I feel like I'm being taught a lesson by the technology, or rather the white goods, in my life. It feels like some sort of divine retribution for fantasising about living a more simple life and looking wistfully to the past thinking that it holds some clues for dealing with modern life. A few months … Continue reading When technology throws a spanner in the works
I’m coming to have a real and visceral hatred of Kinder eggs. My son and I come to these little symbols of everything that’s wrong with the modern world from completely different viewpoints. His cherubic little face lights up as he peels off the foil, but for each of his squeaks of glee my shoulders … Continue reading Kinder eggs represent what’s wrong with modern life
It's finally happened. After a shuddering explosion that sounded as though someone had petrol-bombed the house, and with a similar accompanying burning smell, my washing machine has finally washed its last and gone out in a blaze of dripping-wet washing and a death-throe leap across the kitchen floor. We've been through a lot, me and … Continue reading Not built to last?
Matchstick in hand, yesterday I was sitting on my driveway, fettling with my push bike. When I say fettling, before anyone runs away with idea that I was knee-deep in hex keys, I mean picking crud out of my chainset. And there was an awful lot of crud. Big lumps of it to prod out … Continue reading In praise of simple technologies
This afternoon I took a bike ride through my local woods. The trees were zinging with fresh life, clouds of cow parsley were nodding in the breeze and my brain was clearing of its accumulated junk. Until, that is, I cycled up to the swings in the middle of the woods. Four teenagers seemed intent … Continue reading A test of principles
The House with the Blue Door 