The thing about self-help books is the optimism. Not so much that of the author, thought it helps. How To Win People Who Vaguely Remember Your Face or Feel The Unease And Decide Not To Bother wouldn’t sell very well, would they? No. It’s my optimism. My hope that this one will be the one […]
Inadvertent wisdom – the same difference again
It was one of those half-hearted attempts to encourage wholesome activity in Boy Three. A pathetic plea to do something that doesn’t involve doing battle in cartoonish worlds, listening to shouty American YouTubers, or both. “Draw me a picture. Just, you know, how you feel, or something… “ and off he went. I’d forgotten the […]
On 20 years of keeping the kids alive…
Small screen drama – giving up TV
I don’t watch telly any longer. Not even Killing Eve, or Stranger Things or especially not Love Island. Let me explain. Time poor as I am, I turned to thinking about the things I use my precious minutes on. Obviously, there’s a chunk of time on teeth cleaning, showering, listening to the Archers and other […]
The power of new words and why we need more
Without Shakespeare, there would be no managers, no swagger, no addiction, nothing bedazzling, new-fangled or gloomy. And these are just a few of the words he invented. There’s nothing new about neologisms. We’re always coming up with a word for something we need to talk about. Freakshakes, fat-bergs, manspaining, covfefe, floordrobes and hygge, for example. […]