Bon soir, mes amis. This is a quick note to publicise a new web site that I’ve built for a friend of mine, Amrik, who needed one in a hurry, so to speak. His new record label, Baby Foot Records, is home to a few young, French bands from the so-called French Rock Explosion scene [...]

“This isn’t good or bad. It’s just the way of things. Nothing stays the same.” (Anon.) Hello. Bored with the design of my site, I spent fifteen minutes today hunting around for a new template and chose this one for several reasons. First—and most complex—I quite like it. Second, it seems to suit the frivolous [...]

The Yule-tide celebration and those of the more recent and more institutionalised superstitions that have subsequently and unoriginally laid claim to this time of year have always provided a really good opportunity to enjoy a holiday at what in the UK is always, at the very least meteorologically, a cold, dark and brooding time of [...]

Last night was the night of the dreaded Work Christmas Party. Ho, ho, ho. Etc. I’m feeling slightly smug today at work owing to the fact that I seem to be one of only a few in the building who managed to avoid waking up with a hangover. Having stuck to drinking cooking lager all [...]

I’ve recently enjoyed building a web site for the business of a friend and ex-boss, Eddie Cheng. Eddie is now semi-retired but is the resident bon viveur and owner of Bottles & Cooks – a food and drink social network dedicated to discussing all matters epicurean and bacchanalian. In Eddie’s own words his “main interest [...]

I am very proud of my friend, Juliet Howland, whose debut album “A promise of return” is released for sale on 6th September. On that date I shall add a link to where you can buy the album. This evening a number of friends are attending the launch party. I’ve never been to an album [...]

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was released yesterday after Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, made what was surely not only a brave but also the right decision to release the alleged terrorist on compassionate grounds. The Libyan has terminal cancer and the Scottish authorities have shown compassion to an individual who has shown none to others, allowing [...]

One of the aspects of working life that I really, really loathe is the feeble-minded misuse of language that business people in general and marketing departments in particular these days assume to be acceptable. Every time I read about such-and-such company’s “philosophy” or am told about the “learnings” that can or could or should be [...]

This clip, which I posted on Facebook the other day, amuses me more than it probably should. My old geography and sports teacher, a dry and phlegmatic Yorkshireman called Malcolm Milne, used to employ the title of this post in superbly withering fashion, as in “nearly good, Stafford”. Seeing this video clip made me think [...]

I was talking to a colleague today about mobile phone etiquette. Apparently cinema-goers in Antigua have no qualms at all about answering their phone while watching a film. They obviously have never seen this pre-film public information broadcast before, which I think is pure genius and was playing at Austin’s fantastic Alamo Drafthouse movie theatres [...]