I am currently reading A Scanner Darkly, by Phillip K Dick. It must have been tricky living with that name. I first started reading it in the summer of 2022, when we were on an extended family holiday in I think Somerset. It seemed quite suitable, with its ellision between thoughts and reality, and the... Continue Reading →
The Shards and jetlag
I cannot stop thinking about Brett Easton Ellis's new novel. I read it on a business class flight to Washington, and finished it up at 8pm, which felt like the middle of the night. I got up at 5 the next day, did my calls and went to the weird 90s gym, which came complete... Continue Reading →
2021 – Another handful of dust
It was our 8th wedding anniversary recently. Given that my lovely husband is currently entirely housebound (and more or less confined to the sofa) with a climbing injury, I was being as upbeat as possible about adventures we have had. Indeed, smashing your Achilles in pieces and a few calf muscles to boot, within 6... Continue Reading →
Sound and fury, signifying nothing
All has not been for the best in the best of all possible worlds1 recently. The world we knew seems increasingly meaningless, and our sense of control over the events of our lives has eroded to the point that my understanding of Voltaire has increased considerably. Unfortunately, the garden is too waterlogged to weed at... Continue Reading →
The gulf between my ideal life and reality
As ever, I have many thoughts throughout the day that I am keen to write about. The text pours forth in my imagination, smoothly and seamlessly onto the page, musing wittily about some aspect of my life that is relevant, like the books I've been reading, movies I've been watching, or fun outdoor stuff I've... Continue Reading →
Mayfair window boxes
I feel the need for some posting about random everyday trivia. Today's topic is one that has intrigued me for some time. My walk to work involves a short trip from Green Park, and I pass exclusive hotels, estate agents advertising second homes in France for 3 million euros, and a number of apparently residential... Continue Reading →
There is never enough time
So many things occupy my thoughts every day. So many trivial thoughts of moving money between accounts, getting the shopping done, paying the gardener, servicing the car, have I paid the deposit on whatever activity I've got coming up, I forgot to move that Hong Kong call to accommodate the trip to Paris, I hope... Continue Reading →
Double bike trailers: Thule Chariot CX2
Whenever I'm out cycling around Milton Keynes with the kids in the trailer, someone admires it and asks where it's from. When we were deciding which one to buy, there was very little information on the internet, so I thought I'd post a little review of it. It's a Thule Chariot CX2, which we bought online... Continue Reading →
Human nature
I am currently reading a novel about a dystopian future in which the world has been destroyed in some sort of holocaust, and all the survivors live in a collection of huge underground bunkers near Atlanta. As with all science fiction, it is about the dynamics of human interaction in a hostile environment. I was... Continue Reading →
Climbing in Frankenjura
I've been on two short climbing trips recently - or more accurately one climbing trip and one bouldering. We decided on a long weekend in the Frankenjura, a part of German that is known in German as the "Fränkische Schweiz", not to be confused with "Sächsische Schweiz", which is another big climbing area, but is... Continue Reading →
The resting writer 