The school summer holiday is over. Thank fuck for that. Excuse the swearing, it’s just been quite a trying six weeks. If you’re reading this on Thursday, both my kids returned to school this morning, considerably wiser having spent so much of that time with me. If you
It’s always fun to put yourself in the mind of a child, if only to try to get a sense of how they see the world via their overly large eyes and rapidly expanding brain power. People often think of kids as essentially like them, but smaller, but once
“I told you all this last week!” Have you ever said this with a tinge of annoyance in your voice, or been on the end of that annoyance? “You never listen to me!” Maybe sometimes a brain uncontrollably starts thinking about something else or is distracted by an event outside
It’s nice to have a little break, isn’t it. Nine consecutive days of no work (OK, I did a small amount of work) and more time with the family - time to chill. We didn’t go anywhere, but we did embark on day trips, with at least one
Local Man Fails at Making a Living Writing About His Uneventful Life Veteran video games journalist Tom Orry, a man who survived over two decades scraping a living in games media - founding VideoGamer.com and directing operations at VG247 and Eurogamer - this year turned his focus toward his most formidable
“If only I could turn back time, if only I had said what I still had. If only I could turn back time, I would stay for the night. For the night.” It’s Monday night and I’ve just watched half of the Keanu Reeves sort-of-comedy, Good
It was a normal Tuesday, or what we have now seemingly accepted as a normal Tuesday in July. It’s not 37 °C, just a mere 29 later in the day, so everything is fine. Of course it’s not, as 29 °C is a ridiculous temperature, but we’re
A few years back our local playground was in a complete state. This is a playground that had been run-down to the point of falling apart - the kind of place where you say a prayer before tentatively putting your precious child on the swing, because no amount of parental
I'd been asked by my sibling (travelling and with no internet or phone access) to do something described as "the most important thing in [their] life." You might anticipate this to be a life or death kind of task, a job so important that everything else
I think I’ve figured out what makes my blood boil above all other things (barring anything annoying my kids do on an hourly basis). It’s when I try to carry out a simple task and it ends up being so frustratingly difficult or troublesome for a reason no
Summer is here, as I can confirm by the uncomfortable dampness in my office chair. When temperatures start to rise it’s time for one thing: big fans. But it’s also the season of summer fairs. If there’s a large, open bit of green space within reasonable distance
I had the weirdest dream this week. It was a funeral. A funeral for a friend I hope to stay in touch with forever, despite the fact that we haven’t actually seen each other in ages - we’ve got a shared history, and that counts for something. Obviously, dreams