Taken out of context
I’m going to Florence next week. A few days to stroll around a strange place on my own. I haven’t bought a guidebook, and my preparation thus far has been…
Cloak and dagger
Writing about work is normally a bad idea, partly because you never know when Google is going to direct the wrong person to the wrong blog post, but mainly because,…
Bruised knuckles
Wednesday is our inaugural office conker championships. Since I possess a vice and a drill, I have volunteered to prepare them for stringing, so today grown adults have been turning…
Rather awful nonsense
This morning I discovered this quote from Edward Gorey, and I rather like it. Presumably he was attempting to justify The Gashlycrumb Tinies, a book about dead children that works…
Neighbourhood watch
I have a feeling that the girl in flat 3, while pleasant enough, is not one of life’s survivors, or at least has a nervous temperament that is rather unsuited…
Always room to sit down
The other night, due to a combination of a train delay and a lack of spare house keys that is far too boring to go into, I found myself with…
Downstairs meeting room
This morning I was sitting in an interminable meeting. My ‘notes’ from this meeting are now taped to the corner of my computer screen.
Further correspondence with National Express
A couple of weeks ago I sat down with a bottle of wine and drafted this measured response to a run-in with a ticket inspector that same morning. A reply,…
A topography of minor injury
Despite other calamities, I have never been badly injured. I have never broken a bone, nor been cut deeply enough to require more than a bit of superglue, a steri-strip…
Dear National Express
Dear National Express, I am writing to ask you to remove the tracking device which you have concealed somewhere about my person. On weekday mornings, when I arrive on the…
