28 Dec 2015: Someone likes Christmas!

28 Nov 2015: The football hooligan...

03 Nov 2015: It's tough being a dog in my house...

31 Oct 2015: The spaniel and his daddy, above Lake Windemere.

A brave spaniel venturing into the dark forest...

Twilight in Cartmell Fell

23 September 2015: Mum, center at Jean and Tippy's wedding, 1938.

20 September 2015: Quick visit to saw goodbye to mum, got her to hospital, met the family again, and then back on the plane... In Amsterdam and leaving SA, with Leanne Onions, Jessica Onions and Brandon Williams.

My KLM flight was cancelled the day before, spent half the day trying to find someone useful, took KLM 7 days to answer my FB message, and finally got through to a really helpful person (Nathaniel Chetty) who booked me on the next flight.

31 August 2015: A bit of budget DIY...

18 August 2015: Oscar!

01 August 2015: Summertime swim for Oscar!

26 July 2015: Sold the starship today. Beautiful drive, fun, goes like a rocket, but not spaniel- friendly!

19 July 2015: Oscar climbs Pen-y-Ghent, again. He's very curious about sheep, so this was the only bit where he was off his lead

20 June 2016: The Vegan Food Festival last week. Not much there for Oscar I'm afraid! And someone had a sense of humour designing the balustrades in the Leeds Art Gallery.

19 Jun 2015: Yesterday's company outing in aid of Tickled Pink Cancer Charity! The 3 Peaks, a gentle 40kms stroll from Horton-in-Ribblesdale and ascending the mountains of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough. My feet are covered in blisters, but the little muppet fared much better and is bright eyed and bushy-tailed today.

0. Pre-walk, with Oscar.
1. From the top of Pen-y-ghent.
2. Colleagues descending Pen-y-Ghent... Chris, Pardip, Alex and Alex.
3. Pen-y-ghent is the mountain on the middle horizon, Ribblehead viaduct in the valley middle to right, and here Oscar is two thirds of the way up the Whernside.
4. Go away - it's too early for walkies! This was Oscar the next morning :(

04 May 2015: Following an amazing journey of discovery, this little trinket has returned to daylight after its owners spent their holiday sifting through spaniel poo.

Stuart Godwin: Jewellery 5k. Spaniel poo priceless

02 May 2016: The cake, the tiara? I think the office are trying to tell me something!
Thanks to my colleagues at work for the birthday cake....

18 Apr 2015: Doing VAT and listening to some 'oldies'. Suzanne Vega's heart in Luka, Left of Center and Solitude Standing. Mariann Faithfull's simple and powerful Ballad of Lucy Jordan and Broken English.

08 Apr 2015: Welcome home dad! Now, about those two pairs of walking shoes you left in the kitchen...

02 April 2015: Someone wants a bit of fish and chips for his dinner...

Edward Ions: Great coat. Happy dog!

29 March 2015: The hidden cost of a new job... dogwalking at £10 per hour!

28 March 2015: Regarding the article by Tom Nichols (2014):

"There’s also that immutable problem known as “human nature.” It has a name now: it’s called the Dunning-Kruger effect, which says, in sum, that the dumber you are, the more confident you are that you’re not actually dumb. And when you get invested in being aggressively dumb…well, the last thing you want to encounter are experts who disagree with you, and so you dismiss them in order to maintain your unreasonably high opinion of yourself."

These articles should be mandatory reading for all students, irrespective of level:

http://thefederalist.com/2014/01/17/the-death-of-expertise/
http://theconversation.com/no-youre-not-entitled-to-your-opinion-9978

25 March 2015: Did a double-take when I saw this barge moored up in Rodley today...

Stuart Godwin: classic
Lynette Cousins: Good one
Patricia Howcroft Kiralfy: Love it

22 March 2015: Apparently spaniels like water and birds... ...little Oscar is quite proud of himself after chasing ducks!

14 March 2015: You know you have a friend when they visit your mum on her birthday when you cannot... with Andre and Lucienne Labuschagné.

12 March 2015: Ah, found it.... Anthony, your t-shirt!

12 March 2015: Nice day in Rodley yesterday, so yours truly had to take the little rat out for a walk along the river.

08 March 2015: Oscar has been learning new tricks today...
This is the face you get when the lead comes out.

08 March 2015: A chilly dip with some new friends at Swinsty Reservoir...

Sometimes the simplest things are the most fun. Like a stick!

06 March 2015: Just finished watching Adam Curtis' film 'Bitter Lake'. It's really worth watching.

Understanding the Middle East will never be easy, and this film doesn't engage with big issues like the Shia-Sunni divide, al-Assad's cosy relationship with the Russians, Deobandi or even Pakistan's involvement. But it does put forward a strong argument that current events can be traced back to Theodore Roosevelt's meeting with the Saudi King at the end of World War 2 on Bitter Lake.

02 March 2016: Millie, the neighbour's cat, teaching the dog manners... ...poor thing hasn't met a spaniel before!

17 February 2015: Spent 45 minutes discovering that IE and Firefox have a very different opinion about what to do with "width: inherit;"

16 February 2015: Mental gearshift tonight.

Listening to the 80s, PhD (Little Suzy's on the Up, War Years, I Won't Let you Down) and Jean-Michel Jarre (and remembering his concert at Sun City in 1990s with Charmaine... what a spectacle!)

Oh, and writing code

11 February 2015: Finally finished the loft. Not pro, but it is just for storage and only cost £300 in DIY materials.

08 February 2015: Oscar's first day at the beach, at Formby... ....happiest dog in the world.

Edward: Water pooch! Such fun.
Jessica: Oscar is terribly cute !

08 February 2015: The Lancashire coast, Formby and Fleetwood.

25 January 2015: Little Oscar looking out the window... "Where's mummy?"

24 January 2015: In the woods with the little rat

20 Jan 2015: Oscar in full flight - mad as a brush!

Happy little soul, loves to play :)

Stuart: great shot