There are any number of similarities between being a teacher and being a parent. Both involve an awful lot of behaviour management, dealing with repetitious questions and the constant nagging sense that you're not quite doing it well enough. The biggest similarity is that, just when you think you've got a handle on what it …
I remember once having to sit through a two hour seminar on change management in schools given by a consultant who was earning far more than I was. To be fair, the guy did a pretty decent job of speaking much and saying little. I think most people attend these kinds of training events with …
I've always had what I felt was a sensible mistrust of people who can order the world into 'correct' and 'incorrect'. To me, that is the way of the extremist: "difference is bad, my way is good, kill those who oppose". As such, I am wary of mathematicians - or as I like to call …
London, 1940. The wail of air-raid sirens signals another attack by the Luftwaffe. The screaming noise is punctuated by the dull percussive thud of bombs. Just on the edge of hearing the angry bee-swarm-hum of propeller engines provide a droning bass note; ceaselessly framing the other sounds in hateful monotone. Nights are spent lying in …
I remember driving home one night from town along the Srinakarin road - a major thoroughfare running south away from Bangkok towards Samut Prakan. It was a few days before my first child was born and we'd been out with friends, enjoying zesty Thai curries and sipping soft drinks whilst our companions got stuck into …
Time is often described by Buddhists and fantasy writers of a certain stripe as being a wheel. A constant, unending revolving reel of events that, whilst discrete, are connected. One leads inexorably to another. The other is shaped by the first. And so on, and so on. That which was will be. That which …
My son is a social bean. He gets it from his mother. Not me at all. I'm not social. I hate people. Even you. Anyway, as his voice and gestures become more developed he has improved his ability to make people aware of him. Unsuspecting members of the public will be yelled at, given a …
Bacon. It exists to celebrate certain days like Father's day. Offered up as a delicious porcine sacrifice to the great god of fatherhood. Mother's day is a bit more granola and croissant based, which is fine in its way. But it isn't a bit of pig lovingly and greasily slapped on a plate with extra …
It must be wonderful to view the world through the eyes of a toddler. Everything fresh and exciting and new. Every day bringing its own adventures. Laughing as you run away from your parents who are trying to stop you falling down a hole. What japes. Yes, we've moved firmly into the developmental period …
Warning: Contains Game of Thrones and Seamus Heaney spoilers. Kind of. My wife is terrible at shooty computer games which, as you can imagine, puts quite a heavy burden on our relationship. It's not that she can't play these games, it's more the crippling emotional guilt she feels in turning a collection of pixels red. …
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