Category: What maketh the man
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I’m back in the pool again. One of the benefits of the new job is that only two minutes’ walk from a decent pool. The other is that it’s the kind of place where people actually take a lunch break. So it transpires that a few days a week, I’m in the pool for a…
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I like wine. No I love wine. So when Naked Wines started emailing me, and offered a ridiculously good trial, naturally I had a go. Now, the wine of great, the business model of supporting independent growers, so you pay more for the wine and less for the supply chain, and know the people that…
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I'm lucky to have a great relationship with my father. It wasn't always thus, we had the familiar late teens rocky patch when we struggled with re-adjusting to 'he's not quite man, he's certainly not a boy anymore' thing. What really frustrates me is how I didn't respect him as much as he deserved until…
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Evie, my lovely little daughter is a bit of a Daddy's girl. I won't pretend not to like this. But not even Daddy escapes the darker elements of her current stage of development. Namely, the power of repetition. When it's time to brush her teeth, Evie miraculously loses the power of hearing. Ask her ten…
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So, I'm off to work here in a month after a year at PHD. It's with a heavy heart in many ways, I get attached to places and people quickly, but I was covering maternity leave and my brief sojourn is coming to an end. I don't think I'd cover maternity leave again. The uncertainty…
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I have seen and done sone stupid things in my time. I have seen Mission Impossible 2. I bought a Mel and Kim single when I was very, very young. I tried to boil an egg in the microwave. More recently, I have been seriously riding a road bike for around two years, but only…
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So I spent the day with my little girl yesterday. Evie is nearly three and not ready for nursery, while our eldest has just started school. It was a lovely day. We only went to look at the fish and the parrots at the garden centre, saw the farm and bounced like loons on the…
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I bloody love Haruki Murukami. To the point when I usually get his new book as soon as it is published. Forget paperbacks, I want it now. Over a number of years, he's built up quite a following for largely writing variations on the same them. A lonely man with unrealised ambitions, who cooks a…
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Apparently psychologists have found that the key to a happy marriage isn't the grand gestures and lavish gifts. It's little daily selfless acts, that's what makes up the fabric of good relationships. Which is music to the ears of a tight wad like me. Obviously, my relationship with my kids is different. You don't…
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So I got the news about Ian Thorpe coming out with zero interest. Really? Does it really matter (apart of course from the fact he had to keep it quiet, now that certainly does matter)? But some of the footage made me extremely whistful for the pool. Because I don't go swimming that much any…
NORTHERN PLANNER 