As I’ve been thinking about the behaviour or the pack recently, it’s no coincidence that I like the new Carling ad tapping into the tribal feeling of going out on the town- or safety in numbers. I remember New years Eve in Hamburg, at the mercy of the sheer number of people in the town…

The swimming quest is going quite well. Apart from getting faster and stronger, I’m rediscovering the joy of doing something really well. Years ago, I got to stay with a girlfriend who was working on a kids’ holiday camp in France. It was free in exchange for food and board.  There was one boy who…

According to The Guardian

JamesB reckons I’ve been a bit quiet lately. It’s partly do with final pitch on Wednesday, but mostly to do with organising the stag do in Dusselforf I’ve just returned from. I do not feel too clever. More on that later. By the way, it seems that good cars go to heaven..

I heard a debate on Radio 4 this morning about altruism V selfishness. The question they wanted to answer was; if you acccept Darwinism as the survival of the fittest (I like Tennyson’s description of nature as, "Red in tooth and claw") that should also mean that only the selfish survive. So how can you…

..hope he’s not trying to tell me something.

As part of my pledges on Let’s See What Happens, organised by the irrepressible Mr Paul Colman, I’m in training to swim 100 meters in 1 minute, something I haven’t done since I was fourteen. Not easy as this picture after training shows…. To make it less ego driven and self serving, I’ve decided to…

I’m supposed to be curbing putting things off, yet I found myself in Durham sorting an emergency passport. With four hours to kill while they processed it I wandered around the shops. I stopped in M&S to try on some Autograph for Men clothes. The ads say Bryan Ferry wears them (he doesn’t, his clothes…

Northern Planning summit last night at Runaway Girl in Sheffield. Gemma noticed that the staff were incredibly nice to us. Either they’re that way all the time, which is a nice thought, or they knew we were coming. Let’s face it, if Famous Rob thinks you’re okay you’ve got it made, no wonder they tried…