Unleash the Monkey Army

Somebody close to me suggested to me that my last blog post was a little sad. Sorry about that! That was not the intention but it probably fell victim to two different quirks of being one of my piece's of work: While I do tend to overthink stuff, as a proportion of the time spent thinking, the thinking prior to doing anything or writing anything is miniscule! On the bright side, this means I can crack on with things pretty quickly and without too much baggage to weigh me down (at least, at the beginning, like a tourist, my bags fill up along the way as I collect duty free and tacky souvenirs!).The downside is that I only ever have the loosest sense of what the end point will look like. Which might be why I can attend to triumph and disaster with about the same level of attachment. I don't re-read this stuff before I post it. That's the joy of the internet! Aside from porn and religion, the internet gives us a facility to belch out our every cognitive air biscuit with o...

It's been a couple of weeks since the last update and, frankly, not a lot has been going on. Life and work have a habit of throwing challenges into the mix with an apparent disregard for how they impact on us. Squad news: Sheldon ( Sheldon's blog) has carried on burping and blogging. Seriously, if you haven't stopped by, give him a read and drop a comment, his fashion sense is unreal and he could do with a t'internet hug. With each entry (and to be fair, updates from others in the Facebook group) I discover more things in common with people on the other side of the planet. There are a hardcore of other burpeurs/burpeuses confirmed as still quietly chipping away:- Monty, Charles; Hayley; Liz; Hoggy and Trev. We happy few, we band of...wait a minute. "Happy"? By the way, if you are in, with us and still going, drop me a line. It would be great to hear from you and share in your journey. So, happy? Maybe, maybe not. Another couple of drop-outs has been a...

I had started to write an open letter to my rugby lads, urging them on over the final furlong of the season. I had thought that it would included the line about their season titrating down to a series of moments like these, junctions along your timeline where you chose your heading. And then it occurred that it might seem a bit over the top. Particularly when you consider that actually life is a succession of choices. Some are monumental, towering over your life like a skyscraper in a campsite. Others are colossal but take a little digging to find, most of their bulk lurks under the surface. Then there are the small, everyday, apparently run-of-the-mill choices which we make all of the time. Many of these barely cause a flicker of concern, so habitual are the decisions. Yet the sum total of all of these leads us to where we stand today. Granted, at some points the options may seem so heavily weighted to one side or the other as to give the appearance of no choice but, just because...