Don’t Go To The Gym

This is it. The year where you finally get in shape. You’ve got those lovely new Gym Shark sweats, you’ve found that gym around the corner, the bank card is ready to sign up to that Direct Debit. You want to shift that extra weight you’ve been carrying, and you’ve signed up to that HIIT […]

The Bar is Pretty Low

In the era of self-esteem, you somehow feel like hell most of the time but all you hear is the mantra of the day: ‘you’re doing great, hun’. The reality is that you probably aren’t, you feel some combination of bored, anxious or tired, you probably don’t know why, and deep down you know being […]

How I Lose To the Internet

Scattered. No sense of focus. Persistent mind fog. The internet is winning. Another vacuous tweet I’ve barely given attention to before I’m onto the next. Just one more go on that pathetic block game or capital city memory game I’m playing. Forgettable videos I won’t recall watching in a week’s time. Thoughtless, idle scrolling and […]

Citizen Starmer: The Quiet Man Cometh

The culture war rages, the country is recovering from the largest pandemic of our lifetime, and there is a run on the pound – meanwhile, some commentators are pontificating about whether Keir Starmer is somewhat ‘boring’: Starmer is seen as “decent” […]. The flipside is he can come across as a bit dull. […] there […]

Question Buckaroo

A few years ago I went through a phase of playing a game I called ‘Question Buckaroo’. I imagine you’ll be familiar with the Hasbro namesake – a game where you take turns loading up a spring loaded donkey, until it eventually bucks up its front legs, kicking off the accumulated items. My version was […]

‘On Wednesdays, we hate Jordan Peterson.’

Spit-Gate, LaBeouf leaked texts, and reported feuds aside, some of you may have also seen comments about Jordan Peterson from Olivia Wilde amongst the hot-mess that is the promotional tour for Don’t Worry Darling. The comments typify many depictions of Peterson from aspects of the left: WILDE: We based [Chris Pine’s character] on this insane […]

Have a Day Off

I’ve not been on social media over the past week. Took a break as part of that running battle we all have against those often annoying and occasionally horrifying Monday morning screen-time notifications. Reset boundaries, form good habits, all those present-day clichés. But this blog isn’t about my habits or me. This week we also, […]

Shotgun 30s

There were always those guys at school who looked 45 at the age of 15. Those Rooney breed of boys who looked like they could grow a full beard before they’d even kissed a girl. The appearance of advanced years was particularly useful in getting drinks and into clubs underage, if less so for their […]

Men Are Not A Monolith

I’ve seen many a post along the lines of ‘Men need to talk about X’, ‘Why are Men not speaking out more about Y?’ or even ‘He’s a 10 but he hasn’t posted about Z.’ Men. Grouped together. As if we were a homogonous block. As if there were a club where we all get […]

The Beauty of a Good Bet

‘One whole year. You won’t go to Snobs for one whole year.’ ‘Bet.’ It hurt me, but I had to take the bet, I had to back my claim. I’m aware most people reading this blog will be familiar with Snobs, but for the uninitiated, Snobs was a pillar of Birmingham nightlife for decades. I’m […]