Needtoknowism
Be wary of assuming you have created focus by restricting vision....
Blind
A huge scrape against the right hand curb. The final straw in a litany of stupid mistakes.“Fuuuuu-!” I cry. Later I will cry. The hire car was a good deal, but then I got a little upsold. First mista...
Am-Dram Returns
There's maybe fifty of us in there. It feels like five hundred. Whatever play was on would always devolve into pantomime on that stage. I can see my Dad up there, some silly character. Some of my mate...
Opossum Omnipotent
Archibald sneered Archibald snared He must defend himself Look scary, look DEAD No one wants to be near death What was that A bright light A fire No… a lamb Covered in blood, it’s own The lamb spoke A...
Heritage
My father was a man I never knew I arrived as he was that day and we became ourselves together How strange it were his memories lace my experience Pushed and pulled his entire life into each moment w...
The Spring Hare
Gather around the great lantern young man, Light up the old dark fields and search for them those bright glistening eyes the spring hare Fifteen or more wrapped in the cold eyes water in the whipping...
The Wolf
He used to run around the moors after dark. Picking up pace across poorly tended trails in just the light of his head-torch. He thought of nothing those nights. Seeing, no one. Hearing, no one. Whenev...
Little Red Line
You should own a domain. Pay a reasonable amount for it so it feels like it matters. Let the domain name be as close as possible to your own name. Allow me to explain why as I fight the urge to turn t...
Stapler
His neck had got stuck in the barbed wire at the top of the wall. He could feel the blood running down the front of his shirt. It was starting to dry and harden in parts. If he tried to move from the...
The Cricket
I have no hair on my inner thighs I rub my legs together like a cricket Smack my lips grind my teeth "mouth noises" and Thrash I lace my index toe(?) over my big toe and click them like fingers...
Benedict Fellowship
We have our first member. Last night I took my seat for a drink with a friend. Two minutes later he walked in. We grabbed a beer and sat back down. He reached in his pocket and carefully retrieved a s...
The Bluebells
One day I will be a father. For as long as I can remember I have had an assurance that undertaking that role will be the greatest part of my life. I think about it so often. Its strange but I feel lik...
Help
Being angry is remarkably easy. Knowing why you’re angry is the challenge. I’d been angry for quite a long time, and it was giving rise to a lot of other unpleasant counterparts. I had become very bi...
Make sense?
The mans name was Charles. He failed to - nor did he try to - create a vibrant environment for debate, where people were free to say whether they did or did not understand and ask questions. He defini...
The Trickster
I can be quite good in a crowd. I don’t mind coming across as emotional. I will pick a side and argue as passionately as I can for it, I may not even really believe what I am saying. I am just testing...
I’m writing in a notebook
I haven’t given up on this. I’m writing in a notebook. I thought I would have more to say about things in the real world but I’m writing a bunch of nonsense made up stories. No plan it’s just strange...
Fragile breakthrough
I think by the end of this blog post I am likely to find myself disagreeing with myself quite strongly. Lets go. Here’s an attempted definition of what I think I mean when I say ‘fragile breakthrough...
I’m afraid I’ll lose everything
This definitely comes up a lot. It’s probably more front and centre for me because I have grown up with my Dad in church leadership, I’ve seen my fair share of him and my Mum walking with families a...
Stomp
Stop kicking down, jump higher. Ankles twisted, shins bruised, worst case - concussed. Stop pretending. It only becomes a trick when you land it. Pretender! Worst won’t happen, if it never happens. K...
The Ducor comeback
I had just turned a corner several storeys up and nearly walked straight into an empty elevator shaft plunging back down to earth. No bungy today. Instead, we stepped aside and round to a set of stair...
Foreground first
You look closer. You see mountains, reflected in a lake in the bottom third of the image. The remainder of the space shows the milky way, a sea of stars and vibrant colour. It’s a perfect photograph....
Sorry for the wait
Spray the counter, wipe the wall. Empty the drawer, stack, restack. Sorry for the wait, we’re understaffed. No we’re not, we need new staff. Yes, I was pretending, I was ignoring you. I am overwhelmed...
Mrs Greene’s invitation
“It’s time to go.” He started packing up his things. She walked across to him, put her hand on the back of his head and kissed him on the forehead. She gave him a second kiss right on the top of his...
It self-destructs
Self-destructing album, gig. Self-destructing small, big. Self-destructing letter, call. Self-destructing summer,fall. Self-destructing finished, task. Self-destructing answer, ask. Self-destructing m...
It started by starting
What to do if there is nothing? What the hell do we do? Let’s just eat. Let’s just sit. There is nothing, right. There is nothing right. Let’s do nothing, let’s do. No one will remember. If nothing e...
Bad Marketing Campaigns #1
Feel like you’re too in the loop? Fed up of productive meetings where all necessary parties are informed? Ready to take the next step and blame people for not watching your training videos? You shoul...
