Amazon – getting sloppy?

I buy plenty of stuff on Amazon, and it is generally a very satisfactory experience. There have been delays more recently, so even Prime orders are normally 2 days+ rather than next day, but largely it works well. One item had been missed out of a box, but that was easy to sort out via … Continue reading Amazon – getting sloppy? →

Running 2021 – Final Tally

My running goal for 2021 had started out as 1000km, building on the 500 miles (800km) of 2020. Aiming for ~20km a week went fine - 2 runs home from school a week, plus a longer one on Sunday, I started doing around 100km a month, so upped my goal to a spicier 1200km for … Continue reading Running 2021 – Final Tally →

Summer Exhibition 2021

The Royal Academy are maintaining a shifted timetable for the summer exhibition - last year they managed to squeeze it in over the winter, and this year it's just started (normally it runs June-August). I think they're intending that 2022 will be back to normal schedule. Last year was curated by Grayson Perry and was … Continue reading Summer Exhibition 2021 →

The State-Sponsored Scam of COVID Travel Test Kits

A LONG time ago, back in February 2021, we had an optimistic plan of travelling to France to see relatives at Easter. A car was hired, a ferry was booked, and COVID travel test kits were purchased. This was overly precipitate, but I figured it was worth the risk given once everyone else cottoned on … Continue reading The State-Sponsored Scam of COVID Travel Test Kits →

Paw Patrol – the Back Story

I don't watch quite as much kids' TV these days as the sproglets are older and can watch Space Unicorn School Rescue or whatever on their own quite satisfactorily. I enjoyed a bit of banter on twitter the other week about Postman Pat and Fireman Sam, and wanted to note down the bottled-up fury I've … Continue reading Paw Patrol – the Back Story →

Grammarphobia & Comic

I've recently found this website, Grammarphobia, which I would like to devour all of, including their published books too. Being what you might call a pedant aspirant when it comes to grammar and correct use of idiom, I cannot rate the service Patricia and Stewart provide highly enough. I found the website while looking for … Continue reading Grammarphobia & Comic →

ID Cards

This topic has come and gone a few times during my adulthood. The tension is always, from one side, that we've never had them therefore they can't possibly be justified. From the other side, there is a suspicion that whatever the Government says they want them for is not really why they want to introduce … Continue reading ID Cards →

Ciné Lockdown

For a bit of social interaction, a bunch of us started watching films simultaneously on Sunday nights, for the shared experience and quite a lot of silly banter via WhatsApp (and, later, Signal). We have watched: DateFilmNotes27th December 2020Die Hard3rd JanuaryDie Hard 210th JanuaryDie Hard 317th JanuaryGoldfinger24th JanuaryThe Spy Who Loved Me31st JanuaryFor Your Eyes … Continue reading Ciné Lockdown →

Royal Parks Half-Marathon

Pretty much every sports-type gathering has been cancelled for the last 12 months, certainly running events have been completely clobbered. The London Marathon took place in October (rather than April) as an Elite-only event. I'd entered the Royal Parks Half-Marathon a long time ago and of course that changed from a "hopefully in October thing … Continue reading Royal Parks Half-Marathon →

Memories of Russia

This was a single trip, but a huge one! The pre-amble to it was the end of the third term ("P3") of INSEAD in Fontainebleau. I'd decided to spend the summer break travelling across Russia, and had managed to arrange a two-week language course in Moscow, including lodging. I'd also got my flight out booked, … Continue reading Memories of Russia →