There is a report out today, saying that male Primary School teachers are a good role model for young boys.
Thinking back to my own schooldays, I can only really remember a couple of the male teachers - not from Primary but from High School. And they were both tossers.
In particular, our English Language teacher - [...]

I had my car valeted yesterday afternoon.
Driving it today, it felt slightly different. The accelerator pedal felt minutely further away than usual. My sitting position felt minutely more reclined than usual. It was obvious that the seat had been moved and had been put back in not quite the same position. But it didn’t bother [...]

I finally got round to watching Love Actually, last night. I recorded it off the telly and it’s been sitting on the Automatic Video Recording Machine for ages now.
It was most enjoyable - let’s face it, Richard Curtis rarely does a duff ‘un - and it included a stellar cast of (mainly) British actors.
A little [...]

My wife must be a good listener: people talk to her. They confide in her. And they don’t seem to mind when she asks probing and sometimes personal questions.
They talk to her. In confidence.
And then she tells me.
And I put it on the internet.
She was talking to a woman recently - and this is something [...]

I popped into the supermarket on the way to work this morning, for the usual: to get my lunch and to have a pee (I’m normally busting after that first hour on the road).
Going into the loos, I was surprised to see a condom machine on the wall. Maybe I’d just never noticed it before.
I’m [...]

A crop circle - a very good one, I might add - has appeared in a field not far from where I live.
Of course, the local media have decended upon it with vigour and on the local radio this morning they had a “crop circle expert”: a man who has been studying these ‘phenomena’ for [...]

The wife and I have pretty different musical tastes.
This is reflected in the CD collection we currently have in our respective cars.
I have:
Welcome To The Jungle - Guns ‘n’ Roses
Alright, Still - Lily Allen
Band On The Run - Paul McCartney and Wings
Rendezvous - Jean-Michel Jarre
New Boots and Panties! - Ian Dury and The Blockheads
Chocolate Starfish [...]

I’ve been down town today with ‘er indoors. She likes to keep ahead of the game and so today she has been looking at ideas for Christmas presents. Christmas? It’s only September! Is she mad? [rhetorical]. Having said that, Hallmark already have their Xmas cards on display. It’s started already. Arrrrggghh!!
By way of a respite, [...]

As Graham says, we’ve managed to come out the other side, unscathed. I didn’t doubt it for a minute. Of course.
Something that has taken a knock recently though, is my Inbox.
I used to get lots of spam with my old .co.uk name and one of the advantages of switching to this BBC funded .tv site [...]

I’ll say my goodbyes now just in case we don’t get another opportunity.
Thank you all for reading and thanks for the comments.
It’s been fun.

Quite some time ago, in my early twenties, I spent some time in the Special Constabulary. Four years, to be exact.
As I was driving through a little place just outside of town, this morning, I was reminded of an ‘incident’ that I attended there, in my early policing years.
I was on duty with a copper [...]

There is a big roundabout at the end of the slip road for junction 10 on the M1. Getting onto that roundabout during peak times in the morning is a real pain: cars stream from the motorway at high speed, straight across the roundabout, making it very difficult to get out.
This morning was no different. [...]