-workers at lunchtime for something to eat. It seemed very strange being in each other’s company r...
The Journey To The Middle
For the last several months I have been experimenting with Substack, Wordpress, Tumblr, and Medium - trying to figure out what works best for me.
Memories Of The Matrix
You find me sitting in the dark of the junk room, listening to an 80s playlist while quietly tapping away on the computer keyboard. My happy place. Maybe hap...
Ignoring The Thoughtless Idiots
It’s early on Sunday evening, the kids are hidden in various corners of the house - their noses inevitably buried in phones - and dinner is bubbling away on ...
Locked In The Bathroom
After dinner this evening we walked into town to meet our middle daughter from work. She started waiting tables at a nearby pub a few weeks ago - her first “...
The Inevitable And The Improbable
I have created a publication at Medium, and begun cross-posting my almost daily journal entries into it. In the past I’ve reserved Medium for the long-form “...
Losing And Forgetting
I rarely remember much about my dreams - but today seems to be an exception. Perhaps if the dream happens immediately before you wake up, it stays with you? ...
A World Without Facebook
Just before dinner this evening while finishing work, checking email, and taking a quick look at the various social sites I have accounts, I noticed Facebook...
Fear Uncertainty And Doubt
Something has been annoying me for months, if not years. You could say it all started with social media, but that wouldn’t be true. It really started with ta...
No Time To Die
After work this evening I headed out with my other half to the cinema - we saw the new James Bond movie - “No Time to Die”.
Autumn Arrives
Autumn has arrived with a vengeance. Over the course of the last week the temperature has dropped, wind and rain has arrived, and the nights are drawing in f...
Music And Coffee
The radio is filling the room with “Black Velvet” by Alanah Miles. I remember when it first appeared, and VH1 played it to death. Who remember VH1? I’m guess...
The Great Fuel Panic Of 2021
A pretty ridiculous story has been unfolding in the UK this week. One I thought I might write a few words about for the entertainment and amusement of intern...
Must Try Harder
The clock has just passed 1:30am. I don’t know why I’m still awake. I’ve spent the majority of the evening deep in virtual rabbit holes. The internet is a pe...
Friday
The clock is ticking towards 11pm, and you find me sitting in the dark of the junk room, listening to a retro radio station. It’s been a bit of a day, and it...
Quietly
I have coffee, cake, music, and an incense stick is filling the room with nice smells. Work is still relatively quiet - at least compared the headless rush o...
Returning
After a month spent hiding in a quiet corner of the Tumblrverse, I suppose these words signal a return to normality of sorts. A return to the madding crowd -...
Coffee Oclock
It turns out slowing down is difficult after several weeks chasing your own tail. I finally have time to take a step back - to take stock - to figure out how...
Ever So Slightly Furious
After my youngest daughter returned from rugby practice this morning, I accompanied her to the newspaper shop to hand her notice in.
Twenty One
My eldest daughter is 21 years old today. I guess that means she’s a “proper” grown-up now. Even though she still lives with us, we’ve been slowly shifting r...
Work Scrap Metal And Beer
I think I probably broke some sort of record for hours spent in conference calls this week. Hour upon hour talking, listening, writing notes, and so on. It d...
A Quiet Day
After what seems like weeks chasing my own tail, the world is slowing down a little - affording the chance to take stock and work out how to move forwards, r...
20 Years
Twenty years ago today a Rolls Royce sped past a church in Oxfordshire, horrifying several elderly ladies waiting for it’s arrival. Within the car, the bride...
Going Round In Circles
In-between juggling work, chores, and all manner of distractions earlier, I decided to go back to what I had planned to do in the first place, and just have ...
One Week After Another
I’m getting a little too good at “not writing” at the moment. It’s easy to say there are too many distractions, when the reality is that I’m just not setting...
Never Say Never
If you receive this blog post via email, you’re probably wondering what on earth is going on. Let’s just say I had a change of heart about blogging (yet agai...
Work And Money
As of this evening, my younger daughters have both entered the world of work. If you had told me this even a month ago, I wouldn’t have believed you.
Newspapers And Overtime
While talking to friends on the green outside our house yesterday evening one of them mentioned that the local newsagent was looking for paperboys and girls ...
Sunday Morning
It’s been a few days since I wrote anything in the blog. Life seems to have a way of diverting me from anything and everything at the moment. This morning h...
