NORTHERN PLANNER

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Category: What maketh the man

  • Swimming with ghosts and riding into the future

    So I've been riding the new/old bike for a couple of months. I've got embarrasingly tight lycra shorts and a merino jersey. Recording rides on Strava. Bascially I'm getting into it. My legs don't scream bloody murder the day after a long ride now, partly because I've modified my technique and remembered to ride with…

  • This is my bike

    This is my bike. It was my father in law's, but he's long past going out on the road. I wanted to get back into road biking, so he gave it me. At that piont it was still his. Basically, it was a frame that needed building back up. But now it's mine. I wanted…

  • What physics can teach us about creative research and the dangers of asking nature direct questions

    If you're daft enough to read this blog occasionally, you might have concluded that my ideal job would be Chief Tea Taster at Yorkshire Tea. You would be wrong though. I'd be a particle physicist. Not a famous one, just someone who could do it for a living would be fine. Because I find the…

  • Swimming doesn’t need a point. It is the point

      It's 6am, it's cold and dark. I'm supposed to be getting up to go swimming. Someone said these words recently, "You're nearly 40. isn't it time you admitted your age and let it go?" They haunt me. Shouldn't I? Work means I'm not always around when the kids wake up. Shouldn't I be there…

  • A very quiet return

    Still got stuff on, but writing (however badly) is welcome distraction

  • Noticing today

    As you might have noticed, I'm in midst of the Year of (nearly) not buying stuff. Some of this is to do with saving, lots of it is a need to notice everyday life a little more. So I was putting together a photobook of my little boy's first two years, and the act of…

  • Change what you can. Accept what you can’t

    So last week, I ran with the velocity and tunnel vision of Forest Gump (run Forest, run)to catch the train home from sunny Newbury.   Only to find it was delayed. Of course, I could have sulked, or melted like warm Nutella into an incandescant rage. But the Year of Not Buying Stuff is about…

  • The reading list

    I never know what to ask for Christmas, so I usually just share my Amazon wish list. Ta da. In the year of not buying stuff, books won't be an issue, for a while at least.

  • The year of not buying anything (nearly)

    If there's one thing that having kids has taught me, it's the difference between happiness and pleasure. Being woken up at 5.30 am by a half crazed three year old, bashing you on the head with handmade birthday card, the one he simply can't wait another second to show you, is happiness. Gently stroking the…

  • Christmas, red socks and how kids make you get your parents

    So we were at Mum and Dad's in St Ives for Christmas. Which meant getting kitted out for winter beach fun. That's Will's 'hurry up and take the damned picture Dad' smile. He cheered up when he got to the beach though. So did Evie, although she was mostly inerested in eating sand. After rough…