Recursive Words

The life and times of a work-from-home software and web developer as he fights a house, four women, two cats, idiocy, apathy and procrastination on an almost daily basis.

Category: life

  • Old friends and unread books

    I can never quite decide if “having a quiet weekend” is missing out on opportunities to be here, there, and everywhere, or if stepping away from the mayhem is somehow more valuable. I know people talk about “investing in yourself”, but it can easily get to the point where you’ve not seen anybody for weeks…

  • Fake it till you make it

    After travelling north with several co-workers this morning, we arrived at our destination and temporary home for the next few days – a typical corporate hotel nestled in the countryside. I always find corporate hotels a bit soul-less. This one is clean, tidy, functional… but it’s not the sort of place you would stay while…

  • Preparing to Travel

    I have to get up sensibly early tomorrow – to meet at a co-worker’s house ahead of a fairly long journey “up country”. Everybody vaguely technical in the company I work for is travelling to a hotel for a couple of days – a tech conference “of the staff, for the staff” – or something…

  • Midnight Again

    I’m sitting in the dark of the junk room late on Sunday night, listening to Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s album “Who Believes in Angels”. When I first heard it, I wasn’t sure – but then over the days, weeks and months since it’s release, it has grown on me. I love it when music…

  • In search of the time thieves

    Somehow it’s half past midnight – or “half past my bedtime”, as my middle daughter might have said when she was young. I’m not really sure how the universe works any more – maybe I never really knew. At the end of each day I finish work, switch off my work laptop, and before I…

  • Kind of like an exhale

    A little while ago – after receiving feedback that subscribers to my blog weren’t altogether happy with Substack marketing things at them I tried switching it to Ghost. It seemed like a good idea at the time – building my own castle on the internet. My house, my content, my rules. The interesting thing? As…

  • Eurovision

    I’m not really sure when we started watching Eurovision. It’s become a “thing” that we do each year – setting the evening aside with a few drinks and some food to enjoy the various countries performances. I’ve had to describe “Eurovision” to a few friends in the US over the years, and it’s been difficult…

  • We know how to spend our Friday nights

    I answered an SOS call on Friday morning from a neighbour. Their internet was being “a bit rubbish” (their words), so rather than headbang the wall for several days answering support emails before summoning an engineer from wherever internet service providers hide engineers, they sent me a message. I picked up the nearest computer –…

  • Everything all the time

    Do you ever have those moments where you look away, and several days pass? I’m trying to remember what on earth I’ve been doing all week – obviously such important things that I didn’t get as far as writing anything in the blog. I keep meaning to take lunch breaks to either go for a…

  • Homeward Bound

    After waking a little after 8am this morning, and packing our belongings into the back of the car, we took a final stroll into our temporary home. Along the way we happened upon quite the most spectacular bookshop you can possibly imagine (the photos are on Instagram), and then fed our faces with poached eggs…

  • A walk along the river Wye

    After waking a little after 8 this morning I performed the inevitable gymnastics around the holiday cottage to have a shower and shave without punching windows, or drop-kicking deodorant cans, toothbrushes, or toilet rolls around the rooms like ping-pong balls. Once downstairs – miraculously in one piece and with no damage to the cottage –…

  • This world wasnt designed for me

    I woke a little after 8 this morning in the grip of the memory foam matress that had mysteriously absorbed my body during the night – forming an odd blacmange mould of my entire frame. After extracating myself from it’s marsh-mallow embrace, and tip-toeing clumsily into the bathroom, I wrestled with a shower cubicle so…