Life & Times

Micro.blog October 2021 Photoblogging Challenge #2 dark 📷

photo of a cup of coffee

Listening to Vessel by The Accidentals on Apple Music 🎶

Try to give it time, life will teach you how to live

You just have to live it for a while


Micro.blog October 2021 Photoblogging Challenge #1 touch (someday, maybe) 📷

photo of a MacBook air

One of the best lines in Kier Starmer’s speech at the Labour Party Conference yesterday.

“It’s easy to comfort yourself that your opponents are bad people. But I don’t think Boris Johnson is a bad man. I think he is a trivial man. I think he’s a showman with nothing left to show. I think he’s a trickster who has performed his one trick.”


Trying out Apple Music, listening to star-crossed from Kasey Musgraves. Somehow I managed to get a free 6-month trial, so I’ll probably cancel my Tidal subscription 🎶


This article from The New Statesman website is a sobering read for those of us lucky enough not to worry too much about the odd £20,

Will the £20 Universal Credit cut become Boris Johnson’s government’s worst decision? - New Statesman

Whitehall’s own analysis finds the cut will have a “catastrophic” impact, warning “homelessness and poverty are likely to rise, and food banks usage will soar”. More than half a million people face being pulled below the poverty line, including 200,000 children, as a result of this change, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, an anti-poverty organisation.


Finished reading: The Things You Find In Rockpools by Gregg Dunnett. Grab a free copy here 📚

rockpools cover

Who’s a clever boy? 🐕

parker and certificate the class the certificate

Many thank to Nicky, Doug and the rest of the DJ Dog Training Club team for your help getting us through.


Listening to Reprise by Moby whilst writing a proposal. 🎶


Abandoned agricultural machinery 📷

Agricultural machinery


The new feeding station for the birds is open for business 🌱

bird feeding station

Saturday ride

strava route

Listening to From Dreams to Dust by The Felice Brothers on Tidal. I first discovered this band when I was looking for music to play on my Monday Music Mix show on ITfM Radio back in the day. 🎶


What's Boris Johnson's reshuffle really all about?

“This is a mad way to run the country,” confessed a member of the government.

Whether prime ministers wield sharp knives or attack with blunt spoons, reshuffle days like this are indeed a strange mixture of bravado and farce.

Bravado when, earlier, one cabinet minister told me, “I think I’m OK,” as, ashen-faced, looking nauseous and clammy, they were en route to see the prime minister before promptly being sacked.

And farce when, as legend has it, on several occasions, would-be ministers end up jobless, because the post-it notes with their name on fell off the board. Forgotten, their career plunged to the floor too.

Read more on BBC News: What’s Boris Johnson’s reshuffle really all about?


I have three invites to Literal.club if anyone is interested https://literal.club/invite/D7H0BFU 📚