Where do you buy your groceries from? — ‘Sorry I didn’t get down sooner,’ I apologised to my Aunt Marie at Exeter station. ‘Well, you’re here now,’ she said as we embraced. Six months ago my uncle disappeared on Dartmoor. The police found nothing. No note, no trail, no clue. No one even remembers seeing him that morning…

I feel wretched! — I don’t know about you, but the minute I press Publish, or get a note from a publication telling me my piece is live, I feel anxious. I feel the guilt rising and I can even tell you where it is. …

The lost memoirs of a Moon astronaut — Inside the capsule are astronauts ONE, TWO, and THREE. Two of us will land on the Moon in about three days’ time. One of us won’t. That’ll be me. The one left behind while the other two have all the fun. To be honest, I don’t know why we’re bothering…

Why AC/DC’s Thunderstruck at Donnington in 1991 still blows me away — A few days ago, a friend linked to a video of a Chinese lady playing a cover of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck on a traditional Chinese Guzheng. It was brilliant, a musical trapeze that perfectly captured the original. To a point. Wallowing in nostalgia for one of the bands of my childhood…

One day you might regret counting down the hours — Every morning I walk from my house to the village to buy bread. It’s become a habit more than a necessity, as I rarely get through a whole loaf in a day. Leaving me at the end of the week with a tray of stale bread that I give to…

TL;DR has just evolved — This phrase is new to me. TL;DR I’d seen it before, but thought it was a tech term like HDR or DSLR. Something no one cares about until their TV blows up because it’s no longer compatible with Netflix. So I’d never given it much attention, until it popped up…

Life expectancy explained — I’m 50 next year and according to current mortality rates for England, my chance of dying before my next birthday is 1 in 314 That’s scary, but let’s put it in context. Take a football stadium of 1000 people full of 49-year-old jerks like me. According to the stats, if…

Unless you want to look like an idiot — What’s the difference between these two Medium headlines Earn $1 Million— Follow these steps! or Earn $1 Million— Follow these steps! They look the same, but they’re different. One is about how to cheat and copy Wikipedia articles effectively. …

His latest piece “Don’t Spray Your Text With Reader Repellent” could decide whether your writing lives or dies — There are many good writers on here. Far more than I imagined when I signed up to the platform two years ago. Back then, I thought it was a place for writers to publish short stories, poems and ‘vague musings’ on life— and not much else. I was wrong When…