Monthly Archives: January 2023

Throughout my adult life and indeed before I got to adulthood, I have been fascinated by urban areas. I enjoy visiting urban areas, I enjoy learning about urban areas and one of my real joys as a geography teacher comes from teaching about urban areas. I’m conscious that I could ramble on and on andContinueContinue reading “Urban”

I am a little bit of a collector. That is a lie. I love collecting things. For example, I have a collection of Starbucks mugs (two actually) from each of the cities I’ve been to. I guess it’s a problem. Unfortunately, people have a habit of suggesting, deliberately or not, new things that I couldContinueContinue reading “Ten magnets”

We’re nine days into 2023 and I’m surprised. I’m surprised that my kind-of-resolution, not really a resolution of trying to write something every day has worked so far. I enjoy writing and have, for many years, wanted to try and do more. Even just for the simple practice of it. It would have been easyContinueContinue reading “Why I’m writing”

I have written before about my enjoyment of walking. Spending time walking through a city, exploring the character of neighbourhoods and putting together that mental map in your head is a genuine pleasure to me. Today we set out to find the Roman Catholic cathedral in Washington DC. Living a five minute walk from theContinueContinue reading “Walking”

Channel flicking (or the app-based TV equivalent) I decided to watch some golf. I’ve always enjoyed watching golf on telly. As a minimum, it is good ‘filler telly’ – you can watch it in the background while you’re doing other stuff. Then there are also times when it’s the best telly you can watch, suchContinueContinue reading “Flag in, flag out”

Untappd is one of my favourite apps. I sometimes, not entirely inaccurately, refer to it as ‘Facebook for alcoholics’. And I’m not trying to play down the plight of alcoholism. I’m merely trying to summarise the operation of an app which allows people to register their purchases of alcoholic drinks, along with a rating ofContinueContinue reading “Untappd: an appreciation”

I’ve written before about notebooks, though I can’t remember whether I published it or not. I enjoy using a notebook. I enjoy writing with a pen. As a teacher, I tell my students about the cognitive benefits of note-taking with a pen in contrast to typing. My love of scribbling has been lifelong. Even whenContinueContinue reading “Notebooks”

Inset (in-service training) days illicit a spectrum of reactions from teachers. Many colleagues love it when these days are turned over to department or personal time. I don’t have a problem with this. Purely selfishly, it allows me to get on top of work which would otherwise be done out of school hours in timeContinueContinue reading “Visible thinking”

Following on from Slow Horses and Treason, I have now finished Jack Ryan and am almost done with The English. Th third season of Jack Ryan (Amazon) is perhaps the best yet, albeit I don’t have the clearest of memories of the first two seasons (which isn’t necessarily the greatest of endorsements). The premise ofContinueContinue reading “The binge continues”

One of the favourite things about time off work is the extra hours it allows for television binges. I spent most of the Christmas holidays travelling (maybe that’s another post), but I still managed to find time for two series: Treason (Netflix) and Slow Horses (Apple TV). Both of my Christmas binges are bedfellows inContinueContinue reading “Festive binge”