Jury Radio
I cannot listen to the radio. Maybe it’s because Martin Kemp from Spandau Ballet and Eastenders shunned me at the ice rink when I was a kid. That’s another story. Anyway, the radio drives me mad. I d...
Something is velcro
My legs were bound, I made a hop-ker-shuffle closer and closer to the edge. My toes were set over the side of one of the highest bridges in the world. I would fall for five seconds. One Mississippi, t...
Rednaz reflects
“Yes I know he and I are much the same.” “So why don’t you leave him alone?” “He has his ways of dealing with it, as do I.” “But if you get it - you know how much it hurts him. Why don’t you seem...
A poem about eczema
Are you serious? Who cares about your eczema? So what if it’s hot? So what if it’s itchy? No one cares. Quite right. What would even make this a poem? Ask me about it to my face. Maybe a five-year-old...
Snerol’s studio
“Was it justified this time?” Mrs Greene asked as she entered her classroom. Before Nodnarb had chance to answer she continued, “You’ll both need to move on, the year eights will arrive any moment.”...
More paper please
You sit on a stool in the corner of the sports hall and try not to fall asleep. That’s the job of an A-Level exam invigilator. I had a brief stint during my masters where I was a sort of college coun...
Nodnarb’s neck
Snerol was afraid of everything. He was tall, but he had those eyes that always looked as though they were peering up at you. He was a people watcher, not out of curiosity so much, mostly he just want...
The climats don’t change
It is going to be one of two options. Where it is precisely is what will make all the difference. Oh, and everyone else is going to do the exact same thing. Welcome to Burgundy. As you drive from Di...
The liquids bags are dead
The boards all flashed red. I knew they affected me but I couldn’t influence them. They indicated it would be another trip where clearing security would take a long while. I opened my backpack, took o...
Poetic nonsense
‘Kathy’s Song’ by Simon & Garfunkel. But it has to be the Live in St Louis, MO – November 1969 version. In December 2015 Rachel and I were young and in love. I used to set alarms for 3am so I could t...
The Great Mue
The car from Kambia to Makeni was long and not too comfortable, but the roads were good. Most of the roads in Sierra Leone are excellent. In Makeni we stopped at the bus station and were looking for...
The Stowaway (for Percy)
I just wanted an adventure. I should not have been there. Hiding below. Thank God he cared for me. Trapped with hope, until it sinks. So too I. Thank God he cared for me. I was not planned for. No sup...
Further down
Time on the surface. Short chopping breaths. Quick flying kicks. They love to distract. I long to detract. It is there at the bottom. It is always further down. If only I were earnest. I hope I mean,...
Crude naif prig
I adore C.S Lewis’ essay ‘The Inner Ring’. Remarkably simply he outlines the life of an ‘Inner Ringer’, someone who spends their life seeking to make their way into inner rings – small groups – to gai...
Who knows
It’s dark out, who is home? Let them come in, they are alone. It’s a cliff they are on, I don’t think they know. There really is nowhere else to go, let’s wait. We’ll see. Which of them will come to m...
Many uses for a Buff
He is an excellent runner. He is an exceptional runner. He has run the Dragons Back and the Spine. I ran with him around Sale Water Park in South Manchester one night. I was new to running. I didn’t...
I am not calm
I am filling up, I cannot write. I am jamming the airways, cover my ears. Close my eyes. My mind is full and I am at the limit. I am not calm. I am not ready for quiet....
EBI: Tamper, Sellers Wheel: 3/10
It seems to be a common issue with a lot of eggs benedicts I am seeing recently. It’s unbalanced. A good eggs benedict – like most of life’s great pleasures – is an exercise in restraint, not excess....
22:22
That’s the time as I write this post. Let’s make it short. I’m turning 30 in two hours. Where was I a decade ago? March 2014. I began my twenties in South Africa. I was doing a Christian Gap Year in...
Surrounded by Idiots
‘Scar’ from The Lion King is probably not a model to be emulated. When I started my Masters in Development Economics and Policy my limited ability in mathematics made itself immediately apparent and...
EBI - A brunch index you cant trust
Here’s the vision. You’re in Barcelona. You wake up naturally at 9:17. You have a shower and put on your Birks, shorts and a short sleeve shirt with one more button undone than your comfy with and hea...
What?
Daniel Kaluuya told an excellent story in an interview with Rick Rubin. It was from his time acting opposite Josh Brolin in Sicario. I have not seen the film at the time of writing. The story he tol...
We butchered a model
The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) seems wrong. Well, maybe not wrong, but it fails to make the ideal immediately evident. That’s a problem for us. So we set the ideal. We butchered th...
Thank you Lemn
Lemn Sissay’s memoir of his childhood “My Name is Why” was excellent. There’s one page, I shan’t ruin it, but I will say I made special effort to read every word. A 5 word sentence repeated 91 times....
Blog Rules
I missed the golden age of blogs and I am not interested in social media. I am sure I would enjoy social media at its best but I think its presently happy with infamy. But man, we breezed through the...