Maybe it’s a confidence thing, but I get nervous when there’s no one around to bounce things off. As a one man department it can get very lonely, but there is the freedom to make your own decisions. It’s liberating, but I’m the kind of person that needs other points of view. I’d written a…

There’s been a fair bit of chat around recently on celebrities promoting good causes, the Red thing and famous people telling us how to live in general. My initial reaction is to tell celebs to get lost and keep their opinions to themselves. BUT… The sad truth is that we live in world where celebrities…

While we’re on the subject of music and radio, this commercial for Radio 2 is breathtaking. It’s also at least as good as the Perfect Day ad for the  1997. Proper pieces of entertaining film you want to watch again and again. Got me thinking what my supergroup would be, hard to choose, although it…

During the last couple of weeks I’ve been driving a car with a tapedeck instead of a CD player. At first this was a pain, then it got quite good. Firstly because I’m listening to the radio more, not only more Radio 4 but the odd foray into Radio 2. One surprise was Chris Evans,…

‘Northern Planner’ was not a great choice for a name. Not only is it crashingly boring, if you googled it, you got a wierd mix of journey planners and umpteen variations on ‘northern’. Thankfully, enough people have taken pity on me and their links have made the site popular enough to be at the top…

I finally got round to watching ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ last week. While it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t know, it still had a profound effect. For two reasons: 1. The performance was breathtaking. It was a good feminder that having the right data, a strong argument and some whizzy graphics are okay, but that’s…

I’m working on a coffee project, so maybe all that wittering about proper coffee and slow tea may be worthwhile after all. To help, I’m having as many meetings in coffee shops as I can. Yesterday morning I was in Durham and found myself frantically rummaging for enough copper to pay for my £2.50 skinny…

The ever brilliant Faris makes a good point about objectiveness in planning here. Come to think of it, there’s one or two brands I like and even buy because I admire the thinking, not necessarily the ads. In between lurking in hotel receptions, Rob Campbell’s (another man proud of his shiny head)has developed some great…

Helen’s done a good post about neurotic blogging, the way worrying about what you’re writing, and how little you’re able to do end up in you writing nothing. Blogs for me are an outlet, a way of sharing ideas and meeting a few people on the way. When they take over your like your in…

..and Koln (Cologne). Since it was a stag do, pictures of individuals have been left out for obvious reasons. Lost in translation…. ..no explanation necessary. Koln cathedral. Handmade hat shop. Possibly where JamesB gets his jaunty headgear. Koln cuisine. Roasted ham shank with sauerkraut. Didn’t last long. Christmas market. The smell of Gluewhein and fried…