Category Archives: Random

Apricity

As a lover of literature and collector of words. I would like to draw your attention to the word Apricity, which means the warmth of the sun in the winter. With 5 days of the winter left in the UK we get more of these warm(ish) days now. This term comes from the Latin meaningContinue reading “Apricity”

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow

Life is hard. My mother used to say often, “Nathan, no one promised you a rose garden” Everyone of us experiences difficulties that are hard to overcome. It was Buddha that said “Pain is certain, suffering is optional.” No matter what we’re going through it is better when we take ownership and accountability for making positiveContinue reading “Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow”

Putting things away, 2023 TGIM

This weekend was an important weekend in our home, it is the weekend we put the Christmas decorations away and begin to think of returning to work. As much I love putting up the decorations, I have learned to love when it ends. You have to, if you want to achieve anything in life. SoContinue reading “Putting things away, 2023 TGIM”

❌✅❌❌🌧 🌧❌🌧❌✅✅✅✅✅

My HAMPSHIRE Hawks Cricket team charged to an astonishing six-wicket victory with 42 balls to spare over Glamorgan at the Ageas Bowl to qualify for the Vitality Blast quarter-finals. The Hawks started the day sitting in sixth place on the South Group table, needing to chase down fourth-placed Surrey’s run-rate to have any chance ofContinue reading “❌✅❌❌🌧 🌧❌🌧❌✅✅✅✅✅”

Bad parenting; Hair today, gone tomorrow

Author’s note: I have for the last twenty years or more kept a daily notebook/journal and the things I hear and see I squirrel away for myself, the future or just because I must write something. Now I have kept this daily blog thing up for 150 days I put ‘some’ of the things upContinue reading “Bad parenting; Hair today, gone tomorrow”

Koi carp on Cialis and the secret fax

It is funny how nostalgia can file off the rough the edges of the good old days. I often think back to when I was I used to work for a pharmaceutical company supporting commercial IT. I supported a bunch of different teams, all of them were nice people and occasionally you would see someContinue reading “Koi carp on Cialis and the secret fax”

2021: Just Ship It

New year resolutions are always so tedious, so self quickly and indulgently shared with the world on some platform or other, or in a facile conversation. If ‘The definition of insanity is repeating the same tasks over and over again expecting different results’ a new years resolution must be insanity on steroids. I don’t meanContinue reading “2021: Just Ship It”

Autumn walks in Winchester

I had an opportunity before the lockdown started to wander amongst the Veeva Orange-tipped trees and view the autumn mist from rolling hills where John Keats was inspired to write Ode to Autumn. My daughter Natalie is studying at Winchester University, and we used to go see her before Covid we were able to exploreContinue reading “Autumn walks in Winchester”

Our Bookish Family Christmas tradition

Many years ago I started a Family tradition, which I learned about from an Icelandic friend. You see Icelandic people celebrate Christmas each year with a book exchange. This tradition is known as Jolabokaflod, which translates roughly to Christmas book flood. Jolabokaflod started during World War II, when paper was one of the few things not rationed inContinue reading “Our Bookish Family Christmas tradition”

My favourite teacher story

As my son is a school teacher now and I am a very proud father I have started to collect or notice teacher stories. This one below is one of my favourites, enjoy: A school teacher ran a test that had several sections, each of which contained three questions. He told the students to chooseContinue reading “My favourite teacher story”

Comfortable feeling uncomfortable

If you are thinking about doing something different, don’t let the fear of failure keep you where you are. In order to grow we must be uncomfortable feeling comfortable, discontent being content, if you have been successful in one discipline, role or project its human nature to look to replicate those victories. However ask yourselfContinue reading “Comfortable feeling uncomfortable”

Marshmallow anyone?

Every so often there is a study, article or report which feels so correct when we read it we trust it without challening the data. It states a truth we believe in and now we have validation. Case in point: The marshmallow test at Stanford University. Small kids sit in a room and offered aContinue reading “Marshmallow anyone?”

Seen it all before

I think we can all agree age is a very high price to pay for maturity, but what maturity teaches you is the feeling so often that you have seen that before, heard that debate before, experienced that moment before. Being married to a historian just cements this assertion. My wife reminds me that weContinue reading “Seen it all before”

Surprising Sunday

Sunday surprised me with some lovely blue skies, light winds and no rain. I suppose as it is a bank holiday that explains so many people walking up and down the beach paths. I hope you do forgive me for taking yet another photo of my Hut and path outside, I could take a photoContinue reading “Surprising Sunday”