A while back, I reviewed Sarah Millican’s brilliant book “How To Be Champion“, which was part autobiography, part joke collection and part self-help book. On a similar theme, I’d like to discuss another book I’ve been reading recently; “Happy” by mentalist, illusionist and warlock Derren Brown. Or, to give it it’s full title: “Happy: Why More Or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine”.
A Sense of Perspective
Now seems like as good a time as any to discuss a key realisation that has helped me to make sense of the world. I’ve noticed that people don’t always seem to distinguish between ‘The General’ and ‘The Specific’. So what? Well, it can be an important distinction. Let me try to explain. (more…)
Working from Home: Tips
A lot of you will have started working from home as the coronavirus pandemic continues and many of you won’t have had to do this before and may not be used to it. It takes some time to adapt and to find a balance of happiness and productivity, but it can be done.
As someone who’s done a PhD and works from home a lot, I thought I would share some tips. A lot of this is ‘common’ sense, but I still have to force myself to follow some of this advice and I’m usually better for it. Hopefully, at least some of these tips will be useful.
Introduction – A Muggle’s Guide to Dementor Defence
For a fair chunk of the last decade, I have been battling with a range of mental health issues, including depression, anxiety and insomnia. I suffered on and off for almost seven years before finally getting the help I needed to turn my life around. While I was in therapy, I made a lot of notes and now I’m trying to turn those notes into something useful. “A Muggle’s Guide to Dementor Defence” will be a series of blog posts that will, if nothing else, help me to organise my thoughts, but hopefully some of this will be helpful to any of you who are going through similar things.
But first, I wanted to explain how this all came about.
I Am Your Father – Part 6: The Final Countdown
Well, the due date is now just a few short weeks away and this will probably be the final post before our son arrives, which is not terrifying at all!
Renault Zoe 2 – Electric Boogaloo
In February 2019, we bought (second-hand) our first electric car; a 2015 Renault Zoe. I wrote a post about it shortly after we picked it up and now, one year on, it’s time for an update.
I Am Your Father – Part 5: We’re in the Endgame now
Ok, we’re now 33 weeks into the pregnancy with around 7 weeks left until the due date. The last month has been fairly uneventful, but quite a lot has happened in the last week-or-so; we’ve been to our first NCT class, received some important deliveries and started making final preparations for our little boy’s arrival.
I Am Your Father – Part 4: 28 Weeks Later
OK, we’re just over 28 weeks in, with just around 12 weeks to go until the big day. The countdown has well and truly started!
I Am Your Father – Part 3: The Second Scan
This is only my third update in this series so far, but there hasn’t been all that much to report recently. However, a couple of weeks ago we went for the second, 20-Week baby scan, which is the one where you (can) find out the gender of the baby…
I Am Your Father – Part 2: The Scan
So, the next big step on the way to becoming a parent is the infamous Scan. We had ours a couple of weeks ago and, as seems to be tradition, that is also the point where we finally started to tell our friends and family the news.
I Am Your Father – Part 1: The Secret
So, as I am sitting down to write this, my wife and I are just about to announce to our family and friends that we are expecting our first child.
[Pauses for applause and cooing noises]
Interesting times! I’m still not sure it feels real yet…
Writing ‘The Journey’
I recently submitted a story called ‘The Journey’ to an online competition. As it was Mental Health Awareness Week recently – and the competition was run by Mind, the mental health charity – I wanted to talk a bit about the story and how I came to write it.
EDIT: You can now read the story here.