Category: Family

Fray Cafe: The Greatest Horror Story Ever Written

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To answer the most popular question on the night, “yes, it is real.” Here’s the Amazon link for The Secret Room It’s not often that I put up video of my stage performances online (I rarely mention them, truth be told), but Fray Cafe at SXSW every year is something that I look forward to. It’s a chance to tell a real story, and I spend time thinking about what I can do. This year was a bit more light-hearted, as I decided to talk about one of the stories that my daughters read at school. It’s the greatest horror

Memories of the Greatest Ship in the Galaxy

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Over the weekend at my parents for my Mum’s birthday and something I;ve been waiting to do for some time… get the big box of Lego down from the loft for my daughters to explore. And yes I might have joined in a little bit. Like many Lego fans of my age, there was only one Lego model that has pride of place. Model number 928, the Galaxy Explorer. The one with space for a lunar buggy in the back. Now this tub of Lego has many sets all mixed in, and I’ve no idea where the folder of instructions

Akoha and Fighting For The Personal Touch Online

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Have we lost the Human factor online (and no I’m not talking about the Evil of the Daleks, but if anyone in Zimbabwe would care to look for the tapes…)? Two discrete data points today and an experience from my time in the US leads me to think that the next big change online could not be in how we relate to data, but how we relate to people. The first point, and one I can link to, is CC Chapman asking where all the personal blog posts have gone: I’ve had to change how I blog a little bit.

Happy Hogmanay From Scotland

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Edinburgh is rightly world famous for its Hogmanay celebrations to see in the New Year. Lots of people (mostly ex-pats) have asked me if I was heading into town for The Bells. Actually I did that years ago many times; now I just stand in the living room window, with a view of the Castle and the fireworks in something that wasn’t approaching freeing. So if you want to share the fireworks, then bring a 16 year old malt next year. But for now, this is what you missed…   Sláinte!

Eurovision Halloween Special

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Halloween today, and to ‘celebrate’ most of the local primary school/nursery got dressed up and invited the parents into the school for the school breakfast mornings that happen reasonably regularly. So this morning was time for a last minute, super quick, costume. And being Halloween, it has to be something genuinely scary. Oh and not a witch, because the school was going to be full of them. Some lateral thinking was needed… Is that a frightening vision? Me hosting Eurovision? For some reason the rest of the school thought so – naturally I disagree. I wonder what Svante Stockselius thinks…

Sponsor Vikki’s Driving Day for The Fire Fighters Charity

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Vikki’s asked me to cross-post this from her Facebook Wall… My dad was a fire fighter, and while he was lucky enough to only suffer minor injuries in his 25+ years of service, he knew of many others who were more seriously injured. This Sunday I’ll be taking part in a driving challenge (ok, a Ladies’ Driving Challenge, but I’m no lady!) to raise funds to help support The Fire Fighters Charity. For information on the charity and the driving day and to sponsor me, go to http://www.justgiving.com/vikkidriving – go on, you know you want to! Remember to GiftAid it