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Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
For those of us who have indulged in higher education, we have probably spent more time dwelling on the meaning of words than is ordinarily so. Academia is often a game of (relative) triviality and minutiae, with careers made by branding a particular take on identity or subjectivity or whatever else. A word that I…
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Backing myself: I WILL hit my weight loss goal by MID-SEPTEMBER
After 4 weeks of dieting and experimentation I’m calling time on the “test and learn” phase. Here’s a summary of key developments. After this length of time I don’t think about dieting (asides analytically), I just do it. It is now clear that I can live with 1,700 calories on a standard day. Note: My…
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Brightening things up a bit
Like everything else at my house, the garden is a perpetual work in progress — probably still a few years away from matching the picture in my head. The challenge is that every improvement comes with a trade-off. Prioritise one thing in 2026, and something else slips down the list until 2027. Two steps forward,…
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My “OG” house in a wonderfully green estate
I’ve lived in my house in Rugby for a year and a half now, and it’s slightly embarrassing to admit that in all that time I hadn’t properly explored the area on foot. The estate itself has grown in phases over the last twenty years, and my house is one of the “OG” properties, built…
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Poland’s National Philharmonic Orchestra
Poland’s premier orchestra is currently touring the UK, and by happy coincidence their schedule aligned perfectly with mine. They opened the tour at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall today with a programme pairing lesser-known Polish works with Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Beethoven’s exhilarating Seventh Symphony. It was a pleasure to be back at Symphony Hall…
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Office Week
A quote I commend is: “You don’t rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems.” This week has been a systems week (see also Work Office: coming on like a slow chess match), induced by the begrudging acceptance that my old desktop is past its best and long…
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Work Office: coming on like a slow chess match
I’ve got no intention of moving on (unless compelled) from my job, so I might as well make myself at home. It takes what feels like an age to personalised my office. It’s like a game of chess where I can only make one move per week. I’m bringing everything from home, one bag at…
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Geranium summer
I’m hardly in a position for the garden to be a hot priority, but I do try to ensure that the occupants of my pots are alive with some prospect of flowering. Many of my “OGs” didn’t survive their first cycle of seasons, so I decided to “go big” on geraniums to fill the gaps.…
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Light hearted room in a serious household
My home is my office, gym, workshop, private park (perhaps overstating its grandeur), gallery, library, storage unit, and much else besides. It’s serious business — partly because a fair portion of my wealth is tied up in its land, bricks, and mortar, and partly because it serves as the multifunctional centre of my universe. When…
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An unexpected V.I.P.
Unbelievably exciting! I occasionally see my much loved hedgehog(s) on the security cameras, but I’ve never seen him during daytime. I saw some rustling in the bushes and assumed it was a local cat. Instead it was my spiky pal, on his way home for a good day’s sleep I guess.
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Back and At It
I took my site off-line for a while, partly because it’s been (pretty much) all work since January. In the last day or two I’ve started to make progress around the house. Specifically, I began the big job of painting the fence in my back garden. It will take about a week in all, but…
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Romcom Winter Weather
At the grand finale of Christmas romcoms set in the UK, you always get picture-postcard snow arriving right on cue. Unfortunately, we British know the reality: it rarely snows south of Edinburgh, and it pretty much never snows at Christmas. If it comes, it’s typically in January or February, although freak storms can happen as…
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Dr Martin James 