I’m a nostalgic old bugger who often hankers after the good old days. Cos they were great, weren’t they?
But I also spend a lot much time looking back and wondering just what might have been had I taken a different direction on some of the key moments of my life.
Every decision we make obviously affects [...]

Today is my daughter’s 5th birthday. She’s very excited.
She’s picked her own birthday presents: everything on pages 328 to 342 in the Argos catalogue.
This afternoon, she is having a bit of a party with some of her friends from school.
A dozen 5 and 6 year-olds. Running around, screaming. As 5 and 6 year-olds are wont [...]

Y’know what it’s like when you see old photo’s of yourself: “Arrgh! Look at my hair! Oh my God! That’s never me… in a cardigan!” Well, it can be the same with websites.
The WayBack Machine at Internet Archive has several copies of the Masher website stored on its servers, dating back to 2001. It’s [...]

I was saddened to hear of Sir Arthur C Clarke’s death yesterday. Starting in my early teens, I read pretty much most of his fictional works - and one or two non-fictional ones, and I still read his books today. His works shaped my interest in science and technology during my formative years and [...]

The train was packed on the way home tonight. I was lucky to get a seat.
Unfortunately, there was no GFH - at least in my carriage - and I found myself seated next to an elderly grey-haired lady who clutched a large bag to her chest.
Once we’d passed “St. Pancreas Station” (as the American woman [...]

… The Girl from Ipanema played softly in my headphones, whilst The Girl from Harpenden sat quietly opposite me.
Travelling on the train as regularly as I do now, I have come to know some of my fellow passengers - by sight, at least.
There’s Chubby Blond Bird - a slightly portly thirty year-old who always, but [...]

It was a cold miserable day yesterday.
At lunchtime I took my sandwiches down to the river. The South Bank was cold and gloomy and so I made my way over the not-so-wobbly bridge toward St Pauls, where the sun was shining… at least a little bit.
I stopped halfway across the bridge and took in the [...]

Y’know when you get a tune stuck in your head and can’t shift it?
Sometimes for days?
Even waking up with it already playing in your mind?
Drives you mad, doesn’t it?
Well, this week, I have been listening to a lot of classical music whilst at work. As a consequence, I have had little bits of Mahler’s 4th [...]

My wife has been having an awful time of it lately, at work.
She has worked at the same company - a large supermarket chain that begins with “S” and ends in “ainsbury’s” - for about 20 years now. In the sixteen years that I have known her, she has always excelled at her job and, [...]