The Time Bubble

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...

Yesterday, Claire & I walked up to the new Kingsmere estate to see the brand new school. It has been built to accommodate children from the new estate and to replace the 150 year old St Edburg's site, the oldest school in Bicester. A random picture of some houses on Kingsmere (I couldn't find a picture of the new school). As long term readers will recall, I was an opponent of the original plans to do this. Not only from the selfish point of view that the old school was practically on our doorstep and the new one is half an hour's walk away, but from a traditionalist point of view too. The thought of the lovely old building , which so many generations of Bicester children had passed through being sold off to become offices or something filled me with sadness. We've known this was coming for a long time and it's been a major influence on our long term plan to move home, but here we are, still here deliberating about where we are going to live and the new...

Friends and family were last night rallying around a distressed Londoner whose dream day out to an upmarket shopping village turned into a nightmare. Hilary Cholmondley-Smythe, 33, an investment banker from Kensington, West London, explained how a mix up over parking led to the horror of finding herself not in the swanky designer outlet, but instead in the centre of the adjoining town. "I had a few grand left over from my quarterly bonus so I decided to treat myself to a trip to Bicester Village. I wanted to see if I could pick myself up a nice dress for a dinner party some friends of mine are throwing in Belgravia next weekend. So I drove up the M40 in my Mercedes-AMG to see what I could find. Everything was fine until I got off the M40, then I started seeing signs saying the car parks were full and directing me to a park-and-ride system. Obviously, a person of my social class could not possibly be seen dead on a bus, so I ignored those and carried on driving. The traffic w...

I've been curious about Louth for some time, and found myself strangely drawn towards it ever since I found it whilst I was idly looking through the road atlas looking for new places to explore. This was some months ago. I started with Wikipedia, where else, then moved on further to find out as much as I possibly could about this town. Here's a few snippets from Wikipedia that caught my eye: "Louth has a total resident population of 15,930. [2] " "The  Greenwich Meridian  passes through the town and is marked on  Eastgate  with a plaque on the north side of the street, just east of the junction with  Northgate ." "Louth is noted for the wide selection of independent retailers, with around 70% of businesses independently owned. [28]  In 2012, it was named 'Britain's Favourite market town' by the  BBC 's  Countryfile . [29] " " Louth is also known for its specialist grocers, [31]  and local butchers, Meridian Meats, h...

This is going to be a two part blog as there's a lot to tell you! We've just come back from a four night holiday in Saltfleet on the Lincolnshire coast. Now it might not sound like the first choice of holiday, four nights in a caravan at the wrong end of October on the windswept east coast, but we had a fantastic time. We packed an amazing amount into the time we had available. I have a theory that you get more out of a short break than a longer one. When you know you've only got three full days, it focuses the mind. There's no time to waste lounging about or taking a day or two to settle in. You've got to be full on from the start. And you've also only got to make your money last four days, so you don't have to eke it out so much as you do on a longer break. There was an ulterior motive to taking this break. As I've mentioned previously, we have for some time been scouring the country looking for somewhere potentially to relocate to. Why? Well t...

Here's a thing. Back in the dim and distant reaches of the last century, when I was still an impressionable young lad, I wrote a few fan mail letters, mainly to pop stars of the time. This was not unusual activity at the time, and probably no different to the tweeters of today who tweet to their superstar icons in the usually forlorn hope of getting a re-tweet or maybe even a reply. It's not that likely because such superstars tend to have several million followers and in many cases don't even see the accounts - they are "managed". Presumably this is either because they are too busy or more likely because their carefully controlled public personae can't be allowed to tweet themselves in case they say the wrong thing and get caught up in a media storm. Such is the way of the modern world. Back in my day...(wow, I sound so old), we wrote our fan mail on good old fashioned pen and paper. Most used to write to ask for a signed photo and such like but I used to...

There's no such thing as bad publicity, they say (whoever they are). I think I'd have to disagree with that after reading about "Maggot-gate" and the resulting "Big Stink" outside Nando's restaurant in Bicester. I can't honestly say that it's going to make me more likely to dine there, that's for sure. Perhaps it's all about brand awareness, who knows? Quite honestly, it seems to me it was more a problem with the bins outside rather than the restaurant itself. Nando's has borne the brunt of the problem, but I have to say, those bins aren't particularly pleasant at the best of times. I had been in the habit of walking past them on a daily basis during the summer, usually travelling from Sainsbury's, grumbling at the prices, towards Poundland in search of better value. I did note some unpleasant smells on occasion, but then unpleasant smells aren't unusual in Bicester, so you sort of get used to it. It's a bit like ...

