The Time Bubble

As long as I can remember I've been fascinated by the concept of robots. Back when I was a child in the 1970s, the future seemed a very exciting place. In a school topic about what would life be like in the Year 2000, I remember drawing and describing the robot of the future that would do everything for us in that far off, futuristic time. It's strange how the Year 2000 seemed so space age, yet now, it's almost in the nostalgia category, some 16 years in the rear view mirrors. And all those predictions we made about living on Mars, robots giving us a life of luxury and getting all of our food needs from a small pill have proved rather wide of the mark. And I'm not surprised about the last one. Can you imagine no longer wolfing down crisps, chocolate and kebabs any more but just having some boring little pill instead? Bloody hell, there's few enough pleasures in life as it is when we're working all the time, bringing up kids, and generally coping with the str...

A few eerie things have made me start to wonder just how much we are being watched by the powers that be these days. Uh-oh, I hear you say - this is not going to be some sort of wild conspiracy theorist blog entry is it? Well, yes and no... In the old days, it was pretty straightforward. You could pop into Curry's and have a browse around the fridges at your leisure without having to worry. Other than being bothered by some 18-year-old geek in an ill-fitting Burtons suit sensing a possible commission on an extended warranty for £199.99, even though the fridge only cost £250 in the first place. But it's all different now. Most of us must have realised by now that whatever we do on the internet leaves a trace. Have a harmless browse around a few DVD's on Amazon and before you know it your Facebook will be full of ads suggesting you go and buy whatever you've been looking at. OK, that's fair enough. But how do you explain this? My faithful old Panasonic bread m...

Today we did something that I have wanted to do for years. We went on a buggy tour of the northern part of the island. Fuerteventura is the perfect place for this. Away from the tourist resorts, it's effectively one big rock, a mix of extinct volcanoes and desert. The great thing about the kids being the age they are now is that they are old enough to take part in and enjoy this sort of thing. So we hired two buggies and were two of five setting out on tour with our friendly Scottish guide. These things are easy to drive and allowed on the road, so at first it was easy, sailing along the streets of Corralejo attracting envious glances from the holidaymakers. But soon we were out of the town, off road and tearing along all those dirty and dusty trails. We'd been warned we'd need glasses and bandanas, and they weren't wrong, The boys looked really cool in theirs I thought, whereas I looked a bit of a twat, but such is the way of things. The whole trip was four hou...

Well, blog fans, you find me this evening in lovely Fuerteventura, enjoying a well earned two week break in the sun. Well deserved? A phrase you hear bandied about a lot, but in this case I feel justified. It's two years since our last visit and in that time I've written and published four novels! No mean feat, and a tiring one. So a couple of weeks rest and recreation is long overdue. Not that I am being idle, no not me. Those of you who know me well might be labouring under the entirely false impression that I am spending this entire holiday lazing around by the pool, stirring only to waddle to one of the many English bars serving all day breakfasts (with real English Bacon), the bar for another beer, or down town for a massive mixed grill (hold the Canarian potatoes, please, I'm British so that'll be chips if you please). Nothing could be further from the truth. When on holiday I spring into action, casting off my winter sloth from my ample frame and immersing myse...

One of the most common things I hear other authors say is that their ultimate dream is to see their books made into films. I should know, I've said it often enough myself. Now much as we would all like to convince ourselves that we've written the best story ever in the history of the world, I think even the biggest fantasists would concede that it's unlikely that Spielberg's going to come on the blower any time soon. In my case, I could claim to have connections as I went to school with Sam Mendes. When I say I went to school with him, I mean that he was in the sixth form when I was some snotty, irritating 12 year old who he would be extremely unlikely to remember so it would be really pushing the boundaries of "the old school tie" to get him on board. To date I have concentrated my efforts on putting out good quality. well written and edited novels that people want to read. Which it seems they do, which is very nice. Having written four in less than two y...

So, it seems that we can now only drink 14 units of alcohol a week. Otherwise we increase the risk of this that or the other. It was all over the papers this morning. This is hot on the heels of stories about processed meats and countless others that churn never-endingly out of the media, determined to spoil any ounce of enjoyment we might like to try and squeeze out of our short time on this planet. Two things come to mind. Firstly, why is it that all the things that make life enjoyable are so universally condemned. Sugar - terrible, causes diabetes etc. Salt = high blood pressure and heart attacks. Alcohol - cancer, heart disease etc. Basically any food that tastes nice is going to shorten your life, allegedly. Yet all the horrible stuff i.e. salad, various other boring veg, cottage cheese, those horrible rice cake things that remind me of polystyrene, and anything else that is flavourless, bland and boring, that's what they'd have us eat. Smoking, I won't comment on ...

Because of the relocation of the school, we have a longer Christmas holiday than usual with several extra days tagged on to the beginning and the end. Fortunately the weather has been kind so with the mercury nudging up towards the mid teens in recent days we've not had to be confined in the house as can happen in the winter months. Just as well really as there's over a week until Christmas still and I do like to get out and about when the weather allows - just as we did in October when we made it on to the beach at Skegness. Today Claire was working and I didn't want to be cooped up at home all day so we decided to go to Towcester for a day out, one of the places we've been considering moving to if we don't make it up to Louth or can't get a decent place near the new school. We got there late morning and went for a walk up the Bury Mount which is the remains of an ancient castle, now just effectively a big green hill. You can wind your way round this read...