Category Archives: Personal

Weather with you

Even before we moved to Gravesend, we knew of its “dodgy thermometer” from the weather forecasts on TV and radio. Gravesend was consistently the warmest place in the country, bucking the nation’s trends by a degree Celsius or two. In … Continue reading

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Back in the USSR

Last time I was here, I made a comment about how I hoped things were going to get less busy. Yeah… that didn’t work out too well. Since January, I have been on six overseas work trips. The most recent … Continue reading

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Hard Day’s Night

Last year was mental. Back in December 2015, with about about 10 days’ notice, a colleague and I flew to Orlando on a Sunday lunchtime, ran a meeting Monday morning, and flew home Monday night. That was just the start. … Continue reading

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On legends

For most of my first 17 years I lived on, or very close to, one of a number of airbases in England and Germany. Just about every day was airshow day, at least for a somewhat limited and specialist class … Continue reading

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On starting small

We’re still here. No need to send a search party… yet.

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On remembrance

Thirty years ago—plus or minus a week—I visited Berlin for the first time. It was a school trip, organized by our physics teacher. We rode a train from Braunschweig to Helmstedt, where we picked up an East German engine and … Continue reading

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My iron lung (redux)

The is a modified version of a couple of posts that originally appeared in December 2006 on ‘Life of a lab rat’, my blog at the University of Sydney. Which is now sadly defunct. It’s not what you know, it … Continue reading

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Caption competition

Go on. You know you want to.

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Guns + ammunition

Just after I started shooting I was listening to a couple of the old(er) timers bitching about their recent poor performance. One of them blamed the ammunition they were using. The other pointed out that while shooters often blame the … Continue reading

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Joshua fit the battle of Jericho

I am typing this slowly, with one hand. I do of course already have two lovely daughters, but welcoming Joshua—their half-brother—into the world wasn’t any less special. And the original Pawn, Rachel, seems equally thrilled.

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