Family

A collection of 47 posts

Elon Musk

Watching for the Keymaster

Do you ever feel like you’re drowning in the various projects you’re involved in – but also realise that you started each project? I suppose you could say I’m terrible at saying no to myself. I was supposed to go for a run this morning – to begin getting

Family

Finding Time

As a few might have noticed, I’ve returned to WordPress. This had absolutely nothing to do with platforms – more about separation of concerns. I needed to use Substack for something else, and would rather have something of a dividing wall between my personal blog, and other endeavours. So what

Family

If not now, when?

Tonight (or this morning) I’m taking a leaf from a good friend’s book – and asking myself “if not now, when?”. I’m talking about the blog of course, and writing a blog post. It’s 1am. We got back from a night out a couple of hours ago.

Diet

Washing and Writing

We got home on Wednesday. It’s now Saturday. The washing machine is still going. I think we can see the end of the washing mountain now though (thankfully). It’s just a case of getting it all dry, folding it, and putting it away – which we know won’t

Family

The Journey Home

We left my parents house in Cornwall mid-morning. The final hour was a huge game of backwards Jenga, where our belongings (and various acquisitions) were re-assembled into the car. Seven hours later (after a wander into a nearby fishing village, and a rest-stop mid-afternoon, we arrived home. Our car doesn’

Cornwall

Final Day at the Coast

After booking a restaurant table last night, we visited Fowey today (pronounced “Foy”) – across the estuary from the small village we visited so often in my youth. We caught the local ferry, and somewhat remarkably found a parking space in the local car-park. The route into Fowey takes you through

Cornwall

Rainy Days and Aquariums

The weather has taken a turn for the worst over the last few days – so we’ve been rattling around my parents house. This afternoon we’re escaping for a few hours to visit the national aquarium in Plymouth. Our younger children visited when they were young – we doubt they

Family

A Day on the Beach

After a slow day rattling around my parents house, we escaped to the beach yesterday. A day of sun, sea, sand, and ice creams. We guessed that Saturday may be “change-over” day for many families visiting the coast, so might be the best day to visit the beach – and suspect

Cornwall

The Journey to the Coast

I started writing this post yesterday, while packing bags ready to travel – and then realised I had nothing to write about that hadn’t happened the day before. That has happened a lot since I started working from home. Today was more interesting – I promise. After scraping myself out of

Family

Preparing to Travel

The day began with a shower, a shave, washing up, tidying up, and a valiant attempt to pick a few things up in the living room. I’m not quite sure why I bothered, because the kitchen, lounge, and hallway in our house always looks like either an earthquake just

Family

Decompression

Two weeks to think about as little as possible. Most people would be pouring a drink out this evening. I’m on my third (or fourth) pint of water today. I’ve lost count. I drank two cans of cider after work last night, and have paid for it all

Family

Finally the Weekend

I’m having the quietest of quiet days today, and counting down the days until I stop work for two weeks. In-between all the usual household chores, we will escape to the coast for a few days to visit my parents. There’s something about the air at the coast

Family

Challenges, Westworld, and Spaghetti Bolognese

Today has been a difficult day. A work project suffered a setback, and while nobody in particular did anything “wrong”, you can’t help wondering if there was something you could have done that might have resulted in a different outcome. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I don’t typically

Family

Watching Wembley from Afar

The greater part of my family travelled to Wembley Stadium today, and witnessed England win the European cup. While the game was going on I checked in on the score from time to time, and convinced myself that my life-long hoodoo about causing anything I root for to lose was

Family

What part will you play?

It’s been a bit of a week. Over the last few days one of my cousins started posting online about a hospital visit to check something potentially serious. It’s all been a bit cloak-and-dagger, and a bit awkward. It’s difficult sometimes to just go with what people

Family

A Hummy Sort of Day

In the book “The House at Pooh Corner”, Christopher Robin asks Winnie the Pooh what he likes best in the whole world. Pooh answers: What I like best in the whole world is Me and Piglet going to see You, and You saying “What about a little something?” and Me

Family

A Quiet Day

Today has been a quiet day. A quiet day was needed. A day to rest and collect thoughts. After over-sleeping this morning I wandered downstairs for a shower and a shave. While wandering around the kitchen with a toothbrush hanging from my mouth, I looked out at the garden and

Education

Ends and Beginnings

My middle daughter officially finished college yesterday. She’s not going to university, so is heading off into the world. While she has her mind set on a career in the police, we’re trying to slow her down a bit – encouraging her to take a year out, go work

Family

Sunday Night

In recent months I have often found myself writing blog posts in the dead of night. Perhaps it’s a reflection on the number of things I’m trying to juggle at once. The weekend has been quiet. Sometimes quiet is good. We watched some more of the movie “Dune”

Family

Where does the time go?

Since stepping back from posting “every other day” to the blog, I’ve discovered a paradox of sorts. While I thought having a few days between posts might conjure stories worth telling, the reality is that by the time I sit down to write anything, I’ve forgotten the stories

Family

Weary

It’s “Father’s Day” in the UK today. I have mixed feelings about it – knowing that it was invented in the US along with “Mother’s Day” in the early 1900s (Mother’s Day pre-dates Father’s Day by a couple of years, if you are at all interested)

Family

Spread Thinly

How is it Thursday already? Where do the days go? It feels like my feet haven’t touched the ground all week. Take today as an example – somehow I’ve filled and emptied the dishwasher, thrown three loads of clothes through the washing machine and hung them out to dry,

Family

Bravery

It’s been a strange few days. We’re surrounding our daughter with as much normal as we can muster at the moment – fashioning a bubble of ordinary to cushion her recovery after the pretty terrifying ordeal she put us all through last week. I’m taking her to London

Family

The Case of the Vanishing Daughter

When we got up yesterday morning, my other half knocked on our youngest daughter’s bedroom door and poked her head in to say “wake up”. She wasn’t moving under the bedcovers, so she stepped into the room and gave her a nudge. And that’s when she discovered

Family

Running Up That Hill

Invariably I try to get to a “good place” with programming before finishing for the day – yesterday that didn’t happen. Something wasn’t working, and it consumed me all evening. At dinner the rest of my family asked what was going on – catching me staring into space, thinking about