Try not to lick it

Played cricket today. Although it was a short game (both sides being more or less equally rubbish) it was fun and the stiff breeze made for an interesting test of our skills. Which we mostly fumbled.  We won, if you're interested. But I thought I'd post my movement stats for the innings that we fielded. … Continue reading Cardio

I finished 11 days of jury service the other day. It was sobering and grown-up and bleak and it felt worthwhile. I made some temporary friends with other jurors and was privileged to sit on two juries. I laughed a lot, considering.  Having worked with HMCTS for nearly ten years, it was great to see … Continue reading What I learned about justice

Is it me or are pedestrians getting more and more blasé about road safety? As a very small child I learned road safety from a squirrel. Pre- green cross code man (though firmly GXC) I guess I was at the apex of Tufty's pre-eminence as the icon of overtly precautionary pedestrian behaviour. Certainly his message … Continue reading Did Tufty die in vain?

So a man who's done some magic carpentry for us over the years told me, in the pub tonight, that I owed him an apology.  He says that he was in one of Loughborough's Nepalese restaurants when he saw me walk in. He gently prodded me with his boot to say hi. A bloke who … Continue reading Doubles

I had to travel from Manchester City centre to Crawley, near Gatwick Airport tonight. I set off in the blazing heat from Manchester Piccadilly train station at 1615. I was in my hotel by 2000. I travelled on time, through three rail networks. It relied on tons of people doing the thing they're paid for … Continue reading Train

So if you've followed any of my feeds, you'll know that my pop covers band NotNowCato played the Glastonbudget Festival last weekend.  Bit of background:  The band is my gang. We've been together since 1996. We never even tried to write our own songs. Much as I love words, all my attempts at lyrics started … Continue reading You’ll never guess who I was last Saturday 

I thought you might like this. A patient explanation of sentencing to arm you against the frothing-mouthed. Worth it for the last paragraph alone.   Source: An Oxford medical student stabbed her boyfriend with a bread knife. So why is she not going to prison?

So this weekend, me and Sparky dusted off the two-man set and played a couple of gigs and it was lovely.  We'd rehearsed about enough, and I'd practised enough (he doesn't seem to need to) that we played with a minimum of errors.  We got the sound right, and although where we were it had … Continue reading Fatzorro vs Sparky

So tonight I went to Duffy's Bar in Leicester to see Colt 45 on the last night of their UK tour. Yesterday they played Brighton. Tonight they were towelling off and driving home to Cumbria. If you are from outside the UK (or from London), that's a five-hour drive at this time of night. And … Continue reading Selling the van: why Colt 45 are your new favourite band

Having Twitter-followed the poet Matt Abbott @mattabbottpoet since we saw him in Derby last month, we caught up with his collective Nymphs and Thugs at an event that was part of Nottingham Poetry Festival.  Hosted by Do Or Die Poets (a group using poetry as part of their addiction management), the night was tremendous. We … Continue reading Spoken word and coffee