Yesterday my father-in-law fell 20ft from the Severn Bridge. If you're in the South West you may have seen it reported on the news, there's some coverage and even a photo story of the three hour rescue on the BBC website. The good news is that he's basically OK, although he had to have surgery … Continue reading Bad Fall →

I went to the Festival of Gardens at Westonbirt Arboretum last weekend. Definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. Being a complete idiot and having forgot my camera I don't have any photos, so you'll have to look at the designs on the website for some impression of what's there. Essentially its an … Continue reading Sounds of Sunlight →

...is unfortunately over. That's where I was this weekend, making my annual pilgrimage to my favourite summer festival. Cracking tunes, cracking company, and cracking weather. We had a logistical nightmare getting to the festival (don't ask) which but a dampener on the beginning but we soon got back into swing of things. Highlights for me, … Continue reading Big Chill 2004… →

There's a piece in the Register yesterday about Dave Winer shutting down a number of weblogs. I discovered that eclectic -- the XML-DEV weblog which I ran for a number of years -- was one of them. This is no big problem for me as the site has been dormant for a while. It's just … Continue reading Weblog Wipeout →

I've just gotten back from the (now annual) Dodds family holiday in Weymouth -- a nice holiday resort in Dorset on the south coast of England. Perfect if you've got kids. Much fun was had by all. Every year we go down I look forward to seeing the latest creations from Mark Anderson the current … Continue reading Minas Tirith in Sand →

On my birthday last year I wrote up a snapshot of what was happening in my life. A year has flown by and so here's this years snapshot. Warning navel gazing commences... Home Our second child, Martha was born last October and has brought as much joy to our lives as Ethan has. Being a … Continue reading Snapshot #2 →

Apparently there's a recognised stage that children go through during the development of their language skills in which they start to experiment with syntax and grammar. Basically they make up their own words based on the grammar rules that they've absorbed. Ethan came up with a good one recently: "funnin", meaning "having fun", e.g: "Where … Continue reading Funnin →

Tim Bray's Two Laws of Explanation are good reading. I've tried to ascribe to these myself wherever possible, and especially in my writing. Of course these aren't new formulations, as they're really a modern version of John Locke's tabula rasa concept. See for example Some Thoughts Concerning Education: One of the aspects of this philosophical … Continue reading Bray and Locke →

We had a cracking storm this afternoon the sky went dark, thunder, lightning, the full monty. It didn't last that long, but shortly afterwards I heard some bangs and thuds from outside as it started to hail. Hard. What you can see here fell in the space of a couple of minutes -- the time … Continue reading Hailstones and the Barry Tornado →

Isn't it always the way that no matter how early you get into work, there's always one bright-eyed smug git who's there before you, eyeing their watch and pulling the universal facial expression of "call THIS early? I've been in for hours mate?!". Well it's 6am in the morning and I'm in work. Not the … Continue reading This is 6am →