Thoughts
On 10th December 2024 everything stopped - I was diagnosed with breast cancer aged 44. Here we are, and at the time of writing, I'm 2/3 of the way through chemo (to shrink the cancer before surgery) and getting appointments in place for the next phase. I&
Nature
On 8th November 2024 I went on another little nature jaunt to reconnect with my sense of physical place after leaving my fully remote job. This time, I set off on foot from my house around a meander in the river Tees. I even have some fancy tracking via AllTrails.
Nature
After almost five years working for American software company Automattic out of my bedroom office, I took a voluntary redundancy offer at the start of October 2024. It was a messy end to a rollercoaster time, but the decision was easy. The company was embarking upon a lengthy legal conflict,
Composing
I have written an acapella arrangement for three voices (SAT, or really AAT/B), a nostalgic song about Scotland based around the melody from the first movement of Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony. I persuaded my 18 year old son (tenor/baritone) and 14 year old daughter (alto) to sing
Work
The last post I wrote here was called 'hiatus'... and that was a long time ago. I think the twenty months without the promised return to blogging can themselves testify to just how intense this period has been. I wrote that blog while in France waiting for the
Wedding
We had a lockdown wedding in December 2020, at Judges Hotel, Kirklevington. Due to covid restrictions we were only allowed 15 guests and no reception, so we improvised a toast in a lay-by near the hotel. Below are some collected posts taken from our original wedding website. Taksameteret går Our
Francis Cabrel
Here’s my attempt to provide a singable English translation of the song “Je t’aimais, je t’aime et je t’aimerai” from Francis Cabrel’s 1994 album, “Samedi soir sur la terre”. Post originally published in 2020. “Je t’aimais, je t’aime et je t’aimerais” is
Work
So the changes hoped for in my first post on this new blog came to pass... I'm starting a new job on 17th August as a Happiness Engineer (technical support) at Automattic, the parent company of digital tools including WordPress.com and WooCommerce. I'm hoping that
Work
Things are changing in 2020. At this very moment, I'm trying to change my work and career, and the results of that are a few weeks away yet. But whatever happens, I'm on a new path from here. I stopped writing and blogging publicly online a
Thoughts
Mike was a colleague I used to know a little when I worked at the library service in North Yorkshire, and I wrote this after his very untimely death. If people truly can outlive their physical lives through their writing then thank goodness for Mike's writing. It'
Thoughts
First question. Why would a person desire to kill a beautiful, majestic creature like this. Why would they spend £32,000 in order to be able to kill it. Why would skinning it and taking its head be important. How can we even begin to understand such behaviour from our
Thoughts
Some of the most annoyingly cliched advice that people prone to depressive thinking receive is to "think positively"; "just be positive"; "look on the bright side". As if optimism could be artifically made; as if you could somehow fake or whitewash your experiences and