Far from the madding crowd
As the final hours of 2025 ebbed away, I sat on the sofa with a laptop, quietly lifting 22 years worth of blog posts into the air - to land them far from the...
Posts from 2025
Boxing Day
After falling off the internet in recent days, I reached out to a few friends around the world this morning - wishing them a happy “Boxing Day”, and none of ...
Christmas Day
Somehow we’ve made it through Christmas in one piece.
Work, chores and strictly
It’s been a few days again. A few days since I last emptied my head into the keyboard. I’m not sure where the last week went, to be honest. Work, chores, and...
On the outside, looking in
I went to my other half’s work Christmas party as her “plus one” last night. It was interesting - being the person on the outside, looking in on the work fri...
In search of my lost tribe
I don’t recognise the internet any more. Walled cities have proliferated, filled with newcomers, settlers, and homesteaders - who invariably join each other ...
A Moveable Feast
It occurred to me this morning that I’m becoming invisible. As wave after wave of new generations enter the scene from stage left, I’m increasingly the fool ...
Unnecessarily Difficult
A few months ago I switched from Android to iPhone. In the process of doing so, somebody somewhere sold my phone number to a marketing moron, and before I kn...
The Glyptotek and Tivoli Gardens
Yesterday morning we set out bright and early for the “Glyptotek” - a vanity project built by Carl Jacobsen - the son of the founder of the Carlsberg breweri...
Oats, Harbours, Mermaids and Glogg
Today was very much a day of new things. A breakfast of overnight oats, a pilgrimage of sorts, a marching military band, a mermaid, an open sandwich and a gl...
Copenhagen
After a 5am alarm call, a taxi at 6am, and breakfast at Heathrow airport, we finally took off a little before 9am, and set off towards Copenhagen, Denmark. W...
It wasn’t always this way
You know the one where you’ve been promising to yourself to write something for days, but then this interesting thing appears in your peripheral vision, or t...
Fifteen Minutes
I started writing this blog post fifteen minutes before the end of my lunch break at work - after losing the rest of my lunch break washing clothes, clearing...
An Early Night
After an early night last night, I have been up since 3:45 this morning. I got up to watch the Grand Prix in Las Vegas - which turned out to be not worth wat...
The Importance of Being Earnest
We made our way into London yesterday evening to watch Stephen Fry starring as Lady Bracknell in “The Importance of Being Earnest”. It didn’t quite work out ...
Drinking the Kool Aid
I left Cornwall mid-morning yesterday after a long promised visit to my parents. The journey home felt oddly detached - with no mobile signal and no data con...
South West
After working throughout the entire summer, and disappearing for one long weekend during that time, I finally shut my computer down on Friday evening with no...
Nuremberg
We went to the cinema this evening, and watched an advance screening of “Nuremberg”, starring Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, and Michael Shannon.
Half Past Lunchtime on Sunday
It’s half past lunchtime on Sunday, and you find me hiding out in the junk room at home, listening to a singer-songwriter playlist. Randy Newman is singing t...
How is it nearly Thursday already?
I just looked at the clock in the corner of the computer screen after consciously trying to figure out what day of the week it was. Where did Wednesday go? N...
Parties and Leftovers at Chore City
Two of our oldest friends hosted a joint 50th birthday party at the rowing club in town last night. If I’m entirely honest, neither of us really wanted to go...
To By Young
What is the “right” age to act? What if the most authentic version of “you” is still a little bit… sticky-fingered and prone to spontaneous laughter?
Lights in the Sky
One of the current WordPress writing prompts asks “what historical event fascinates you the most ?”
Quiet Days Vogon Poetry and Impossible Creaters
After spending so many years surrounded by chaos at home, it always feels a little bit odd when travelling to find life suddenly becalmed. So much so that I ...
The Journey West
After a wonderfully unplanned night out with friends last night, we scraped ourselves out of bed this morning, threw clothes into travel bags, and set off to...
An Accidental Writer
Today’s Wordpress writing prompt asks what alternative career paths you have considered, or are interested in.
Long Weekend
The clock ticked into Friday ten minutes ago, and you find me almost giddy with the prospect of not returning to work until Tuesday next week. A long weekend...
While Making Other Plans
In early 2006, after discovering I have a rare genetic defect, after a third and final unsuccessful attempt at IVF, and after gazing into the yawning crater ...
