10 Feb 2006: Things always look brighter after the storm

21 Sep 2005: "I was born with this gob…"

15 Jun 2005: Fort for the day

Beloved Other Half took a trip down to see friends on the Isle of Wight recently, and came back with intriguing tales of a fort on a shingle spit, part Tudor and part Victorian, poking out into the Solent from the mainland and almost touching the island. This was Hurst Castle, and earlier this week […]

7 Jun 2005: Good cause time II

Kwok – a picture he's almostcertainly forgotten I ever took Another appeal for money in aid of another good cause, folks. My old coding buddy at the Royal Mail, Kwok, is doing the London to Brighton Bike Ride on June 19 in aid of the British Heart Foundation. On the plus side, he lives in […]

3 Jun 2005: Danse Macabre

Somewhere out there, within a couple of miles of me as I sit and type this, is – I hope – a young bloke whose day I comprehensively ruined. Earlier this evening we visited my father-in-law in hospital and got stuck in traffic at the last couple of sets of lights. And as I sat […]

2 Jun 2005: Straight lines and curves

For reasons that make a long and not very interesting story, I had to travel into work by train on Tuesday instead of driving. This was wildly inconvenient, as a 20 mile / 30 minute drive north west was instantly transformed into a two hour marathon that took me eastwards right into central London before […]

2 Jun 2005: The world is full of stupid people

Telephone conversation this morning: Caller: Hello, my name is Mr —–, I want to complain about rubbish collection in Wembley. Me: I'm afraid you need to call Brent Council about that, this is a private house in the London Borough of Hounslow. Caller: But I dialled the number for Brent Council. Me: No you didn't […]

29 May 2005: Vauxhall at night

Sunset over Vauxhall Bridge, on the way home tonight. And here's a post I wrote last night in the lobby of the hotel after the wedding reception, on a PC with coin-operated internet access which ran out before I could cross-post it here.

26 May 2005: Memorial

As a kid, I pretty much taught myself to read on a collection of books owned by my parents from an organisation called the Companion Book Club. You can still see dozens of titles from this club, which seems to have operated through the 50s and 60s, and into the 70s, languishing unloved in charity […]

26 May 2005: There was I, waiting at the church

Wedding rehearsalA jolly female vicar, firmly in the Dibley mould, leads Sarah and Dave through the rehearsal of their vows for Saturday. Up to my hometown (or rather, a village nearby) this evening for the rehearsal of my sister's wedding. Given the sort of service we feared we might be going to when she was […]

24 May 2005: Dual-purpose post

Yes. New haircut. Requests to see it. Seven across the three versions of this journal. Are you all mad? Or is it just me? Me, I suspect. Well, here you are. Two for the price of one. The emperor's new haircutMuch like the last one really, only a bit different. Sorry if I raised people's […]

21 May 2005: Hair today – still hair tomorrow

The ongoing bafflement about what to do with my hair reached a climax this morning. A family wedding next weekend demands it short. Beloved Other Half likes it long. I spend half my time cursing its length, and the other half feeling rather pleased with it. The upshot is that at one minute past nine […]

20 May 2005: I aint'nt dead

Because it has been suggested that I look as if I were dead in recent photos, here is one in which I don't. Much.