Last December I wrote this piece about playing football again, on Friday nights. I am happy to report that my run of games has continued and it’s all hugely enjoyable. I missed a few games for various reasons, including Covid and a thigh injury, but the latter coincided with some social events that meant I… Continue reading Wednesday Night Football
Hypermiling: that’s the word I was looking for. I read something about it at least 10 years ago, some print article on a motoring page about maximizing your miles per gallon. I wouldn’t know where to look for it now. This recent piece on the Guardian website by Sam Wollaston reminded me of the word… Continue reading Word of the week: Hypermiling
You might have heard the old joke about a man walking into a chip shop and ordering two portions of cod and chips in the usual way: “Cod and chips twice, please”. The man behind the counter says, “All right mate, I heard you the first time”. This joke came to mind recently while taking… Continue reading Battersea Power Station Station
Spring in the air in West London. The trees are loaded with blossom. Cherry pink and apple blossom white. It’s a familiar sight. The local cherry trees bloom at different times. In the roads near ours there has been plenty of blossom for the last two weeks. A mile away, on the well-known road leading… Continue reading The Blossom is Buzzing
Complete this well-known sentence: “There are two kinds of people in the world … “ Your answer could reveal something significant about your personality, your preferences or your world view. One of the most memorable answers I have ever heard for this challenge is this: “There are two kinds of people in the world … … Continue reading 144 kinds of people
18 years ago, in the first few months of 2004, our good friends Steve and Clare relocated to Melbourne Australia, her home town. I had worked with Steve on various projects for much of the previous decade. We had been employed at the same place since the autumn of 2001. He had recommended me for… Continue reading 18 years on a borrowed bike
Rest in peace Shane Warne, one of the great cricketers, and one of the great commentators. Along with a handful of other retired bowlers, like Richie Benaud and Michael Holding, he caused me to watch far more cricket on TV than I would have if certain former England batsmen had been commentating instead. News of… Continue reading Dead at 52, and a list
As I explained in this piece (“Bar snack? (9) …”), I rarely do Cryptic Crosswords these days. I do, however, attempt the Quick Crossword whenever I pick up a copy of the Guardian. As I noted here, it is my paper of choice, and you can get it for free at Waitrose if you have… Continue reading Word of the week: onager
Buy at a low price, sell at a higher price. That, as I’m sure you know, is one way to make money. It is something that we have never set out to do, but over the last two years we have acquired many hundreds of items which we are now able to offload at twice… Continue reading Buying for 5 and selling for 10
Do you remember the concept of “Googlewhacking”? It was described on Dave Gorman’s website as “what happens when two words are entered in to Google and it comes back with one and only one hit.” I wrote about it in this piece in 2017, and included a link to Gorman’s site. Click on the link… Continue reading “Blogwhacking”
The Compartments 