I’ve found that I’m pretty good at guessing the year a song was released - as long as that year was in the 80s. I’m not too bad at the 60s and 70s, even though I wasn’t born until 1975. I struggle a bit with the 90s. Those were my drinking and sailing years, so it’s all a bit of a blur (no pun … read more

I woke up this morning with a feeling of dread. For once, it was nothing to do with my health problems. No, I quickly remembered that today is Inauguration Day for President Trump. What will we have in store for this term? He is an agent of chaos. Completely unpredictable. Anything can happen. I can … read more

Lauren has finally spread her wings and left the nest. I suppose these days a child leaving home at the age of 23 is pretty common, if not early. The housing crisis means adults are often still living with their parents into their 30s. Last week, we helped her move into her new place in London. She … read more

When I settled in to watch Steve McQueen’s latest film Blitz, I expected a stirring and dramatic portrayal of the resilience of Londoners under sustained Nazi bombing. Instead, I was served a two-hour lecture on race relations—a clunky, heavy-handed, and, frankly, badly executed one at that. I … read more

I get the feeling that my fellow Brits just accept the current status of mobile network coverage as normal. It’s not. Any British expat who lives in a western country and comes back will be shocked. In fact, any Brit living here only needs to travel abroad on a short trip to realise how bad our … read more

HMS Duncan. This image photographed by Brian Burnell with permission was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by George Hutchinson. What is the strategy to re-open the Red Sea to all commercial shipping? Operation Prosperity Guardian - the US-led coalition that aims to provide maritime security in the … read more

The social media platform BlueSky reckons 4 million new users have come over from X (Twitter) since Trump got re-elected. I’ve had an account on BlueSky for a while but only check it sporadically. I try to limit my social media consumption, and X remains the best platform for my relevant … read more

I received some good news this week. The first full bone marrow biopsy results have finally come back following the CAR-T infusion, and it’s Minimum Residual Disease (MRD) negative. It doesn’t mean I’m cured but it supposedly makes it less likely that I’ll relapse any time soon. The CAR-T seems to … read more

I recently finished reading: Elon Musk the authorised biography by Walter Isaacson 📚, who also wrote the authorised biography of Steve Jobs shortly before he died. I mention it because there are some clear similarities between Elon Musk and Steve Jobs, which I’m sure is not news to anyone. … read more

I was hoping my next blog post would be a bit more positive. In fact, I wasn’t even going to write this but I’ve now had some time to come to terms with things, so here’s where I am. Life continues to lay dog turds in my path. Things were going well. I was 160 days post transplant … read more

Last week I reached another milestone - 100 days post-transplant. If all goes well, this is typically the time when I can come off the immuno-suppressing drugs, reduce other drugs, and start mixing with people again. I’m happy to say that things have mostly gone well. Thanks to Nurse Ratched … read more

Initial thoughts after watching this for the first time: Clearly a great film in the cannon of Christopher Nolan’s catalogue. However, it didn’t need to be 3 hrs long. The film peaked at the Trinity Test, and then went into a courtroom drama for the last hour. This was interesting but in no way met … read more

I’ve just completed four weeks in isolation. My last update was the day before transplant day after undergoing a week of conditioning chemo. Transplant Day I was surprisingly calm the morning of transplant day. I put on my Unwind playlist and listened to some calming music. Rach, Lauren and my … read more

I started this blog in 2006. I used to blog quite a lot, but then Facebook, Twitter, etc took over the world and I got swept up in social media like most people. I then got disillusioned. First with Facebook after all the drip, drip, drip of revelations about privacy breaches, election interference, … read more

What’s the connection between In Bruges and About Time? Yeah, that’s an easy one.

The Gleeson family have a hand in two of my favourite movies. Long may their work continue.

Here we go. Tomorrow is the big day. This week has been about undergoing conditioning chemo to prepare my body for the transplant. Most people hear the word transplant and think it involves surgery. In the case of blood cancers it’s simply a blood transfusion. I say ‘simply’, … read more

This is a great take on AI.

Things are changing quickly and there’s plenty of talk of a job apocalypse. Maybe it’s further out than we think.

I once spent some time with Prince Charles (as he was then) and we had a good chat over a beer or two. Not on my own of course. He came onboard one of the ships I was on and a bunch of us got invited to meet him. I struggle to recall the year or even which ship it was. Much of it is a blur. I do … read more

I’m back in the UK and the bone marrow transplant is happening. My last post was about 2 months into chemo. Since then, it has continued to be a roller coaster. I ended up having 6 cycles of chemo and spent 5 months in hospital (so far). We made the flights that we originally booked and … read more

I thought it was kidney stones again. I've been plagued with them over the years and thought they were back. For 2 weeks I'd been suffering back and shoulder pains. At first I thought it was just posture pain from spending too much time at my computer. I was between contracts and using the time to … read more