Hello - I'm back. I was going to launch into this year with a review of last year and resolutions for 2026. However, since last year was a bad one for a variety of reasons, and this year really hasn't started well, I've decided to skip over the whole ruminating on the year just past and focus instead on the small pleasures in life - namely, books.

In the Beforetimes, I used to diligently log every book I read on Goodreads, setting a goal every year and giving each one a star rating from 1 to 5. Then Covid happened, I was no longer commuting into work every day and everything changed. In many ways, those days feel like a bad dream. I am back working in the office every day and have been now for two and a half years; people are hacking and spluttering and spreading their germs around on the train every day, and no one cares any more about wearing masks and social distancing.

I have written previously on this blog about my aversion to exercise, and how much I hated PE in school. Then the pandemic put everyone in lockdown in 2020, and during that time I realised that I actually missed swimming. Ever since the pools reopened, in July of that year, I've been making a point of swimming regularly. I try to go three times a week - twice early in the morning before work, and once on Sunday morning.

Thanks for visiting my fundraising page. I’m going to be doing the Swim 10k Challenge this March to help raise money for Cancer Research UK. I've lost several people in my life to cancer, and many oth...

I knew this site had been neglected for a while. Coming back to it I was a bit dismayed to discover the last post was nearly two years ago. The last couple of years have been a bit difficult for a variety of reasons, and the writing really hasn't been happening. In fact there got to a point when I thought I could no longer call myself a writer.