For those of you in the UK. Do you remember who got the coveted Christmas number 1 slot in 2009? Do you remember how it came to be? I ask only because I randomly saw this post from my own blog. Thanks for reading and keeping RSS alive. Visit my site for more.

Jack and I were away for the weekend in Vera (our motorhome). We stayed at the very lovely Blair Drummond Campsite. Yet I bet most people who read the title of the post presumed I was going to talk about the nearby Safari Park —I will in a minute. I picked up Jack up from nursery on Friday, and we drove straight to...

Life Notes Busy busy at work, which has dominated most thoughts this week. Vera MOT passed thanks to my father-in-law having the tools, know how, and bloody mindedness to replace the failed headlamp unit. What a faff, but what a hero! Friday I picked Jack up from nursery, and he and I headed to Blair Drummond...

That ship has sailed. It sailed years ago when we all happily leapt on to Facebook, then Twitter, and before that Google already had all our data anyway. We willingly, naively perhaps, made ourselves the product. Tech will always tech, tech bros will always monetise without thought of ethics. We made this bed. Can...

Many years ago, when I was single and had money, I bought some lego kits and then —for reasons I can’t really recall— went on an eBay splurge on some Lego Minifigures. I don’t think I was trying to build a collection, just realised that for a few quid (I think the most I paid was £3 + P&P) I could have some little...

This was the title of a post I’ve had stuck in draft for a while. It was also the post that got the most ‘votes’ to be written and published, which was handy for me as it was almost done anyway. Revisiting old drafts is always an education, I could see where I was going when I wrote the original draft, but I realise...

I work from home most of the time and, from where I’m sitting right now, I can see the main road at the end of our little estate, the houses beyond it, and beyond those the edge of the Crags, a local hill crowned with a line of rocky cliffs. The view reveals itself in layers. Beyond the houses, a small copse of...

My blogging mojo comes in fits and starts. I’ve been enjoying having a little more freedom in approach since switching to, essentially, two streams of posts; these shorter (or at least less considered) Notes, and the longer Musings style, umm, essays? Since writing about not being able to finish a Draft I’ve managed...

Is this metablogging? Perhaps. I’m not going to dwell on that though, there has been plenty written about that avenue / type of post, instead I’m gonna be honest. My writing process If anyone has read any of the entries of Manu’s (now Zachary’s) series People and Blogs you’ll have seen this question asked: What does...

My (step) father-in-law has been helping me try and remove a headlamp from our motorhome. It has not been a fun job. We may have done a swear. Or three. I tried it myself for about an hour late last week, to no avail. It’s one of those awkward jobs that was, probably, very easy to do when the van was being built,...

Life Notes Monday was a day off, already can’t quite remember what I did with it. Oh yes, a wander round the shops and some sushi. Nice to hang out with my beautiful wife, sans Jack for a change. Tuesday was the day of the Alanis Morissette gig, and it was glorious. The weather held, the crowd was in good spirits,...

The Tour de France starts today. I’m still debating shelling out for HBO Max so I can watch stages live on my iPad while I work —the joys of working at home— but I’ll be following along regardless. It should be a fascinating race this year, even if the winner is more than likely to be one of only two men. Barring a...