Coffee and orange squash
Just a short one today. I just really wanted to post something on my blog today. Here’s something I discovered a few months back and feel I have to share with you all. Coffee and orange squash1. Not mixed together, of course, but side by side. Specifically, taking a sip of orange squash when the aftertaste of coffee is still in your mouth. You’d never believe it, but this produces a completely new flavour I can only describe as “smooth and powerful”. Give it a go and see what I mean! I have a feeling you’ll be surprised too. Disclaimer: I drink my coffee black. I cannot vouch for how this tastes with white coffee but I can only imagine it’s revolting, as is mixing milk with just about anything. American readers will not be...
Return tickets
I was thinking, as I purchased a return ticket from Leeds to Sheffield, that I don’t really grasp the concept of return tickets. A return ticket is, as you probably know, a ticket that brings you back to your origin from your destination for (sometimes significantly) less than the cost of two one-way tickets. In the case of National Rail, the cost of a return ticket is barely more than the cost of a one-way ticket. Or, if you look at it another way, you almost have to pay for your journey home even if you don’t intend to take it. Even more bizarrely, the concept of a “day return” means you are penalized for not returning on the day you left. The return ticket phenomenon means that people are strongly discouraged from making journeys that...
69 Love Songs and the working day
As an extravert1 I find myself in situations at work where interactions with others dominate my day. Whether it’s meetings, asking people questions, answering other people’s questions or simply reading and sending emails, there’s always some interaction going on. I really love that aspect of my job, which means it’s somewhat frustrating during those times when I have to sit down by myself and work alone, which do happen quite regularly. When I have to work alone, I find that listening to music, especially music I know well, allows me to concentrate by providing a backdrop that goes some way towards replacing the interaction that drives me. And this is where 69 Love Songs comes in. The 1999 classic by Stephen Merritt, aka The Magnetic...
My beef with Google+
I’ve been a member of Google+ since day 1, but I’ve not really taken to it in a big way. Initially I thought this was because none of my friends were on there, but no… now lots of my friends and other people of interest are on Google+ and (reasonably) active. So I thought to myself what it is about the user experience on Google+ that’s holding me back. I love the idea of putting all my contacts into so-called circles. It’s great to be able to make the distinction between friends, acquaintances, famous people I’m following, etc. and being asked to choose each time I share a new item. Facebook and Twitter both have lists for incoming data but Google+ has made it easy to do this for outgoing data. Except it hasn’t. When I...
I’m not stupid, but: what’s with “and I”?
Did you ever have an exchange like this with your parents when you were growing up? Me: “Me and Mark had a great idea.” Parent: “You mean, Mark and I had a great idea.” This “and I” meme is stuck in the heads of many of our generation, and all over the place I see people applying it as though it’s a hard and fast rule. It’s not. First, let’s deal with the order. Why is it “Mark and I” and not “I and Mark”? There’s no grammatical reason for this order at all, except that it sounds better to put the nouns before the pronouns. But here’s the awkward bit. Sometimes it’s “Mark and I” and sometimes it’s “Mark and me”. In fact, the grammatical...
Review: Bright Eyes at Leeds O2 Academy
If Conor Oberst can be summed up in one word, it must be prolific. The Nebraska songwriter has released 22 albums under various names already, and he’s only 31! Last night’s performance opened with a set by Jenny & Johnny, the latest project of Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis who is a long-time collaborator of Oberst’s1. As if to flaunt the inbredness of the US music scene, their drummer was Jason Boesel, perhaps best known now as a key member of Oberst’s project The Mystic Valley Band. Jenny & Johnny started out as a sort of electrified country outfit but by the end were cranking out some very original indie-rock tunes that definitely made me want to check out their album. Bright Eyes came on about 8.45 and played for a full 2...
Too many stairs
Here’s a question that I’ve been meaning to ask my readers: How many flights of stairs is too many stairs? In my last building I lived on the fourth floor1 and I always tried to take the stairs as much as possible but would go up in the lift if I had heavy bags or I was sufficiently tired and/or drunk. Now I live on the third floor I am much more inclined to climb them even if I’m tired. I think five, or maybe six, would be the limit at which point the lift would win except when I’m feeling extra-healthy. Let’s take a quick straw poll. Are any of my readers conscious of their stair-climbing limits? Please share them in the comments!2 In Europe this means four floors above the ground floor. [↩]Twitterers: Please may I request...
Leeds-based non-binary nerd and sewist. I won't break my streak on Duolingo for anyone. 
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