5,000 Apologies
(Written with the permission of my daughter). Until my daughter’s recent diagnosis of Coeliac disease, with the strict gluten-free diet she now observes improving her life immeasurably, for almost every [...]
Getting Colder
North Yorkshire’s sudden slide into winter destroys my mood like nothing else. Turning the heating on today - when just a few days ago it was sunbathing weather - [...]
El Dueno (the owner) and Strangeways
It’s 8pm - vino-o-clock! – here in Puerto De La Cruz, Tenerife. I’m doing something most un-Spanish: dining solo. Sitting here on the veranda of a locals’ restaurant, near to [...]
Genes and dogs
Slowly, step by step, I am walking up Casterton Fell in North Yorkshire. My son is somewhere ahead of me. My wife and daughter are – surprisingly – somewhere behind. [...]
Just Your Typical First Day as a Lawyer
After years of studying, travelling and bumming around, I finally started my job as a trainee lawyer on Monday 15th August 2005. The workday went well. That evening, full [...]
Ich bin ein Berliner
I’m in Berlin. Rather, we – the family Gray - are here, in Berlin, at the end of our six-day holiday. We chose Germany because both sides of our family [...]
Our Chicken
Here is our chicken: RIP, Ms Chicken. I think she was called "Ruby". Ruby was 10 years old. She had seen off all the other chickens, and all the neighbourhood [...]
Seven Lessons Learned from the Great Fire of Lincolnshire
I’ve spent the last few days in the burned-out remains of my in-laws’ farmstead, in rural Lincolnshire. Fortunately, both survived the fire unscathed, as did most of their animals. This [...]
What have we done?
It's 4:30pm on Thursday 27 April 2023. I am walking across the vast expanse of The Stray, in Harrogate. The temperature is around 10 degrees. No rain. My dog is [...]
Money
I’m typing, 36,000ft in the air, on my return flight from Milan to Gatwick. Guess how much my flight cost, just for me, without a bag? £12. Two hours, plus [...]
