Monthly Archives: May 2012

Culture clashes: no wonder we struggle to get along

On the tube this morning I sat opposite Suleman, a young moslem dressed head to toe in white who smiled, said hello and with whom I exchanged a few words. Nice guy, on first impressions. Two stops later, a girl got on. Very short skirt. Stars and stripes t-shirt. Superficially, the polar opposite to him. [...]

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I usually feel like the least important person in whichever room I happen to be in

I usually feel like the least important person in whichever room I happen to be in. While I am out pushing myself to create work that I feel strongly about, I often find myself apologising for the fact that it isn’t 50 times better than it is. I love my novel and believe the one [...]

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The angry cat and the happiness engine

I’m really not getting along with next door’s cat. Or to be precise the cat from the flat across the hallway for which the roof of the building is a playground, and who apparently has decided that the open skylight in my bathroom is an open invitation to come in and party. Except that he [...]

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And then there’s the other 99 percent

In a manner of speaking, I am the 99%. In financial terms, I certainly am, considering the ranks of the super-wealthy who make up the 1% everyone is complaining about. Considering the harbour in Monaco that made such a sensational backdrop to the qualifying session of this weekend’s Formula One Grand Prix earlier this afternoon. [...]

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The more I do, the more I slip behind …

If I had to pinpoint the one thing in my life that causes the most stress, it’s the often near-idiotic number of tasks I have on my hands at any one  time. It’s not that they keep me busy that causes me to stress; It’s that I know that I am never going to be [...]

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I’m way better on twitter than I am at parties

Someone I know posted a spoiler alert on twitter this morning saying that if you don’t want to know the winner of South African Idol, “close twitter now as the name is all over the place”. Except that it wasn’t. Not on my timeline anyway. Not one person that I follow had anything to say [...]

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Your evolution vs. theirs: all that really matters is you

One of the biggest reasons relationships change is the uneven pace and direction of growth of the individuals involved. And one of the biggest sins I can think of is to limit your own growth to suit a current relationship. It’s a rare thing when you meet up with an old friend after a long [...]

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There are those who can help you out and there are those who actually will

You can slice the world up into groups of two using all sorts of criteria, but most of those are bullshit because they’re almost always heavily nuanced. For instance, there is a difference between men and women, but most of those differences are unhelpful at best, irrelevant at worst. There is a stark difference between [...]

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Keeping up when the baseline keeps shifting

Young people today don’t get it. I don’t even feel old saying that. They don’t. That is to say, they don’t get what I get. My parents felt the same way about me, no doubt, and I’m sure their parents felt that way about them. I learned recently that something like 70% of English children [...]

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It’s the RIGHT NOW that needs attention

We’re a pretty future-focused bunch. Unless you’re a real pessimist, the chances are you’ve got at least one eye on a glowing future in which you’ll achieve all sorts of wonderful things in life and love and your career and everywhere else. But as anyone in their 40s with a load of stop-start career choices, [...]

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