My piece earlier this month about Blue Trees was based on ideas that I came across in various training courses more than ten years ago. These ideas were taught with great confidence, and as if they apply universally, but they do not seem to apply to me. Another subject, also taught with confidence, but not… Continue reading Communication and percentages
Today is the day of the EU Referendum. The UK electorate is voting on whether to remain in the EU or to leave. Yesterday evening the group stage of the 2016 European Football Championships (Euro 2016 for short) came to an end. We now know the 16 teams who will play in the knock-out rounds… Continue reading Euro 2016, the EU, and some mnemonics
Earlier this month I took a look at one of our bookcases and realized that there were dozens of books there that I am unlikely to read in the next year or two. I grew up in a house without many books for adults. (I was going to write “adult books”, but that means something… Continue reading Books, shelving and storage
Having grown up in London I am familiar with many of the traditional red bus routes and have seen both the routes and the vehicles change over the years. One evening earlier this week I took a bus that didn’t exist 20 years ago, the number 70, a single-decker which follows a meandering route from… Continue reading A meandering bus route article
A simple dictionary definition of fungible is “replaceable by another identical item; mutually interchangeable”. I find that an example and a comparison is more helpful. Money is fungible. A £20 note can be used to buy anything up to that value. Time is not fungible. The time that you spend commuting to work is not… Continue reading Word of the week: fungible
Can you tell me a joke? Any joke will do, childish or adult, long or short. I have met many people who say that they can’t, they can’t remember a single joke, yet they must have heard hundreds or even thousands of them in their lifetimes. Most of us have. My children (currently aged 9… Continue reading Jokes and lyrics
On our walk along the river last month we stopped for drinks and crisps (or potato chips as the Americans call them) at the Sun Inn by Barnes Pond. While distributing the three packets of crisps between the four of us I asked the following trivial question, which had never crossed my mind before: “If… Continue reading One flavour of crisps
Earlier this month I read “Gut” by Giulia Enders. It has the subtitle “The inside story of our body’s most under-rated organ”. I had been looking forward to it, enjoyed it, and recommend it. There are lots of exclamation marks! And rather weak jokes! But that didn’t spoil it for me. This book constitutes a… Continue reading Gut
In March I read Patti Smith’s “Just Kids”, her memoir mainly about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. When she first met him, on her arrival in New York City, she was looking for some friends who had moved on. He was lying on a bed, she told him of her plight and “he rose in… Continue reading Huaraches and Bobby Pins
Orlando Florida, last weekend. Dozens of people murdered in a nightclub. Don’t tell me the name of the murderer. He’s dead. Let his name be forgotten. Refer to him as “that nutter who murdered dozens of people in Orlando”. Norway, 2011. 77 people murdered by someone who’s still alive. I don’t want to know his… Continue reading Please don’t tell me the names of the murderers
The Compartments 