I see that the government want to encourage more people to take up cycling to improve health by reducing obesity. While it is easy to pick holes in this, the gist of it is very laudable. There shouldn’t be any doubt that reducing weight leads to improvements in health and that cycling can help to […]
Entries Tagged as 'Life'
Get on your bike!
July 27th, 2020 · Comments Off on Get on your bike! · Life
Tags: Cycling·Medicine/Health
Its all a big conspiracy!
July 17th, 2020 · Comments Off on Its all a big conspiracy! · Life
I try to keep an open mind generally, but I don’t have a lot of time for conspiracy theories and usually dismiss them immediately because they are just so obviously preposterous. I’m sure there are conspiracies, in the sense that there are people conspiring in quite boring ways, but nobody talks about them. They are […]
Tags: Conspiracy Theories
A tedium of collective nouns
July 9th, 2020 · Comments Off on A tedium of collective nouns · Life
I am in a bit of a miserable ranting mood today so I’ll vent a bit about collective nouns. If there is one aspect of language that irritates me more than coy euphemisms it is collective nouns, and especially the newly-minted ones that always seem to be presented as mildly amusing and perhaps faintly satirical.
Tags: Language
It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)
July 8th, 2020 · Comments Off on It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine) · Life, Politics
There is a lot of change coming. Some of it necessitated by the Covid-19 experience and some of it self-inflicted by Brexit. I do try to embrace change and welcome it because, like most people, I want things to keep improving and improvement implies change. Conversely, any change represents an opportunity to twist it into […]
In praise of… Burning Shed
July 3rd, 2020 · Comments Off on In praise of… Burning Shed · Life
Time for another quick unsolicited testimonial, this time for the wonderful Burning Shed online shop. Here are a few reasons to love the website: Specialising in stuff a bit outside the mainstream – like prog, Canterbury scene and electronica Carries a lot of special box sets, vinyl and collectibles Is the official store for some […]
Tags: Shopping
New research in from the department of the bleeding obvious
June 26th, 2020 · Comments Off on New research in from the department of the bleeding obvious · Life
I see the department of the bleeding obvious have been at it again, according to this story in today’s Times. It is a study about people’s attitudes to the lockdown. Apparently people with smaller cramped homes are less happy about being confined to their home than people with more space. Also people without mental health […]
In praise of Tim Burgess
June 26th, 2020 · Comments Off on In praise of Tim Burgess · Life, Music
When I listed the various people, mostly entertainers, who helped make the lockdown pass a bit more easily I missed a few people out. For example I forgot the always brilliant Jonathan Pie and his lockdown video diary. I also forgot Darren Maclaine and his little impressions of famous singers doing the thems to TV […]
Tags: Coronavirus·Twitter
On the road again
June 26th, 2020 · Comments Off on On the road again · Life
Yes, its the long-overdue reprise of using song titles as blogpost titles! I was reading an article in The Times today. I shan’t link to it because it is behind the paywall and it is not so much the article itself as the comments that I was interested in. I really should stop reading comments […]
Today’s bright idea #11 – laptop screens
June 24th, 2020 · Comments Off on Today’s bright idea #11 – laptop screens · Life, Technology
It has been a little while since I blurted out one of my bright ideas, about six years actually. In that time I have still had ideas of course; some of them impractical, some of them impossible and the rest just stupid – in other words, the same as usual. I just couldn’t be arsed […]
Tags: Bright Ideas
Not siblings!
June 20th, 2020 · Comments Off on Not siblings! · Life
I have been watching a DVD box set of the 80s TV show Shelley. I found myself wondering what Josephine Tewson, the actress who played the landlady, Mrs. Hawkins, went on to do, so I looked her up. It turns out she did quite a lot that I had not seen and also was in […]