Just Random Shit!

  • The Luxury Gap

    The Luxury Gap

    “The Luxury Gap” It’s always nice when you can start a post with the title of a fabulous 1980s album! Confession time again (almost another 1980s classic album title – answers on a postcard to…): I love a good bit of stationary! I adore notebooks (I go through several every year) and I have to…

  • If Oscar the Grouch had Zoom…

    If Oscar the Grouch had Zoom…

    People of a certain age grew and who up watching Sesame Street will remember Oscar. He was a green muppet character famous because he lived in a trash can (to English readers – that is a round metal dustbin!) He was a Grouch – apparently his species, and also a reference to the way in…

  • Connections

    Connections

    I’ve never been one for networking. Now, maybe it’s my natural shyness (anyone who has ever met me will laugh at that thought – but the fact remains that just because I play the part of the extrovert doesn’t mean that I AM the extrovert!), yet I’ve always been able to tell myself that I…

  • Knowing When to Call Time.

    Knowing When to Call Time.

    A friend of mine is resigning today from an important voluntary post. She has held the post for many years and given so much over that time that it’s hard to imagine anyone else stepping into the space left by her departure. My friend has had some family health issues recently and has needed to…

  • When It’s Gone, It’s Gone.

    When It’s Gone, It’s Gone.

    I have just finished reading Bob Mortimer’s autobiography “And Away…”. I do love a good biography or autobiography. I’m fascinated by how people came to be where they are – the myriad of small decisions along the path of a life that lead to a certain place and time and outcome. But whenever I finish…

  • Worthless Time – Thoughts on Life Admin.

    Worthless Time – Thoughts on Life Admin.

    Nobody likes life admin. Those jobs like moving energy provider or insurance company in order to get a better deal while your existing provider offers huge discounts to new customers but not to you – forcing you to move. Whatever it is, it is tedious, time consuming and an ordeal designed (deliberately – so as…

  • The Waste Dilemma.

    The Waste Dilemma.

    I detest waste. Really detest it. And I don’t mean waste like the rubbish that the bin-men (they are all bin-men where I am) take away every Thursday. Although that’s pretty rubbish, as is what we undoubtedly do with it.  That stuff is an unfortunate by-product of 21st Century life and the cause of many…

  • Christmas Gifts

    Christmas Gifts

    It is exactly a month until Christmas. I cannot believe how quickly this has come back around. Every year I am on planet Earth it seems to get quicker and quicker and quicker. To the point that I’ve got chocolate still left over from last Christmas that I haven’t got around to eating yet! Every…

  • A Tale of Two Bookshops

    I have just spent the weekend in Holmfirth. It’s a delightful Yorkshire mill town, made famous by being the location of the BBC sitcom, “Last of the Summer Wine”. These Yorkshire towns have a lot going for them. I am a frequent visitor to others, often with a literary connection. Places like Haworth, famously the…

  • Blockages

    Recently the water pressure in my shower reduced significantly. I thought that maybe the local water company were working on the supply, and the pressure loss would rectify in time. But when it didn’t I began to imagine all sorts of issues. Was my boiler on it’s way out? But it was new three years…