The hazards of bus travel: public transport nightmares

And so, the first post of 2014: a new year and the time when bloggers turn to tales of resolutions for the coming 12 months… but being contrary, I’m going to share a short story with you instead, written a couple of years ago when I was still a card-carrying London resident – as you’ll […]

Dad dancing – losing your rhythm and other signs of age

It’s a time of year for celebrations, festive fun and parties. And whether it’s the office Christmas party, a late-night gathering at the relations, or a New Year’s Eve booze-up, one thing is certain: after a certain amount of alcohol there will be ‘dad dancing’. Men of a certain age (and increasingly I find myself […]

The agony of the middle-aged runner – running, fitness and creativity

There comes a time in a man’s life when he feels the need to take up running. Call it a mid-life crisis, call it a desire to improve your health, call it a need to wear inappropriately tight lycra – it boils down to the same thing. We get a bit flabby around the tummy […]

Being stupid isn’t clever – the rise of reality TV stars

We’re all used to TV and film stars playing up the old ‘I’m a bit dim, me’ persona. There’s a rich comic lineage of characters who’ve played on being the least sharp tool in the comedy box: George Formby, Norman Wisdom, Michael Crawford’s Frank Spencer, Harry Enfield’s Tim Nice-but-dim. But these were characters adopted by […]

Lazing on a Sunday afternoon

Sunday. Is it the last day of the week? Or is it the first? It depends on your calendar, but for most of us it’s a day with a particular curse – it’s the one immediately before Monday. And that’s a terrible thing for any day to live up to. Sundays have an air about […]

Somebody pick up the phone – why music shouldn’t be background

As someone who hot-desks in several different offices, and as a regular commuter on trains full of business people, I’m often subjected to other people’s dubious choice of phone ringtone. Now, we all want our ringtone to be individual – there’s nothing worse than a phone ringing and three people around the meeting room table […]

We are sorry for any inconvenience – getting your messaging right

Back on the topic of commuting once again… It’s been a week of trauma so far for Britain’s commuters and the rail companies whose services they use. The ‘UKstorm’, as it was hashtagged on Twitter, managed to wreak havoc on the rail system before it had even arrived. The vast majority of rail companies in […]

The joy of commuting

Yesterday marked my return to the office after a month in Australia. The change in the weather was hard enough to cope with – going from 30+ degrees and sunshine to 13 degrees and drizzley rain was never going to be pleasant – but the return to commuting was an even more bitter pill to […]

Not just fast. Fasterest.

I was wandering around Circular Quay in the centre of Sydney yesterday, taking in the sunshine and the beautiful views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Walking past an advertising hoarding, I spotted an advert for Vodafone Australia’s 4G broadband rollout that niggled with me very slightly. The copy runs: ‘Not just […]

Jetlag and why it sucks

We’ve been in Sydney for a week now and I think my body clock is just about acclimatised to being in the Southern Hemisphere. The first few days after a long flight always seem to be the worst – that my-head-is-full-of-cotton-wool feeling that’s halfway between hangover and sleep deprivation. But it begins to pass once […]