Tom Orry Minute
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
Tom Orry Minute
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
Tom Orry Minute
We'd been walking in the mid-day sun for almost an hour. Six of us, including three kids, all near the point of giving up. Except there's no giving up in a maze - we’d just be stuck there. Sure, given that this particular puzzle has
Tom Orry Minute
I’ve had to be more careful about spending money since I lost my job, limiting my purchases of branded baked beans to special occasions only, buying porridge from Lidl, going ad-supported on a number of streaming services, and cutting my coffee intake to just six double espresso lattes
Tom Orry Minute
Have you seen The Long Walk, or read the book? It’s a rather harrowing tale of young men competing on television for riches, with the goal to be the last person walking. Miles and miles of walking. Slow down or stop for too long, get a handful of warnings,
Tom Orry Minute
The soundtrack of my childhood wouldn’t be nearly as cool as the one in Mix Tape, the latest release to come under fire from angry man babies that seem hellbent on trying to gatekeep video games from everyone but people exactly like them. A coming-of-age adventure set
Tom Orry Minute
This past Bank Holiday weekend in the UK was supposed to be about celebrating being married to my wife for 14 years. We don’t buy into gifting and putting on a big song and dance, but a couple of nice meals out in Brighton, a bit of wandering the
Tom Orry Minute
A beam of light hits me like a dart through the blind that doesn’t quite shut properly any more. I’ve been too scared to fix it or even try, catastrophising over how much worse it could be, but at this moment I regret my subpar DIY skills. It’
Tom Orry Minute
We all tell them, don’t we? Hopefully, like me, they are more the innocent kind, the type that give ourselves permission to indulge in things that aren’t bettering our lives or simply to make other people’s lives more tolerable. I’m not one to go around telling
Tom Orry Minute
It’s fair to say I’ve been in a slump. Losing my job of nine years hit me way harder than I expected, the severity of the break-up knocking me sideways. That part of my life, that part of me, was over, and no amount of goodbyes or
Tom Orry Minute
Listen, I enjoy family holidays. I (mostly) love spending time with my kids while doing things we don't do day in, day out. Things like going to museums (and being dragged around by a four-year-old so unable to read more than a few words on each
Tom Orry Minute
Is there a phrase more feared by parents than "I'm bored"? Perhaps "It broke" or the simple but classic "oops". My mind is racing, my pulse quickening just thinking of where these could lead. "I'm bored" takes the