Ratio FreeDiver RTF025: there are other colour dials to choose from, but I happen to like this one Model: Ratio FreeDiver RTF025 Case dia.: 40mm Movement: Quartz (Japanese VX42) Water resistance: 200m Strap size: 20mm Category: Diver Price: £75 (RRP £75) Available from: Amazon UK This watch suffers from something of...

Logitech T630 Ultrathin: I’ve owned one since 2016, and it’s still going strong If there is one thing that’s as good as free or open source software, it is coming across hardware that’s built to last. Even if it’s not free. I bought a mouse by Logitech in March 2016, a T630 Ultrathin Touch model. It cost what seemed...

Lorus RP2327PX9: tells the time, loud and clear Model: Lorus digital quartz R2327PX9 Case dia.: 45mm Movement: Quartz Water resistance: 100m Strap size: 20mm Category: Digital Price: £19.99 (RRP £23.99) Available from: Amazon UK Cheap as chips, but does as advertised. It tells the time, loud and clear. The time is...

Life can be a beach if you choose wisely Photo by Mickey O’neil What does anyone go into retirement hoping for? No more work – check. No more 9-5 – check. Time to spend the way you want to, not the way someone expects you to. Most of the time, anyway. But think about it: when you retire at 67 – or some other random...

Rotary GS77831: the batteries might not outlive me but the watch certainly will Case dia.: 32mm Movement: quartz Water resistance: 100m Strap size: 18mm Category: Retro, chronograph Price: ca. £225 ($291) Available from: Amazon US I’ve owned this watch for more than 20 years, since well before I got married, which...

Understated looks from Sekonda’s Wingman Case dia.: 42mm Movement: quartz Water resistance: 30m Strap size: Man’s size, 22mm Category: Pilot style Price: £30.04 (£44.99 RRP, where specified) Available from: Amazon UK My wife said I should get back to playing golf. To my way of thinking, I did. I bought a watch....

My gardening watch, the Casio G-Shock G-3157 I thought I was unique, one of a kind, till I discovered the hashtag #Wristcheck on Mastodon, and there are no less than eight participants already. Fuck, so I’m not alone. I’m not the only one who enjoys this kind of ‘wristography’, or watch porn. I’m an eager...

Euphorbia characias: yes, I had to look that up, because I’m not a walking encyclopedia The humble euphorbia, or spurge, has got to be one of my favourite plants. It’s not flashy, not in-yer-face. Most of the year, it just sits looking comfortable in its own understated way. Or, at least, ours does. Because this...

I had a call the other day. It was a lady, a posh one at that. (Whether she deserves the moniker, ‘lady’, is another matter entirely.) I should stress that she called and I couldn’t answer it, so I called her back. Our convo went something like this… Posh lady: “Hello.” Me: "Hello, I’m the gardener. Sorry, I missed...

Paul Ford writing about artificial intelligence: … it’s just software. And not even that much software: Lots of AI models could fit on a thumb drive with enough room left over for the entire run of Game of Thrones (or Microsoft Office). They’re interdimensional ZIP files, glitchy JPEGs, but for all of human...

Hello, and welcome to my journal and site. This site is made in Zola and presented using a simple CSS file. No themes or plugins, so far, have been used in its creation. I’m quite proud of that. It is presented in four sections: The Journal: you are here, where I write about the workings of this site, bits of what...

This feature first appeared in DogFriendly magazine. DAYS OUT LINCOLNSHIRE Spotting this house for sale one weekend was all the encouragement I needed to head to the beach If there’s one place we can take Roma and Dotty, our two lurchers, and let them run to their hearts’ content, it’s the beach. They run and run...