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Snow
The UK in winter is not the cold place it was when I was a child. I have memories of frequent snow in the winter. Every year there was some. Many years there was a lot. These days, many years go by in which there is none. Children only see snow on the TV, or on Christmas cards. Last night I went to bed, and woke up to a blanket of snow. I had no idea this was going to happen, which made the experience this morning all the more wonderful. Right now, I’m still in the ‘isn’t this wonderful’…
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Recycled churches
In the UK, church attendance has been in decline for decades, possibly a century. Almost nobody I know, including myself, go to church for it’s intended purpose. Our villages, towns and cities are peppered with thousands of churches. Many of them are very old, expensive to maintain and trying to find a place in a world in which their old role has been all but washed away. This past week I attended two events. One was a ‘festival of light’, and the other was a group of Armenian musicians. Both events took place in churches. Both were remarkable. One of…
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The ubiquity of walking
I’m lucky enough to live in, what we call in the UK, the countryside. There is very little of the UK which does not have the stamp of humanity upon it. Our countryside is composed of farmland, stone walls, managed forest and the like. In other parts of the world you have the chance to visit places where there’s no evidence of humans anywhere. People have not built things, knocked things down or altered things in any way. It’s the same now as it would have been hundreds of years ago. Given the huge population to space ratio of the…
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I love sound, not just music
This might sound (!) strange, but I love music and sounds equally. My favourite sound is without a doubt that of flowing water. Not the heavy crash of a waterfall after rain, rather the sound of a slow moving river or stream moving over rocks. There is no way to explain this, it’s been with me since I can first remember, but it’s profound. That sound can transform my mood. Take me from ‘low’ to ‘normal’, from ‘normal’ to ‘ecstatic’. Just the sound, no visuals required. It shifts the gears of my temperament. It’s anchored somewhere deep inside. There are…
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The hypocrisy of buying domain names for my family
One of my pet peeves is when I come up with an idea, go to purchase a suitable domain for the project, only to discover that it’s been taken and is being squatted upon. Domain squatting or cybersquatting is pretty rampant, and likely quite lucrative if you get the right domain at the right time, but it’s also highly annoying. Go search for almost any combination of real words ending in .com, .net or other highly desired domain ending and you’ll see what I mean. You can get pretty much anything ending in .fish, but.. you know… why? With this…
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Walk in the Howardian Hills
A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to walk more. Long walks through the magnificent countryside near where I live. However, I did not want to do loads of research into which walks I’d like, map out a route etc. Lucky for me that in the UK, there’s a thriving community of walkers already in place. It’s called Ramblers, and you can find their website at ramblers.org.uk. You sign up and just start to attend walks which have been planned out by current members who share a love of walking. You just turn up, walk, chat, take in…
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My son makes music, and it’s good
I never talk about my kids online. I’ve never posted images of them. Never mentioned their names. I figured that they needed to make their own way, to decide for themselves what they wanted to make available, when they were old enough to do so. Today, that changes for one of my kids. Meet Sam Wrigley and his music.
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Christmas gets earlier each year
When I was a child, back in the 1970s, Christmas was a thing that happened in December, and most frequently in late December. Fast forward to now, the year 2025, and we’ve allowed Christmas to slowly but surely push further back into the year.
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Pride
I know that pride, being one of the seven deadly sins (if you believe in any of that), is not always something we should aspire to, but I think that once in a while it’s okay. Yesterday, my daughter graduated from university. I went, and I was very proud. That’s all I have a say about that.
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We need more silliness on the web
When the internet began, nobody had the faintest idea what it was going to become. Nobody knew that we were going to be deluged by images of cats, that all the music from across the globe would be available in a heartbeat. Nobody knew that it would change politics, cause connection and isolation. Nobody knew what the internet would become. Looking back, one thing that saddens me somewhat is how the internet has become less silly. There’s far less silliness out there. It’s been replaced by so-much-seriousness. It’s become a serious place first and foremost. We’re doing banking online, file…
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Don’t just consume, create something too
We’re so used to consuming the content that other people create online, that we’ve forgotten the importance of creating things ourselves. Get creating for yourself.
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Nice weekend
Some weekends are better than others. I’m sure that you can agree. This one was exceptionally cool.