The One Where My Cousin Died
My cousin died yesterday morning. The one who’s wedding I went to two weeks ago. The wedding was wonderful, but it was pretty obvious he didn’t have long lef...
Wednesday
Where did Tuesday and Wednesday go? Can we go out and look for them? I vaguely remember them happening, but I’m not really sure.
The Need For Ownership
I’ve noticed a gradual shift across media and the internet recently that has troubled me greatly - a growing lack of intolerance and acceptance of people’s d...
Bank Holiday Monday
Prodded more by the necessity of alternative earning avenues than the pursuit of creativity, I returned to the Medium well this morning and expanded on the w...
Returning To Tumblr
I think it’s fair to say I’ve had something of a chequered history with Tumblr. I’ve been here since the beginning of the platform, and have been both my own...
Quietly Annoyed
I’m sitting in the junk room at home, which has a window over-looking the green outside our house. There was a group of teenagers gathered around the nearest...
Saturday Morning
Saturday is slowly unfurling in front of me, aided by two cups of coffee and a slice of marmite on toast. I’m sitting in “the junk room” accompanied by the r...
Maybe Im Amazed
It’s been a strange sort of day so far. The last day of my holiday, which has transmogrified from a vacation to a staycation - knocking around the house for ...
Cleaning The Shower
After getting up this morning, I got in the shower and discovered what happens when you go away for a week and your eldest daughter “looks after” the house.
The Journey Home
We left the coast a little before 10am, and arrived home a little before 4pm. Allowing for an hour in a rest area at lunchtime, about 5 hours on the road.
A Day On The Beach
On the final day of our visit with my parents on the coast, the sun arrived. After looking out of the kitchen window at breakfast time with my youngest daugh...
Day Four
I woke at 7am with cascading alarms from my phone, had a shower, brushed my teeth and wandered into my parents kitchen to make a coffee. The kids arrived in ...
Three Days Down
We are three days into our adventure on the south coast.
Morning In Cornwall
We left home a little after 10am yesterday morning, waving goodbye to our eldest daughter who is looking after the house, and set off towards the south west ...
A Family Wedding
Yes, I know I haven’t written anything here for an ENTIRE WEEK! Life gets in the way sometimes. Or perhaps this is the new normal - a few words each week, ra...
Before You Know It
I meant to write something on Friday. And then I didn’t. I meant to write something over the weekend. And then I didn’t. A pattern is forming. I suppose in t...
And Another Five Kilometres
I meant to write something earlier today, but work, home, chores, and everything in-between got in the way. Before you know it the day vanishes, and it’s nea...
Five More Kilometres
After waking up a little after 7am this morning I watched the clock tick for the better part of half an hour before scraping myself out of bed, pulling some ...
Parkruns And Campfires
I took part in my first “Parkrun” yesterday morning - a regular weekly 5 kilometre run around the big park in town. Parkrun operates all over the world - you...
One Meeting After Another
I have spent nearly all day in meetings - one meeting after another. I don’t think I could ever be a project manager, because their life seems to consist pur...
Movies Vineyards And Elitist Snobs
Last night we went out for the first time in 18 months.
Ankles Earwax And Wasp Stings
It’s been an eventful few days in my little corner of the universe. Where to start?
Strange Dreams And Fond Memories
I dreamed last night that I worked at an office a few miles from home that I cycled to. The route took me over a bridge - the only one for miles - and that b...
Friday Night
It’s nearly midnight on Friday night as I begin writing this post. I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room, typing this into the desktop computer. My other ...
Wednesday Night
It’s late on Wednesday night (or early on Thursday morning, if we want to be accurate). I’m sitting in the dark of the study in silence - the rest of the fam...
Four Kilometres Before Breakfast
After watching the alarm clock digits tick over for the better part of half an hour this morning, I eventually slid out of bed and retrieved a pair of runnin...
An Adventure In London
The alarm clock filled the bedroom with one of the national radio stations at 7am this morning. I listened for a few minutes before my other half rolled over...
A Quarter To Midnight
The clock is ticking towards midnight, and you find me sitting in the dark of the study, tapping away at the keyboard while a random playlist on Spotify trie...
Falling Rain
I woke at 6am to the steady rhythm of rain on the bedroom window, and remembered leaving washing on the line last night. For a few moments I thought about da...
