This section of my website is a dumping ground for stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere else. To be honest, I look back at some of the content in this section, and I have no idea why I thought the world needed to know about it. Oh well…
The Ghost of Youth Clubs Past: Remembering the Nicholians of Ipswich
Do you remember the Nicholians Youth Club?¹ For many who grew up in the Old Stoke area of Ipswich, this name will conjure a flood of memories. Tucked away on Station Street, it was more than just a building; it was a hub of youthful energy, a place where friendships were forged and memories were…
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The Steam Packet Inn – Ipswich
🏛️ Historical Investigation The Steam Packet Inn Duke Street, Ipswich, Suffolk A comprehensive investigation into the historical claims surrounding this Grade II listed building, definitively proving its 200+ year heritage as a licensed public house. 📍 2-4 Duke Street, Ipswich 📅 1765 – 1960 🏛️ Grade II Listed 🎯 Investigation Conclusion The overwhelming evidence from…
Steve Acne’s Life as a Milkman in Malfeasanceton
I recently found a plastic bag that contained almost all of the assignments I created when studying for a BTEC ND in Health Studies at Suffolk College between 1993 and 1996. Most of it was uninteresting, but I quite liked this little chunk of text. Steve Acne is a fictional character written as a response…
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Pyjama man, indiscriminate unlabelled knobs, polystyrene logs and a foggy island in the desert
I stumbled across this text when going through the archives of my zine Beat Motel. I wrote this in January 2008 (I think). I recognise the story of getting stuck in an NCP Car Park as something I refined and published at the time. I’m dumping thee rest of the text here so I don’t…
World of Goan column
Originally published in Beat Motel issue 7, back when I didn’t understand writing with brevity of vocabulary, and I was in my late 20s so probably thought I had life sussed out. I have recently noticed that several columns in zineworld appear to be nothing more than a series of brash statements back up by…
Off the Rails with Trainman
I really don’t know where to place this on my website. It was originally published in Beat Motel issue 7. Beat Motel wasn’t just a music zine, we published columns about many different topics. This column was written by a friend called Ian Bareham who I met when running my record shop (Know Your Product).…
Straight Outta Clopton
Spotted on a visit to Summer Isle Studios in Clopton Suffolk. It was designed by a popular coffee shop in Clopton called First Coffee, they are selling this design on a tee shirt in their online store here – https://welcometofirst.co.uk/products/straight-outta-clopton-tee-1 Clopton? Clopton is one of those curious places in the south of England that probably wouldn’t…
Avi’s Suffolk Bagels!
My mate Avi Kniznik has started a proper bagel bakery right here in Suffolk. Avi was born in Toronto and grew up there, but moved to the UK when he was in his twenties. He lived next door to me for many years and was always into baking and cooking. I was fortunate enough to…
One of the worst jobs I’ve ever had
Many years ago I used to work in the grain lab at a large company who shall remain nameless (they’re near Woodbridge). I was a temporary worker each summer, for about four months during the harvest. It was my job to climb onto the trucks and take samples and whatnot. That bit was okay. When…
CCTV Footage of theft of a catalytic converter from a Toyota Prius in Ipswich
Life is good, but sometimes a little more challenging than at other times. This video shows the catalytic converter being stolen from my car. At 7.20pm on the night of Wednesday the 2nd October 2019. It took around two minutes. Pending any insurance payout this has cost me £520 and two days of a lot…
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Brexit timeline – the animated meme thing
Brexit is here. Whether any of us actually wanted it or not, it is here. While I appreciate that for the rest of the world Brexit isn’t a big deal, it has dominated the media here in the UK for the past two or three years. Regardless of whether people actually want the UK to…
Death of drawing, Sutton Hoo & the Worrier King
This post was originally published on my Crud Dad blog on 5th September 2017 When I was a kid I loved drawing. I know that’s hardly unique, in fact I doubt there’s a child on this planet who doesn’t enjoy drawing. Perhaps this drive to draw is part of our natural development as humans. Learning…
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Vinegar and Bicarbonate of Soda Rocket Failure
This post was originally posted on my Crud Dad blog on 3rd September 2017 Vinegar and Bicarbonate of Soda explosion One of the activities my daughter and I both get a kick out of is science experiments. Sometimes we try simple experiments to satisfy her curiosity. What happens if you pour hot water on ice.…
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The 5 stages of school run grief
This post was originally published on my Crud Dad blog on 17th January 2017 I had no idea the school run each morning would cause us so much grief. Getting the girl to nursery on time wasn’t nearly as stressful as getting her to school on time is. If we were late for nursery it…
My 5yr old’s first mixed-media artistic statement
This post was originally published on my CrudDad blog on 13th December 2016 I’ve been making music for most of my life and ever since my daughter was born music has been a large part of her life. Whether she wanted it to be or not. We have hi-fi speakers in every room of the…
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Smash Cakes are great!