Round in Circles
Sunday Earlier this year - at home - I switched my phone from a Google Pixel to an Apple iPhone, my desktop computer from a PC to a Mac mini, my laptop from ...
Half Past My Bedtime
The clock ticked past midnight ten minutes ago. You find me sitting in the dark of the junk room, perched in front of the Mac with a mug of coffee while Joni...
One Foot in Front Of The Other
Today’s writing prompt asks what principles define how you live. I wouldn’t say I necessarily have many principals – but I have coping mechanisms.
A Step Back in Time
We attended the party of a wonderful friend yesterday evening to help celebrate her 50th birthday. The invitation requested 80s themed fancy dress.
One Virtual World
Today’s WordPress writing prompt asks who you might give a million dollars to, if you had a million dollars to give away.
Decompression
I’m having a “night off” tonight. Trying to slow down. Listening to music. Noodling around with this and that on the Mac. Not really achieving anything, and ...
Be Careful What You Wish For
Aviation has been a common thread throughout my life – from the giant red encyclopedia that was ever present in our house, to the balsa Tiger Moth my Dad mad...
Sunday morning in Spoons
I’m sitting in Wetherspoons this morning, feeling incredibly smug to have bagged a table in a booth. Doing so seems to depend on arriving before 9:30.
One computer to rule them all
I’m sitting, writing this post while holed up in the junk room at home. I’m sitting in front of a desk with two monitors on it – one connected to a hulking P...
Taylor and the quiet rebellion
Taylor Swift’s new album “The Life of a Showgirl” arrived this morning. As a fifty-something guy that invariably listens to retro radio stations targeted at ...
Life without Computers
Can you imagine what life would be like without a computer? I’m old enough that I don’t need to imagine it – I can remember it.
The Need to Slow Down
While racing from one thing to another throughout a typical day, I rarely give any thought to what I might not do – I’m invariably consumed with what I have ...
An Evening at the Theatre
After spending much of the weekend hiding from the world with a nasty cold, we ventured out tonight rather than waste the theatre tickets we bought over a ye...
Six Days
Six Days Six days have somehow passed since I last wrote - there’s quite a lot to unpack. I’m not really sure where to start, if I’m honest.
Pottering
I’m having a day off from everything today. Well… I say everything, but I’ve filled the washing machine three times. Who knew that chores are a great excuse ...
Cult Movies and Atomic Apparel
The clock ticked past 11pm a few minutes ago. It’s been six days since I last posted. I’m not entirely sure where the week went. I haven’t been out running. ...
Favourite Foods
There’s writing prompt at Wordpress today asking “what are your favourite types of foods”. To be honest, it would be easier to list the foods I don’t like, r...
An Adventure in London
After setting the alarm clock to go off at 7am this morning - affording me an hour to have a wash, get dressed, and get to the railway station, my wonderful ...
Everything, Everywhere, Again
At some point yesterday - nearly five days later than planned - and now with most of the holiday gone when I might have stage managed the migration smoothly ...
Escape
This morning you find me holed up in a corner of Wetherspoons - escaping from the world for an hour. I’ve just made a “small American breakfast” disappear, a...
Trying to slow down
After a dinner-table conversation last weekend, somehow I agreed to escort my eldest daughter to a nearby town with a ginormous shopping centre. I didn’t act...
A Day in the City
After escaping the house a little after 9am this morning, we made our way to the local railway station, collected tickets, and jumped on the first post rush-...
Everything, Everywhere
After watching the inexorable march of Substack towards the same commercially driven hellscape as countless platforms before it, I’ve been scouting around fo...
Nine Days
In the midst of feeling pretty depleted last night, a wonderful friend reminded me that I have nine days to make my own stretched out in front of me. Nine da...
Strawberry jam on toast versus the common cold
While brushing my teeth a few days ago, it occurred to me that I haven’t been sick for quite some time. Months. Not since this time last year, when I ended u...
The one where I flooded the kitchen
While taking a break from work this morning, I wandered into the kitchen and decided that the clothes rack had been standing in everybody’s way for quite lon...
Faking It
A few days ago while walking home from town the cogs at the back of my brain started turning. I’m not entirely sure why they started turning, but they did, a...
Escapology and Weird Dreams
I discovered this morning that I can’t listen to a podcast and write at the same time - I end gazing into space and listening rather than writing anything. M...
The Extroverted Introvert Corollary
A few days ago I made the colossal mistake of setting foot into the “social internet” in search of hopefully kindred spirits - or “Unicorns” as I labelled th...