Just A Few Words
A little voice has been whispering in my ear for the last few days that I’ve not posted anything to the blog - so I’m doing something about it. My fingers ar...
Bingewatching
It’s Monday afternoon, and you find me sitting in the junk room at home with a cafe-society playlist humming away in the background. Rain has been falling th...
Rocks Frogs And Wine
It’s Saturday afternoon, and you find me sitting in the junk room with an empty wine glass, reasoning with myself that two small glasses of wine are quite en...
Not Going Anywhere
Before going on something of a blogging sabbatical for a few days - an attempt to break the “must post every day” idiocy - I thought it might be a good idea ...
Cutting The Hedge
I’ve just sat down after spending the last hour trimming the hedge at the front of our house. Of course I write “trimming”, but the real scenes were probably...
A Burning Smell
The big computer hidden under the desk emitted a strange electrical noise yesterday morning, before switching off and filling the room with an acrid smell of...
The Reciprocation Expectation
There’s something about publishing blog posts on mainstream platforms that I’ve never liked. It never used to exist, and has only come about because platform...
Emptying My Head On Saturday Night
I’ve been staring at Evernote for the last several minutes, wondering how to begin this post.
Breaking The Cycle
It’s been a week since I last posted. After years writing almost every day, it seems strange - standing at the edge of the blog - rummaging around in my ment...
A Week Without Words
I’m struggling to remember the last time this blog saw my absence for as many consecutive days. I would love to say “I’ve been busy having all manner of adve...
A Future Filled With Words
I began blogging before the word had become part of the common vernacular. In the early days, people wrote about their day - their life. Online journals form...
In Limbo
After working consistently through the the last 18 months, the company I work for are starting to take advantage of the “flexible furlough” opportunities to ...
Where Did The Weekend Go
It’s Friday evening, and the “week off” has vanished. I’m wondering where it went. The last few days are a mental jumble of running, working on the garden, d...
Visitors Staycations And Running
The sun is setting on a busy day. I’m sitting in the junk room, trying to gather my thoughts while sipping a cup of black coffee, and listening to a “Paris C...
Visitors French Cafe Playlists And A Week Of Running Ahead
The sun is setting on a busy day. I’m sitting in the junk room, trying to gather my thoughts while sipping a cup of black coffee, and listening to a “Paris C...
Sunday
It’s been four days since I last emptied my head into the keyboard. Almost unheard of. A good friend mentioned earlier that she needs inspiration to write - ...
The Productivity Trap
For years I tinkered with all manner of productivity hacks - paper task lists, apps, websites, and so on - I even read some of the more famous books, such as...
The Unfolding Story
Nocturnal writing escapades are becoming something of a habit. It seems to take an entire day for the reflective part of my consciousness to find it’s way fr...
Monday
Nocturnal writing escapades are becoming something of a habit. It seems to take an entire day for the reflective part of my consciousness to find it’s way fr...
Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest was held this evening in Rotterdam. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s the annual competition that launched ABBA into the stratosp...
Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest was held this evening in Rotterdam. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s the annual competition that launched ABBA into the stratosp...
After The Storm
The greater part of this week has been spent submerged in an alien computer system - trying to make head or tail of how it works, how it hangs together, and ...
The Early Hours Of The Morning
The clock ticked past 1am some time ago. It’s already Thursday morning. I’m playing the age old game of avoiding tomorrow while music quietly plays in the da...
Pathfinding
This morning the vast internet machinery heaved the minute hand of an invisible clock forwards another minute, and filled the bedroom with one of the London ...
And Then The Rain Fell
While the sky remains filled with cold grey blankets, and the cats keep watch on the garden from the warmth of the living room, Spotify fills the study with ...
London Calling
A little while after the sun rises tomorrow morning, no doubt after gazing at the ceiling for a little while, I will untangle myself from the safety of the b...
Nothing To Report
I’m trying not to read the news. The news is full of stories about the Indian variant of the coronavirus going on something of a rampage, and causing brakes ...
The Dying Of The Light
After noticing dusk had fallen a few minutes ago I wandered into the garden to get the washing in, and was met by a wall of cold air. While unpegging clothes...
Conjuring Audrey Hepburn
I’m sitting in the study (read: the junk room). Rain is gently falling outside, and I have jazz playing in the background once again. Through the wonders of ...
