Telling it like it is
There may be swearing in this. If you don’t like that you can f-f-f-fade away… Lunchtime today I dropped in to one of the public
Difficult decisions
I know I’ve been quiet lately, and here’s the reason… I’ve spent the last few days mulling a very difficult issue, spent so much time
Weekending with Tom and smiles
Today, for the first time in months, the sun shone, the sky was blue and there were hardly any clouds in the sky. To celebrate
Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin: Stalker alert!
I had a bad night last night due to *ahem* environmental difficulties So as I was awake at 3am and, prodded by a podcast listener’s
Doin’ the Zebedee thing
I do wonder how many people get the Magic Roundabout references that pop up here from time to time… Anyway gang, it’s been fun. No
On getting way too much sleep
Woohoo! What a bloody gorgeous day. There’s almost bits of almost blue in the almost not overcast sky. The sun is almost shining and it’s
Job description
The news that Ronnie Kray’s criminal record turned up after being lost in an office in Durham police headquarters for forty years is obviously a
A licence to make money
The way the UK’s national broadcasting service – the BBC – is funded, we are often told, is unique. Which it plainly is. The notion
The past returns to… raise a smirk
An email flutters electronically up to the monitor: Dear Brennig Jones, Re: ‘Crossing The Line’ A pleasant day. I’m Sheryl Davis, a Marketing Specialist of
Do you like sweet music (yeah, yeah)
We have pulled out the stops to bring you four cross-genre works of musical art wrapped up in this week’s This Reality Podcast: The power-chord
The shortest distance between two points
is not necessarily a straight line… A little later than planned, we set off from the stables at 7am, Tom and Twiglet noshing on their
Barely surviving
We are watching the final episode in season 2 of the BBC’s newest comedy series ‘Survivors’. I haven’t laughed so much since the first time
Testing times
I was trying to explain, to a person whose knowledge of horses is limited to ‘big, bites and kicks’, what is involved in learning and
The air is blue, not only on Pandora*
I have just finished *pouring* my soul in to a shortish, emotional but (even if I say it myself) pretty bloody well-written piece about ‘health’.
An open letter to BT Broadband
*edit added on 6th February 2011 – one year later – below* Dear BT Broadband, 1. When I called you last week and said I
What’s in a name?
I didn’t go back to bed. I stayed downstairs, got side-tracked by an episode of Top Gear and then switched off the TV and worked
Back to bed
Today’s planned trip up to Swalcliffe Park for cross-country schooling has been cancelled: Snow stopped play. The roads were extremely dangerous when I left home
We’re going out. No we’re not…
We were going to the cinema to see The Lovely Bones this evening. But Soph, who wants to see the film, has decided she’d like
Staying focussed, but not too focussed…
I’ve been neglecting Tom-related posts because there’s been other things happening. You know how it is. Life gets in the way… So, this weekend William
A sad loss
However people choose to look at the man and what he has or has not achieved, today’s passing of former champion jockey, Dick Francis, will
Feed reader question
… because these days we’re all using Web2.0 technology to read websites, right? I have dumped Bloglines as my Web v2.0 Reader Of Choice. See
Is the BBC news department staffed by stupids?
This story from BBC News online says it all really. Well, the headline says far more than the content below it. Expenses body to cost
Listen up, fuckwits
You know who you are. Drivers on the M40 motorway – through Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire , that’s who. Or ‘bad drivers on the M40’ might
On having another go
Fresh from our awful appearance at Hartpury’s JAS (show-jumping and simulated cross-country) competition last Saturday, and fully recovered from all of the aches and pains
I am cooking
I am cooking. In the kitchen, obv. In fact I’ve just twittered that, with an accompanying photo. Because I’m weird. Obv. Soph has declined my
On music, horses, relationships and avoiding cliches
There’s a lovely track by American singer/songwriter James Casto called ‘Perfect Day’, in which James, an excellent lyricist, describes his charming ‘perfect day’ which, inevitably,
Awww, gwon
Our humble little entertainment show (Arf!) is floating around the ether, just waiting to be plugged in to your ears. The music comes from the
Early doors
On Saturday I’ll be loading Tom in to the lorry and we’ll be trundling out of the yard at about 06.30, and heading westwards into
A new kind of ‘unwell’?
I’ve been in London all day I have had three meetings with clients I had one particular meeting with two people who were downright friggin’
On riding a dressage test
After some questions from a bunch of folk about how the dressage test section of the Eventers Challenge went, I thought I’d put the full,
Stream of unconscious
1. I ache still, every joint. I might resort to painkillers today. 2. We did the studio thing again last night and recorded the 100th
On why cyclists must be compelled to take a test
I have a full motorbike licence. In order to get my motorbike licence I had to take a rigorous theory test and a practical –
A bit of local colour, anyone?
So according to Sir David Omand, Tony Blair’s former security co-ordinator, the fabricated claim that Iraq could launch tactical weapons within 45-minutes was (and I
On learning a dressage test
BE 90, Test 92 A: Enter at working trot. Proceed down the centre line without halting. Track right yep, we can do that B: Circle
Must. Learn. Dressage. Test
The day after tomorrow Tom and I are supposed to be competing at Allenshill in the Eventer Challenge 90cm class. That’s British Eventing’s dressage test
So farewell then Bill McLaren
The voice of my youth, Saturday afternoon television commentator on Rugby internationals, Bill McLaren has passed away at the age of 86. And now, sitting
It never reins but it snores
random title! And despite or perhaps because of my general bleughness in the health area right now, a magazine feature I pitched for absolutely bloody
It’s Sunday evening, ho hum
Not exactly larkish behaviour, but I was up with the 7am alarm and out of the house by 8. The roads to the stables were
Stone me, it’s *cold* out there!
It’s Saturday. The snow has melted away in the overnight rain and the temperature is 2c. So why does it feel absolutely bitter, colder than
On a quiet people day
This is an experiment. The title says it all really but just to make really sure, this is a brief description of the *real* people
Blaming everyone
discuss… With the fresh snow that came in from the west last night, new horrors were experienced on the roads today. In these parts the
Discoveries made on talking to my fellow motorists
Some of them appear to be terminally stupid and twuntish Feeling more mellow than normal I decided to try and help a couple of my
Nice fanny!
Oscar Wilde said of the divisions between the UK and the US, that we were ‘one nation divided by a common tongue’. Setting aside the
I had kinky bondage sex with Margaret Thatcher?
It feels as thought it’s been a very selfish weekend. I’ve spent some of it dozing on the couch, some of it watching junk television