I have a problem with dishwashers. In the family’s domestic scene it’s my responsibility because I’m the only one who really understands how it works. Mrs G doesn’t understand the blades that swish round squirting soapy water need to be able to operate unencumbered and routinely packs it in a way that means it doesn’t wash properly. It’s a user issue, not a hardware issue. When I say ‘you’ve packed it in a way that means it doesn’t work‘ she puts her hands on her hips, cocks her head to one side and says, ‘fine, you know how it works […]
The Bloke (est 1969)
On Panic Buying
From 2013 (When Bob Crow was alive). So I wake up this morning and I make the kids breakfast listening to Evan Davis on Radio 4 like I do every morning and she comes down and I say “Bob Crow is urging everyone to go on strike which could mean a mega winter of discontent” and she says “oh dear” and then I say “and the weather man reckons it’s going to be one of the coldest winters on record due to unseasonably high isobars or something” and she says “really” and then I start thinking that this could well […]
The Anatomy of a post 40 hangover
Caroline told me about ‘The Fear’ this weekend. I knew about the fear but just hadn’t got around to creating a name for it. Many have written about hangovers in their 20′s (shake ‘em off with a coffee and a run) or 30′s (shake ‘em off with hair of the dog), but in the 40′s there’s a new phenomenon. You regret the Jaegerbombs of course but that’s simple cause and effect. You can deal with that because that is a tangible known entity. You drank poison, you feel bad when your body reacts to it. Wait it out and the […]
Kintsukuroi (no direct translation into English)
“To repair with gold” the art of of repairing pottery with gold or sliver lacquer and understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.