Coffee And Jazz
It’s late on Thursday evening, and I’m listening to jazz on the internet while sipping coffee. I’m going to blame Claudette. She tipped me off about a YouTub...
Ignoring The Tomorrowness
May the fifth be with you. Doesn’t sound quite as good, does it. At the time of writing it’s eight minutes past midnight, so I suppose it’s already tomorrow....
Star Wars Day
May the fourth be with you. Apparently today is “Star Wars Day”. It’s all a bit thtupid really, ithn’t it. Thee what I did there?
Bank Holiday Monday
It’s heading towards 10am, and I’m still the only person up and about at home. It’s a bank holiday in the UK today - many people have the day off work. Of co...
A Day Of Two Halves
The first half of the day was spent chaperoning my youngest daughter to a nearby town in pursuit of a meetup with several of her friends. This included waiti...
Bullet Journals And Video Games
For the last three years I have used a bullet journal to both plan, and record each day. It has sat on the corner of my desk, and served as a duplicate of so...
Remembering The Rubbish
Tomorrow doesn’t start until I wake up in the morning. The clock might have ticked past midnight a few minutes ago, but I’m going to claim it’s still “tonigh...
Rediscovering The Tribe
The last few days have served as a reminder of how wonderful the blogging tribe has become. I’m not talking about the niche food, fashion, or lifestyle blogg...
Introducing An Old Friend
Over the last few days I have been arm twisting a wonderful blogging friend that has remained largely undiscovered in the wilds of LiveJournal.
A Weekend In The Garden
Another weekend is slowly winding down. A weekend filled with gardening, and trips to and from the local rubbish tip. Over the last year, the rubbish tip has...
Grease Is The Word
It’s heading towards 8pm in the evening, I’m sitting alone in the junk room listening to the Grease soundtrack on Spotify while the light slowly dies outside...
St George And The Dragon
Today is “St George’s Day” in the UK. It’s not a national holiday, and is only marked in-so-much that most calendars have it marked in small-print. Quite how...
Does Talent Breed Laziness
I have been head-down with work for the last several days. Being busy is good. Unfortunately the garden has taken its cue to inject anything that will grow w...
After Effects
After receiving the first COVID vaccine injection on Sunday evening, the side effects began mid-morning on Monday. Throughout Monday, my body began to slowly...
Partly Vaccinated
I received my first COVID vaccination shot today. My age group became available to apply last week - I left it a few hours before looking at the website, the...
Friday
The staycation is coming to an end. Friday has arrived, supported by coffee, and bacon sandwiches. I woke a little after 6am, then convinced myself to sleep ...
Sixteen Years Old
My youngest daughter is now sixteen years old. The little girl that used to hold my leg when unsure, and raise her arms to be picked up when tired is somehow...
Asshatpocalypse
Lockdown has partly come to an end in the UK - not that some people took any notice of it what-so-ever. Pubs, restaurants, and shops re-open today, albeit wi...
Nowhere Quickly
It’s Sunday afternoon, I’m sitting in the junk room in front of the computer, the chores are done, my other half is out, and Norah Jones is singing about bei...
A State Of Continual Distraction
In keeping with the “falling off the blogging horse” theme I seem to have been following recently, I can feel myself being slowly drawn back. It’s curious ho...
Enough With The Idiocy
I disconnected the automagic plumbing between Wordpress, Tumblr, and Substack this morning. No more “read more here” links. You just get to read my idiocy wh...
Easter Sunday
wp:image /wp:image wp:html After planning an online event with some friends for the last couple of weeks, my other half arrived in the kitchen on Frida...
Wrestling With The Unimportant
wp:image {“id”:2107009292,”sizeSlug”:”large”,”linkDestination”:”none”} /wp:image After Wordpress decided to change the way they monkey with text, I’m sca...
Humpday
wp:image /wp:image After the craziness of the last several weeks, today the world seems to be slowing down somewhat. I’m starting to judge how busy each ...
Choose Your Own Adventure
wp:image /wp:image While sending messages back and forth with a friend this morning, it struck me that life can be compared to a “choose your own adventu...
Where Does The Time Go
I’ve been sitting in the dark of the study with the word processor open in front of me for a few minutes - trying to organise my thoughts. Somehow a browser...
Surviving The Social Internet
wp:image /wp:image This post originally appeared at Medium - where I often empty my head into the keyboard, and try to make some sense of the world.
