Accidental House Life

I consider myself smarter than the average bear. I don't mean Einstein levels of intelligence or that I could have gone toe to toe with Professor Hawking, but I can tie my own shoe laces and I left education with some very acceptable achievements. So trust me when I say this, what follows may hurt, and even though this is only my version of it, sometimes the truth does. I believe most people, with space in their head for thought will agree, the world is not as good as it should be. Climate change (yes it is real) is playing havoc across the globe, murders occur in the name of religious ideology (known in my house as "my god is better than your god" syndrome), school children are killed. It appears weekly, because Americans appear to be so afraid of ' something'.  They all need and want weapons of death, and no democracy in the world actual appears to listen to the will of the people. So, all pretty crappy I'm sure you'll agree. Now, I know there is good

One of the joys of getting older is watching the generations below puff out their chests, act as though they are the first to discover the wheel, and watch them deflate as an elderly has-been points out it's all been done before. You know the kind of thing, when my generation thought Thursday was the new Friday only for our parents to show old posters proclaiming the exact same thing, when the generation below think they've invented some new fashion until they see old photographs (I know, how old am I, photographs?) of what we used to wear. Well today while eating lunch, I was catching up with the political day on the radio (told you it would be different), I had one of those glorious moments. I adore politics, it was my second favourite lesson at college (Economics first, in case you were wondering) and something I keep regularly up to date with. Whether it be local issues involving housing and libraries, national debates regarding immigration and education or global events

Two golden rules to writing a blog. 1. Don't write about your politics. 2. Don't write about religion. These were the two thoughts I have always carried in my mind as I made a forlorn attempt to create a popular and widely read blog. Through this time I've voted in elections, made my opinion on Brexit known only to the ballot box and sat through countless school assemblies and Nativity plays without ever encroaching on these two rules. Well, I've suffered from writers block for over 2 months now and I've finally realised why. By editing myself, censoring even, my brain has given up thinking interesting thoughts whilst stood in front of the laptop. Every time I thought of something I'd like to put on the screen I've stopped. I've stopped, censored and edited and realised that what was about to be written I didn't want to put my name to. I began to concern myself with what people would think, what they would say. If they were offended would they

I cleaned the fridge today. Opened the door, thought "you could be cleaner" and cleaned it. Yesterday I wrote a timetable to better organise my time, not necessarily to be more productive, just to feel more in control. Then on Friday I had a drink. Nothing big in that you may think, most adults and parents have a drink on the weekend, but I'm not a regular "at home" drinker, I just felt like one so I had one. This may appear to be a ramble of a writer still suffering writers block but I have a point. I get in my own way. "What?" you may ask "You get in my own way! Has accidental house dad finally lost it? Has 8 and half years of child speak, laundry, shopping and cleaning finally got to him?" Well maybe, but hear me out. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling as though I've under-achieved with my life, a feeling coupled with a frustration with where my life is at, where I want it to be and with no clue of how to get there. I feeli

Anger. That's what I'm feeling right now. Nothing but anger. For those of you who read this blog and employ people you may want to read this post twice. For those of you who are employed, please read and feel the anger of hundreds and thousands of people like me. For those of you who are like me, scream. No matter where you are, scream, you're allowed to, there's no law against it, just do it, you deserve it. In case you're not there yet, my anger is due to my employment status and that feeling that the whole world is against me. Interviews since September, lots. Down to the final few, lots minus 1, job offers, zero, zilch, nada, none, sweet FA. You know this, dear reader, I've written about it before, you also no my feelings on the word "experience" I just wish employers knew the meaning of the word. Honestly, ask any stay at home parent what "experience" they have for any role and take 10 steps back so you don't get caught in the blas

I decided to write a list. I'm male, I love lists. In fact I could write a list of all the reasons I love lists but that only leads to smaller sub lists and eventually madness. This is a list of the things that make me happy. Those aspects of life that create a smile, a warm fuzzy feeling, a genuine laugh or just make everything seem worthwhile. I need this list to create a barometer against which I can judge other aspects of my life. This is a continuation of my well being theme as a thought occurred to me late last night. Currently the wonderful wife is ill with a very nasty virus. As previously said this isn't a new phenomenon (not the wonderful wife being ill, she's a trooper) as my experiences in the playground tell me illness seems to be around a lot recently. So as I had a little extra head space time I started to create a list, no general purpose for it but I'm male, it's a list, enough said. While doodling away a little hypothesis began to grow, how much