The Saturday Spoons Ritual Continues
I woke with a start at 7:30am this morning - to the sound of a door being slammed downstairs. Cogs turned in my head, and a member conjured itself from somew...
The almost impossible search for unicorns
I started writing a blog before the word “blog” had entered common parlance.
Escape
It occurred to me this morning that I’m not so much living in an escape room - rather an escape life. Except I’m not really trying to escape - just becoming ...
A somewhat accidental Swiftie
Some years ago - while chatting with an old friend (and wonderful singer) in Oklahoma, the subject of music came up, and I asked what she was listening to - ...
When does today become tomorrow?
While writing this (after procrastinating famously for the last hour), the clock is busy ticking past 1am - or rather, it did so about 10 minutes ago. I’m ri...
The table for one problem
It’s Saturday morning, and you find me sitting in the middle of the huge Wetherspoons in town - escaping the house for a cooked breakfast and a “bottomless” ...
Not good at switching off
After burning the candle at both ends over the last few days, I pushed back a little today. Or rather I had all the good intentions of doing so, and then did...
Breakfast at Wetherspoons
This morning you find me holed up in a booth at our local Wetherspoons - part of a huge pub chain that stretches across the country. I’m sitting in the booth...
Hello Midnight, Old Friend
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room - the last person standing in the house as the new day arrives. I’m listening to “Seasons of Love” from the original...
Burning the Candle at Both Ends
Last weekend I installed a writing app called “Day One” onto my laptop, with thoughts of using it to empty my head into about anything and everything - a pla...
Tiredness Abounds
Sunday evening became Monday morning two minutes ago. Normally I would be digging my heels in for another hour and fighting the arrival of tomorrow for as lo...
Chasing Elphaba
There comes a point where you get thrown under the bus so often, you start to see it as strangely normal. Not a shock or surprise. It gets to the point where...
The journey to the dark side is complete
We went out this morning in search of some new tea, coffee and sugar containers for the kitchen. The old ones had been knocking around the kitchen since the ...
Seven Days
It’s been seven days since I last wrote. Seven days of work, chores, drama, and mayhem. The last two days particularly so.
Has anyone seen my bicycle?
I’ve commented in the past about falling off the internet bicycle - somehow not finding the time to keep up with anything, or catch up with anybody. I’ve dec...
Mailing it in
The clock ticked past midnight three quarters of an hour ago.
I’m still here
Another week has whistled past. Again, I’m not entirely sure where it went. I didn’t run. I didn’t read. I did listen to music though. I’m listening to music...
Out of the loop
I think I may have unwittingly succeeded in departing the loop entirely.
Chasing my own tail
Where the hell has the last week gone? Seriously. You look away for a few seconds and several day have passed.
Fathers Day
It’s “Father’s Day” in the UK today - a tradition that seems to have been adopted from the US at some point in the distant past - quite obviously a commercia...
The conversion continues
It’s been a bit of a week. The Windows laptop has been handed on to my eldest daughter, and the Amazon tablet has been handed on to my other half. An iPad ar...
Re-programming my brain
The Mac mini arrived. And the iPhone. The biggest barrier at the moment seems to be my own ability to learn new ways of doing things, or to forget the ways I...
Going All In
My mobile phone came up for renewal last week. After a few days of abject indecision, I finally pulled the trigger on its replacement this afternoon. An iPho...
The apple doesnt fall far
A few days ago my other half mentioned that she had a couple of Macbooks at work that were being retired, and wondered if I might be interested in them. I te...
Week One Run One
After tipping myself out of bed at 7am this morning, I pulled on some running shorts, and headed out of the door to re-start the “Couch to 5K” programme. It’...
Old friends and unread books
I can never quite decide if “having a quiet weekend” is missing out on opportunities to be here, there, and everywhere, or if stepping away from the mayhem i...
Fake it till you make it
After travelling north with several co-workers this morning, we arrived at our destination and temporary home for the next few days - a typical corporate hot...
Preparing to Travel
I have to get up sensibly early tomorrow - to meet at a co-worker’s house ahead of a fairly long journey “up country”. Everybody vaguely technical in the com...
Midnight Again
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room late on Sunday night, listening to Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s album “Who Believes in Angels”. When I first hear...
In search of the time thieves
Somehow it’s half past midnight - or “half past my bedtime”, as my middle daughter might have said when she was young.
