about me

I live in west London with my partner Anthony and our 16 year old son Joseph.

I thought it’d be a good idea to do an A-Z of little factoids about myself to give you a feel for who I am, which of course means thinking of 26 vaguely amusing points but to be honest I’m just not that interesting, so here are a few random ones for you:

I love to spreadsheet. Doesn’t matter what, just that feeling of organising data into neat little columns gives me a kick every time. I even have a spreadsheet of my spreadsheets.

We home-educate… not really that unusual since Covid-19, but Joe has never attended school so it was very much a choice in our case. I’m more of a facilitator than an educator though and Joe has had the freedom to follow his own interests. I did attempt to encourage him to climb trees, make mud-pies and generally just enjoy being physical outdoors with his friends… He ended up being the one on the bank of the river offering to watch everyone’s things so he didn’t have to get wet.

I enjoy strength training. Free weights mainly but I’m happy to throw in some cable machines and calisthenics too. Still can’t do unassisted chin-ups but I’ll get there.

I have given up trying to give up tsundoku (the act of accumulating piles of unread books). At last count I had over 700 and that doesn’t include those on my wish list. A proportion of those I have managed to read from cover to cover, the majority have been dipped into from time to time, but a significant number literally sit untouched on my shelves for years despite my intention to someday get around to actually reading them. Still I struggle to pass a bookshop without picking something up.

I love Bridgedale socks. They last for years and feel like hugs for your feet.

I am a storyteller. No I don’t mean a liar or a gossip. I mean I like to talk with others about the experiences I’ve had, the lessons I’ve learned along the way and the lessons I’m still trying to make sense of. I take great pleasure in looking at things from different perspectives and playing around with the what ifs and the whys?

I’m good under pressure. I can spend hours in a state of indecision over stupid everyday choices like what to make for lunch, but throw me into a life or death situation and everything seems to come into focus, the world slows down and I feel like Marvel’s Quicksilver. I still prefer a quiet, drama-free existence but it’s not a bad superpower to have should ever I need it.

So that’s a bit about me, I look forward to getting to know about you.