Category: 2013
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Rubicon Too, Cotham Hill
I couldn’t imagine liking any place which had vintage chairs in the window. I mean, how utterly pointless and vile (I am not a fan of vintage stuff – no tea cups or flowers or chintzy things at all). But I was wrong. The Rubicon Too is a rather comforting place which feels incredibly welcoming…
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It’s no sacrifice at all for the very hungry elephant
This little girl on the right is Mersina, (23-months-old). Her dad, Martin (31) is to the left and in his arms is Ellie the Elephant (just under a month old as she was a Christmas present). Ellie the elephant was very hungry tonight and wanted to eat Gerald the giraffe. Mersina was devastated. “No, no,…
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New year resolutions’ help from Tony Robbins
In terms of support and motivation, this Tony Robbins video is huge so I am reposting it here. I included it originally in my New Life, New Year post but worried that someone who could find it useful would miss it.
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Geoff, the Buddha and me (and my phd)
I don’t write too often (ever?) about the PhD I started and didn’t finish. It was an awful time. It was the most ego- and spirit-crushing time of my life for which in a way I’m very grateful because it made and makes all other bad times feel like a temporary breeze. Almost a zephyr…
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Everything everything
I was talking about the Tree of Life with someone in a pub nearly a year ago. There is a sequence which in half an hour or somesuch tries to show the whole creation of the universe. The guy in the pub said that it showed how insignificant we were. Creation was so huge and…
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The loveliest Watford fan ever?
Mersina has a whole host of sports teams to which she can form an allegiance from Greece to Australia to Watford and Durham and Bristol etc. I can’t say I’m particularly fussed as I find it all a bit overpaid and pointless. However there’s still some sense of loyalty that wells me up in me…
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First week done, how did I do?
I did ok for my first week of resolute living. I have posted every day even if I haven’t remembered to write down one good thing for each of them. I haven’t run much apart from a hundred metres or so up a hill to get to the supermarket but that isn’t what I meant…
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Osho, a resource for support
In the 1960s, Jown Bowlby outlined the approach to human development that he called attachment theory. He helped us recognise that from the day we’re born, our brains are biologically designed to respond to the care and kindness of others. This transformed parenting to support the emotional needs of babies and toddlers as they grow…
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Understanding more than we thought
Last week we were at Mersina’s grandparents’ house and were all sitting around the dining table at nearly the end of the meal. Grandma was standing and M kept looking at her. Uncle James had come in and taken her seat. “I don’t have a chair Mersina” she explained. M looked down at her own…
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Three ways to beat writer’s block
I am writing a book and I have come to the first major crisis point about a quarter of the way in. Something important has happened and I know where I want my main character to end up but how do I get her there? It doesn’t help that I have just finished the first…
Ephemeral digest 