For two years now, I have published a list of resolutions. This is my third. They are not things that I have set my heart on achieving but rather things to aim at. Last year I managed two and a half out of the five yet it didn’t matter. I achieved other things throughout the … Continue reading Happy New Year 2020
The last blog of 2019
What happened to the year? I’d just got used to it being 2019 and now it’s all over. It’s become a bit of tradition for me now to conclude the year with a retrospective blog. It is a trick that the television companies use all the time, by compiling programmes from bits of the previous … Continue reading The last blog of 2019
Ice cold in Newcastle
I’ve lived in and around Newcastle most of my life. I was born in North Shields towards the mouth of the Tyne and now live in Morpeth about twenty kilometres or so to the north. Only during the eighties did I live outside of the greater Newcastle area. I love the town. Like all cities, … Continue reading Ice cold in Newcastle
Parasites
Mother Earth is a sentient creature. Who are we to understand what she thinks? Her timescales are vast, a thousand years are the blink of an eye and the life of a man is a mere tick of the clock. Her thoughts are beyond us, celestial, universal, beyond limits. We, on the other hand are … Continue reading Parasites
More holidays than Thomas Cook
I’m going to have to stop using that joke, the one that goes ‘He has more holidays than Thomas Cook’. Perhaps I can insert the name of another travel agent, Hays would be a good fit. Not that the demise of the UK’s oldest travel company is anything to laugh about. The passing of any … Continue reading More holidays than Thomas Cook
Do moles drown when it rains?
These are the kind of questions that occupy my mind, especially if I have a quiet time. Recently I was perplexed by the thought that ‘if it is dark outside and you have the lights on and you open the curtains, will the room become darker? Will the light seep out of the window rather … Continue reading Do moles drown when it rains?
Struggling with my poppy
I have struggled this year with my poppy, not in buying one, that was easy, they are available in most places that I end up in. No, rather I have struggled with the tinge of Brexit that it seems to have attracted. In some quarters, noticeably on Twitter there has been a slight whiff of … Continue reading Struggling with my poppy
Coming into view
I like doing jigsaw puzzles. They are something that every semi-retired person should do between queuing at Boots for a prescription and writing angry letters to the council. I've written about doing them several times before and it is a subject I keep coming back to, partly because they fascinate me and partly because they … Continue reading Coming into view
A fair day’s pay at Brewdog
I think it is a sign of the times when I was walking down Dean Street in Newcastle to the Quayside I noticed an A board outside the Brewdog pub. On it was written ‘We are a real living wage employer’ in capital letters. I was so taken by the sign that I took a … Continue reading A fair day’s pay at Brewdog
North East Fraud Forum Conference 2019
This year’s North East Fraud Forum was a great event, it flowed well with excellent speakers and a cohesive theme - the key to preventing fraud is through the sharing of information. Surprisingly though it is an uphill struggle to get companies and victims of fraud to do just that. Let me start by telling … Continue reading North East Fraud Forum Conference 2019
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 