No, not a title for a rude film. It’s the amount of time that it took to drive from Docklands to our home in Worcestershire
Month: June 2007
My new friend…
Dan. this is bonkers and bizarre and I probably shouldn’t have done it but I am a country boy who just stays in the Big
Why the BBC sucks (2)
clipped from the BBC News website: Many young people do not know how dangerous roads are for inexperienced motorists, a survey suggests. Some 32% thought
Why the BBC sucks (1)
Man sets himself alight at cinema More than 70 people were forced to leave a cinema in Bedford after a man set fire to himself
Not Missing Missy
This (as Eddie Izzard would say) is a true story… About a year before we met, The Lovely S and I were listening to the
Today I’ve been
Struggling: To get out of bed at 04.15 To get out of the house before 05.30 Through the occasionally heavy, squally showers To battle my
Not today you don’t
Nor tomorrow. I’d planned to school Big Vin over showjumps today. Big Vin fancied a weekend off. When I went to get him out of the
Gone shopping, slowly
It’s Friday evening so naturally I’m shopping at Morrisons, Bromsgrove. Wild party animal that I am. I’ve stopped off to have fun do the shopping
I’m an addict and I have sinned
Bloody bookshops. Shouldn’t be allowed! I now have a copy of Dick Francis’ latest paperback ‘Under Orders’ and Billy Bragg’s exploration of ‘Britishness’, ‘The Progressive
The sound of silence
The sound of silence goes like this (are you ready?)… Faintly in the distance: Meow? Nothing. Then, still faintly in the distance but coming closer:
Never can say goodbye
(1973 i think; gloria gaynor) Anyway. I finished Transport – a SciFi short story – last week. Today I’ve just decided… * that I haven’t
Dedicated to the one I love
So. I’ve been thinking. It’s your birthday on Friday 29th June and you’ve cunningly taken that day and the next off. And you’re going
The reverse Midas touch
That’s the one where everything starts out gold and gradually turns to brown, smelly stuff under your watchful eye. I’m not sure what’s gold about
Don’t panic!
I’m sitting here with a mild feeling of anxiety. I mean, it’s 13.48 on Sunday. The weekend is slipping through my fingers like fine Mexican
Candles in the wind…
sniff Phone call to Daughter. sniff She is unwell. sniff She has a runny nose and it’s sore. sniff But (bless) she’s determined that it
Saturday, Dressage
Swallowfields, P10 and P18. I rushed Vin through a hurried grooming, quickly stowed his dressage tack and the rest of the gear, loaded him, gave
Motorways sights…
Friday afternoon. M40, Birmingham-bound. Buckinghamshire. It’s not often I see a need for new legislation but this requirement is long overdue… Vehicle registration plates. I
An ear full…
Today’s playlist (drawn from my current iPod tracklisting below)… * the totally brilliant Hide and Seek by Immogen Heap * the totally brilliant (do you sense a
Disaster Area – Too Many Cooks…
Well actually, too few cooks. One too few to be precise. I put tonight’s pasta on, made sure it was nicely settled then came upstairs,
Custard? Frozen???
Oh my God! It happens once in a while. You hear about a place and think ‘That’s gotta be cool! I have to go there/try
Dim Cymraeg ‘yn warthus’
There’s an English bit below for those of hard of hearing… 🙂 Mae Llywodraeth y Cynulliad wedi dweud bod penderfyniad cwmni teithio i ofyn i’w
Is it me…?
Just outside the Limehouse Link tunnel there’s a big sign that says what is – and isn’t – allowed on the road through the tunnel.
Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast…
do you know how many people misquote that erm quote and say ‘savage beast‘? no, me neither. but it’s got to be a big number… Anyway…
Book review – Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
This novel was the set text of a book group I attend. And… I struggled with it from the outset. But because it was a
History repeats (wiser heads than Bush and Blair)
General Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz (01/06/1780 – 16/11/1831) wrote between 1816 and 1830 his acclaimed and (even now in the 21st Century) influentially pivotal
Having a break, having a Worcestershire Walkabout…
It’s lunchtime, it’s so quiet that a veil of complete and utter silence hangs over the valley. Except for the twittering of the birds in the
Short shorts, medium shorts and long shorts…
Yay! I’ve just finished the SciFi short that I’ve been working on for a few weeks. Yeah I know, shorts shouldn’t take a few weeks, I
Sticks and stones (2)…
The title proved to be prophetic in a way. This morning’s timing got changed; I rang William at 08.00 and said I was still up for
… and words will never…
Sitting at my desk this afternoon. My boss quietly walked up behind me, said “Hi” and sat down in the vacant chair. “Are you going
Sticks and stones…
I have these two horses… They’re lovely boys, a couple of real characters – and look almost like a matched pair. Beech has been with
Child’s play
Yesterday evening S was telling me about an American childrens pony club-type book she had started reading. In a nutshell she’s disappointed. It seems that
Having one’s ego stroked
This isn’t vanity. I know where my qualities are, and my physical appearance isn’t that place. So… On Saturday evening S and I went shopping
Dichotomy, dykeotomy…
To read or to write? That is the question… When the ‘staying awake in the evening’ gene kicks in (rare!) I usually read. This gene
Writing for the readership…
It’s appropriate to begin with this… I’m struggling with a piece of work for a customer in London. I have to write a service level