Pie and mash and liquor has always been one of my favourite dishes.  My mum used to do it occasionally for us tea, but after I moved out, it was many years before I got to sample it’s savoury loveliness again.
It’s a traditional London food and the place where I’ve been working this week has [...]

My PC died on Saturday morning.
Well, it didn’t actually die, but XP kept rebooting itself and nothing I tried would work (and trust me: I tried!).
I’ve taken it as a sign that I need to start afresh: well, I’ve had this particular setup for a few years now and I feel the need for an [...]

This week saw Harry’s 5th birthday and yesterday, we threw a party for him.
As he’d invited every kid in his class, we hired the local church hall to hold it in. On Friday night, I picked up the keys from the caretaker. “Ahh, yes” he said, thumbing through his diary, “you have it booked for [...]

Along with her best friend, my six-year old daughter went along to the local scout hut tonight, to see what being a Girl Guide was all about. By all accounts, she had fun.
But you cannot join the Girl Guides until you are fourteen years of age.
The pre-Guide groups are the Brownies. But you cannot join [...]

Every year it’s the same.
Every year the notification falls on the doormat, I look at it and say “Ahh, plenty of time to do that.”
And then the reminders start coming thick and fast, warning me that I’m liable for a penalty fine if I don’t meet the deadline.
And then I start to worry a bit. [...]

Once again the snow is coming down and once again the country is grinding to a halt.
I’ve been working from home this last week or so, but decided to go into the office this morning as I’m starting to go a bit stir crazy being shut up indoors all the time.
The roads were a little [...]

OK, so it’s not the best snowman in the world. I’m not the creative type and that took me bloody ages to build. Especially with the kids hampering helping me.
Last night was officially the coldest night in the UK since 10,000 BC. When I came down this morning, it felt decidedly nippy in the [...]

I’m working from home today. Because I can.
We have four, maybe five, feet of snow outside and I can’t see the point of struggling on the roads for several hours, just so I can get to the office to do some spreadsheets. I can log in and do them from home. Much more sensible.
In other [...]