Like many bipedal mammals, I walk. It is an activity that I enjoy and at which, over the years, I have come to display a certain amount of skill—I can now, for example, walk up stairs or steep inclines, where before this required great effort. Even[…]

Every day on the bus to and from work I pass BBC TV centre. For some time now there has been a large picture of Ronnie Barker in the window of their main reception, surrounded by candles. OK, a nice tribute, but I’ve always thought the candles […]

Temp 1 (english): I’ve just got back from a month in mexico
Temp 2 (kiwi): [mildly unimpressed] oh really
Temp 1: [clearly hoping this would ring bells] yeah, there was surf in Cancun after the hurricane [which clearly I am being v blasé about[…]

One day I will sit down and read a novel that was written a) for adults b) in the last few years but today is not that day, today I sat down with The Once And Future King by TH White, the first book of which of course is The Sword In The Stone, which[…]

Yes yes I know commuting is irritating by definition pretty much, although Mr Popkins might like to post his bus-ride reading idylls by way of balance. But since the end of my commuting is in sight I can confess how horrific the thought of any more t[…]

The creation of consumer segments is one of the big market research cash cows – lots of money and generally happy customers who have seen the people who buy their stuff nicely put into little boxes. Truth be told, these resulting segments are p[…]

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I’ve a petty irritation entirely of my own making, which makes it as vile to me as it is feeble: I seem to have an unyielding inability to discard fine packaging. Not any old thing – cellophane wrappers go straight in the bin, of course, […]

Acoustic cover versions are often as annoying as 80s-pop/00s-rap mashups (yes I’m looking at you Frente), but I couldn’t but help to go O WOW OMG!!!eleven at an ad (for a telly and on telly) that had an acoustic cover of The Knife’s[…]

Guardian’s article on the report about the study of electrical fields on health, which predicatably came up with “there’s nothing in it, really”, has a quote from a suitably fed up prof: “This is yet another example of […]