Turning Into A Cat
I think I’m turning into a cat. You know how cats have favourite places to curl up or “be” that last for a few days at a time, before they move on to somewhe...
Midnight
I started writing this at one minute past midnight on Friday night. I suppose it’s really Saturday, but I tend to count it as the day before until I wake up ...
An Internet Fishing Expedition
After talking to a few friends who also post to Wordpress, and who have also seen an increase in follows, likes, and subscriptions from business accounts who...
Unused Holiday Rain And Fake Followers
It’s been a strange sort of day - and it isn’t over yet.
A Chromebook By Any Other Name
Late last night I discovered a company called “Neverware” created the software to install on a USB stick that allows a computer to boot from the stick and tu...
Reorganising My Life
For the last few months I’ve been experimenting with an online swiss-army-knife called “Notion”, that allows you to record notes, compile databases of inform...
Experimenting With Email
I breathed life back into my dormant substack account this morning. If you’ve not heard of Substack, it’s become the darling of the resurgent fashion to publ...
A Mental Health Walk
I walked into town after lunch with two of my daughters - a “mental health walk” - an escape from the walls that have been our prisoner for several weeks. It...
Pizza And A Movie
I started the week wondering if I would have anything to do - exploring a research and development project, but not having anything concrete to get on with. ...
The Struggle Is Real
I stopped drinking coffee yesterday morning (or the night before, in the interests of accuracy). I’ve had a headache all day - which I suppose is somewhat pr...
No Hair Dont Care
I got the clippers out this evening and cut all my hair off again. It was approaching “toilet brush” levels of sticky-uppiness, so I thought I should do some...
Tuesday Lunchtime
I had been entertaining the idea of escaping at lunchtime, and going for a walk. A few miles out in the fresh air on my own with a podcast in my ears. The we...
Hacking Anxiety And Loneliness
I’m not working today, so have spent much of the day juggling home school assistance with efforts to encourage my eldest daughter to step outside her self im...
Saturday
I started writing this post on Thursday, and provisionally titled it “Thursday”. I got no further than writing the title before I was called away. I then re-...
Falling Off The Blogging Bike
It’s not so much a case of “falling off the blogging bike” any more - more a case of “has anybody seen the damn bike?”. Or maybe “can I even remember how to ...
All Quiet On The Western Front
It’s been a remarkably quiet week in the Beckett household. I suppose the one stand-out achievement of the week has been gaining sight of the bottom of the c...
And Exhale
I watched the inauguration of Joe Biden as the new President of the United States yesterday evening, and then fell down an internet rabbit hole this morning ...
An Unexpected Staycation
I have the rest of the week off work!
Another 5K Around Town
Following my youngest daughter signing up for the “Couch to 5K” programme through school, she has to complete the training runs each week, and her sisters pr...
Sunday Night
It just occurred to me that I should write something on the blog. Somehow I’ve fallen away from writing nearly every day, to writing every few days. Perhaps ...
Sixteen Becomes Seventeen
My middle daughter began celebrating her seventeenth birthday this morning. How did that happen? Where did all the time go? The last time I looked she was ho...
Running On Sunday Morning
I went for a run around town with my youngest daughter this morning. She was supposed to be running with her sisters, but neither of them got out of bed. At ...
Loud Thoughts On A Quiet Weekend
It’s been very quiet indeed around here for the last few days. After a scare mid-week where my youngest daughter had to do a COVID test, we have stayed holed...
Witnessing History
I stayed up most of last night watching history unfold on the other side of the world - watching what surely must be the end of Donald Trump. Now I wonder wh...
Self Isolating
Our youngest daughter started coughing yesterday afternoon. Even though we suspected a run around town with her sister was the cause (it’s bitterly cold outs...
Bullet Journals And Erotica
wp:heading {“level”:3} ### Returning to work
Books Books And More Books
My other half just got back from visiting her family, who we have not seen since the end of last summer due to the lockdown. They met at a National Trust pro...
This And That
I’m sitting at the desk in the junk room, listening to Sarah Bareilles. She has become a favourite for the quiet moments. It’s Saturday afternoon - with one ...
Happy New Year
The clock is just ticking past 11am on New Years Day, and I’m still trying to wake up. I think we eventually went to bed some time after 2am. I hosted a quiz...