Kind of like an exhale
A little while ago - after receiving feedback that subscribers to my blog weren’t altogether happy with Substack marketing things at them I tried switching i...
Eurovision
I’m not really sure when we started watching Eurovision. It’s become a “thing” that we do each year - setting the evening aside with a few drinks and some fo...
We know how to spend our Friday nights
I answered an SOS call on Friday morning from a neighbour. Their internet was being “a bit rubbish” (their words), so rather than headbang the wall for sever...
Everything all the time
Do you ever have those moments where you look away, and several days pass?
Homeward Bound
After waking a little after 8am this morning, and packing our belongings into the back of the car, we took a final stroll into our temporary home. Along the ...
A walk along the river Wye
After waking a little after 8 this morning I performed the inevitable gymnastics around the holiday cottage to have a shower and shave without punching windo...
This world wasnt designed for me
I woke a little after 8 this morning in the grip of the memory foam matress that had mysteriously absorbed my body during the night - forming an odd blacmang...
A Town out of time
After leaving home mid-morning and stopping at an oddly soul-less rest area en-route, we arrived in Hay on Wye early in the afternoon. Against expectations -...
Four Days Away
For the last several years - since the children were old enough - we have escaped for a long weekend in the spring to visit a European city. Just the two of ...
Every Tomorrow
I’m watching the minutes tick down at the end of a three-day weekend and find myself wondering where the time has gone. In truth, it’s been a fairly quiet we...
The Midnight Writing Club
A few months ago I found myself sitting in the dark of the junk room in the dead of night, writing a blog post, and wondered how many other people were doing...
The Unwanted Elephant
While walking home from town earlier today I happened upon a huge unwanted soft-toy of an elephant, sitting quietly at the end of somebody’s driveway, with a...
Dance like nobody is watching
While everybody else was doing other things this evening I found myself spending a rare evening with my youngest daughter - just the two of us. I was pretty ...
Brave New World
After conducting all manner of covert experiments in recent days and weeks - driven by a creeping disdain for the continued and increasingly brazen commoditi...
Gone but not forgotten
While tinkering with something on the internet this evening - and shaking my head at my own idiocy when it comes to not only finding rabbit holes, but active...
Friday night
How is it that if you look away for a few minutes, several days hurtle past? I guess it was a short week anyway - following the Easter long weekend - but sti...
Hello limbo, old friend
Every day seems to crash into the next at the moment. A never ending trudge towards nowhere in particular. Somehow almost a week has passed since I last wro...
The Memory Library
When I write for the blog, the words have recently started out in a note taking application called “Obsidian”. I like it primarily because it writes in plain...
Resisting temptation
I fell down an internet rabbit hole this week. After posting my frustrations with Substack’s increasingly steep slide towards becoming a walled garden, a num...
Last man standing
Everybody else went to bed some time ago. I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room, bathed in the light of the desk lamps while Billy Joel plays the piano an...
On Green Dolphin Street
As the weekend ebbs away and a new week approaches, you find me sitting in the junk room, listening to music, and attempting to shut the rest of the world ou...
Slowly by Surely
After several days of seemingly endless struggling, I started to make progress today. I’ve spent the last two days pulling swathes of example programming to ...
Slowly But Surely
After several days of seemingly endless struggling, I started to make progress today.
Learning Something New
Today marked the beginning of perhaps a long journey into the unknown - learning something entirely new - or new to me at least.
Learning Something Entirely New
Today marked the beginning of perhaps a long journey into the unknown - learning something entirely new - or new to me at least. I’ve been busy reading docum...
An artificially generated alter-ego
I asked an artificially intelligent machine learning algorithm to draw a concept art character of a 50 year old software developer sitting in a room full of ...
The Motherlode
While sitting here in the dark of the junk room, bathed in the light of lamps that stand on either end of the desk, a server farm somewhere is having a quiet...
Birthdays and Music
Do you ever get to the end of the weekend, and wonder not only where it went, but also what you spent it doing? Last night I sat in bed, wondering exactly th...
Unintentionally Absent
I’ve been meaning to write something all week - somehow each time I sit down at the computer, something happens to either distract or divert me. Never mind. ...
Late nights new toys daughters and recovery
I was going to go to bed at a fairly normal time last night, but then fell down an internet rabbit hole of my own making. Before I knew it, it was 2am, and t...