This post was originally posted to my Crud Dad blog on 15th June 2016 Now, you might be wondering what a Smash Cake is. And, to be honest, I’d never heard of them until a few years ago. Well before I had a child of my own, I was visiting a friend in the States…
Glenn the Pine Marten, age 51, from Stockport
This is Glenn. He is a Pine Marten. Glenn the Pine Marten has worked very hard to get where he is today. Glenn has strong opinions about how much time teenagers spend staring at screens. Glenn is a systems analyst and spends ten hours a day analysing systems on a big computer monitor. Glenn is…
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Goffy the Seagull, age 57, from Coventry
This is Goffy the Seagull, he is from Coventry. Goffy was just ten years old when his cousin Patrick snuck him into The Heath Hotel, in Coventry, to watch The Specials. The Specials had not played in public before and Goffy wanted to see them because at age ten he wanted to be a policeman.…
My Christmas gift this year was someone driving into my parked car. Again.
My Christmas treat this year was to have someone drive into my parked car last night. No details left. This is the fourth or fifth time my car has been damaged in this way outside my house. Two previous cars have been written off while parked outside my house. All vehicles I owned have been…
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The first forty years of me!
Somewhat to my astonishment today marks the completion of my first forty years on planet earth! I’ve never really thought about how I would feel at forty years old, partly because I try and live in the present but also because it always seemed quite far away. I feel very blessed to have the friends…
Werrington Skatepark – Peterborough
Werrington Skatepark in Peterborough. Weird colour cast courtesy of Instagram Warrington wa-hoo! When I found out there was a twin bowl skatepark near my in-law’s house in Peterborough the question wasn’t if I would skate it, but when. Like a lot of skateparks I’ve visited recently I couldn’t find any reliable information online to tell…
Felixstowe Skatepark – there will be blood
Felixstowe Skatepark Skateparks in Suffolk are great, so is Felixstowe, usually… This morning’s father / daughter skatepark adventure lasted 11 seconds. We arrived at Felixstowe skatepark with the place to ourselves, she promptly fell off her scooter and landed on a bit of glass that cut the palm of her hand. We cleaned up in…
Bypass SEO & put your website at the TOP of the Google results
You may detect a faint whiff of ‘clickbait’ in the title of this blog post, but you’d be wrong. A few days ago I was a guest on Elene Marsden’s great ‘Hangouts 4 Business‘ show, and I decided to reveal details of a project I’ve been working on with some of my long-term clients –…
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Why you should give away all your trade secrets
A client of mine recently asked whether they should mention some of the software they use on a daily basis in a blog post. This client is one of my blog-mentoring customers so I gave the question some serious thought. Should this client reveal to his competitors what systems give him the edge he has…
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Wisdom tooth – your reign of oppression is over, thanks to a good dentist.
This post is possibly not for the squeamish, in fact if you are a bit delicate then I’d recommend against scrolling down as there are some photos of teeth you might not enjoy. I even got a neat little presentation case! A couple of years ago the mystery of why my gums and the insides of my…
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Backing tracks – are they always bad?
Backing Tracks are an interesting topic for me as a ‘live musician’. Unlike some musicians I have mixed feelings on the use of backing tracks. I think if you have paid to see an artist who claims to play entirely live then there should be no backing tracks, but if you’re going to see a…