Bridget Jones
We just got back from the cinema - after finally seeing the latest (and perhaps final?) Bridget Jones movie. I had heard mixed things about it - some friends...
More than this
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room, bathed in the light from the computer screen, surrounded by silence throughout the house. Everybody else is already...
Cautiously Optimistic
It’s late on Friday night, and I’m wondering if my body has started to turn a corner. After a week taking steroids and antibiotics, I took the last of them t...
Keep taking the tablets
On the way home from visiting my parents last night, after being sick for the better part of two weeks, my other half pretty much ordered to me to book a doc...
Reflection
Greetings from deepest, darkest Cornwall, where I’m visiting my parents for the weekend. After arriving late on Friday evening, we wandered into Looe on Satu...
Preparing to Travel
After a week and a half struggling with a cough and cold, I’m finally starting to feel better this morning - or at least if I sit quietly, I don’t cough my l...
The lost weekend
After signing myself off work sick last Wednesday, I returned to work on Thursday and Friday even though I was quite obviously getting worse. Even missing a ...
Not good at being sick
I’m not entirely sure where today has gone. One of the kids brought a pretty awful virus into the house, and it got me. I think this might be the first day I...
Friends, Cheese, Wine and Dogs
After several months chasing our own tails, we invited some friends over last night. There really wasn’t much of a plan - other than escaping from each other...
Celebratory coffee
I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room at home, sipping a celebratory cup of coffee and listening to a largely forgettable “jazz café” playlist after climb...
Overthinking
A few thoughts have been rattling around my head recently. For the most part they keep out of the way, but then during the quiet moments they emerge, throw s...
Hello midnight, old friend
We went out for breakfast this morning at the café where my middle daughter works (or rather, one of the places she works - she now has two jobs). The owner ...
Into the City
At five fifty five this morning my body woke me up, and I switched off the alarm I had carefully set the previous night. I’m mysteriously good at doing that.
The Brutalist
We saw the movie “The Brutalist” at the cinema last night. I almost emptied my head into the keyboard when we got home, and I’m glad I didn’t - there was jus...
Artificial Intelligence
I just finished watching the movie “Her”. It’s only taken me 12 years and then two sittings to make it through the movie. Better late than never, right? I ca...
Existing
I went for a walk into town at lunchtime today, purely to escape the house for a little while - to escape the computer, the washing machine, the dishwasher, ...
Coming up for air
The clock is ticking towards midnight once more.
I am Groot
My eldest daughter sat in the junk room with me this evening - at my work desk - and helped me build a LEGO kit I got for Christmas - of “Groot” from Guardia...
Virtual Worlds
After wandering into the living room this evening I caught the second half of the wonderful movie “Free Guy” - where Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer and Joe Keery...
The Midnight Writing Club
Welcome to the inaugural meeting of the “Midnight Writing Club”. Unfortunately we only have one member at the moment, so I’ll be acting as chair-person, taki...
Oblivious Idiot
The clock will tick past 1am in 4 minutes. I’m sitting in bed, in the dark, tapping away on a laptop - running down the last bit of “awake” I have left. Afte...
Watching and Waiting
I’ve spent much of the day watching a long running process on a distant server farm slowly report onward progress. It’s been interesting - wanting to find be...
A grand day out
After scraping myself out of bed this morning, and standing rather conspicuously in the middle of the kitchen in my underwear sipping coffee - while waiting ...
A slightly less brave new world
After trying to convince myself that I wanted to live in my own castle for the last several weeks, and after sitting high atop my invented throne, admiring m...
Nosferatu
I just got home from a visit to the cinema with my eldest daughter - to watch “Nosferatu” - a new version of the story inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Alt...
Caverns Measureless to Man
Over the course of this weekend - for no other reason than to satisfy an unending curiosity, I have re-created a simulacrum of a computing platform I last sa...
The Melting Pot
While sitting atop my fence with a bag of popcorn, waiting for the Facebook, Instagram and Threads mud-slinging escapade to calm down, I’ve been trying to un...
Almost daily
For the last several years, whenever asked how frequently I write on the blog, I have replied “almost daily”. I’m beginning to wonder if I should refactor my...
Scammers
I received a message on my mobile phone yesterday - I didn’t take much notice at the time because I didn’t recognise the name. While catching up with email l...
New Years Day
Last night we were invited to bring in the new year with neighbours. We hadn’t planned on going anywhere or doing anything, but thought “you know what - why ...