Gerald is absolutely delighted. In fact he can barely contain his excitement. Last night while we were watching the England match he was jumping up and down on the sofa in joy. Not at Harry Kane's goal, but at another former England goalscorer, Gary Lineker, whose half time appearance brought a look of sheer joy to his face. What is all this about? Well, good old Gary, Gerald's all time favourite football player, came on during the advert break to inform us that Walkers are bringing back lots of old flavours of crisps for a limited period. Now you may or may not be aware of this, but this is something that Gerald and myself have been campaigning for for years. Many years ago, he and I formed the CTBBOFOC, short for the "Campaign To Bring Back Old Flavours Of Crisps". I was never particularly happy with that acronym, I felt it was too long and took up too much space on our headed paper and business cards but Gerald insisted it was catchy. A glorious day for the CT...

I'm nearing the end of writing The Time Bubble trilogy, and a most rewarding experience it has been. All being well, the final volume will be released at the end of September. Thoughts are of course turning to "what do I write next?" This has been on my mind for some time. At one point I had a real fear that perhaps I had put so much into the books I'd already written that I'd run out of ideas. If that had been the case, then I would probably have stopped - there's no way I'd want to churn out unoriginal, sub-standard material just to earn a fast buck. I owe my fans more than that - I hope that's not too egotistical a thing to say. Fortunately, the seeds of an idea have been forming in my mind as I've been writing the latest book. I'd like to share this idea with you now and ask what you think. I feel I've pretty much gone as far as I can with the time travel theme. I've explored it from many angles, including a few quite unique o...

We had a fantastic week away in Yarmouth last week, and were very lucky with the weather. On the day we drove back, it began pissing down with rain. Prior to that it had been lovely - warm enough for us to go the outdoor pool at the park, a rarity indeed on our holidays on the home front in recent years. Whilst we were down in Yarmouth, we spent quite a lot of time looking at property in the local area. This wasn't a spur of the moment decision but part of a long term plan, of which relocating is one of a number of options. We've been privately renting in Bicester for some years, which has suited our purpose well, up until now. When Claire and I got together and Ollie was born we were on somewhat of a less secure financial footing than we are today and renting was our best option. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, if you own a house), property prices have spiralled in Oxfordshire in recent years, to prices that I consider to be quite ridiculous. A recent survey showed that ...

What an amazing day today turned out to be. My life at home is a very busy routine of school runs, looking after the house, writing for a living and more. So when we do get away for a couple of weeks each year, I’m absolutely determined not to waste the time. I don’t know if it’s the change of scene, the freedom from responsibility or what it is, but all I know is that away from Bicester and day to day life, I seem to take on an entirely new lease of life. When I'm away and I'm out for the whole day I don't feel tired at all, so pumped up I seem to become just on the adrenalin of doing something different. Today was certainly no exception. I have always been fascinated by the British coastline and all the stories that go along with it. The BBC’s documentary series Coast is one of my favourites. I’m just drawn to the sea, and I could sit for hours and hours on a beach or on a cliff and never get bored. One day I hope to live by the sea.  Every place has...

The film High Fidelity was on television the other night and it brought back memories of a rather disastrous date I had with the girl I took to the cinema with me to see it. A bit of background first. I've never really been one for dates. My preferred way of meeting people has always been through contact in every day life, which for most of my single life meant the pub. However, from the conversations I have with my single friends now it seems that on-line dating has become hugely popular. Does it work? Well it didn't work for me on the one and only occasion I tried it - and that was way back in 1995. At that time internet users consisted primarily of Star Trek fans and people who didn't mind waiting roughly the same amount of time as a ZX Spectrum loading screen for a naughty picture to download on a 28.8k dial up modem. It is very possible that I was the first ever person to go on an internet arranged date in Oxford. A friend based at the University had just se...

Yesterday was the 3rd day of my Countdown Deal and I had 3 partners lined up to promote my book. These were Booksends, Choosy Bookworm and ENT. How did it go? Absolutely brilliantly - compared to Monday I saw some serious uplifts in sales. But is it possible to identify from which partner? Let's deal with them one at a time. Booksends  - I am unsure about how effective they have been. The book appeared on their website as promised, but a couple of things concerned me. Firstly, I have twice signed up for their daily email of bargain books but have received no emails. Secondly I noticed on checking out their social media pages that they suddenly stopped posting tweets and Faccbook updates on November 15th 2014. Obviously the site is still active, but these things don't inspire confidence. Bearing in mind I paid $25 for this ad, with no tangible results I don't think I'll use them again. Choosy Bookworm  - this site is a delight to use, very user friendly and the p...

Yesterday, the first day of my week long promotional campaign for My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday began. I have reduced the price for a week to 99c in the US and 99p in the UK, and supported this by taking out advertising with seven different promotional sites. These were cherry picked after much research as I felt that they were the ones that could give my book the best possible exposure. The prime focus of my campaign is to build awareness and ranking though increased sales during the promotional period that will position my book for long term success. Whatever I achieve in sales during the promotion itself is fantastic, but it is what happens afterwards that really counts. A recap on where I am in June so far. My target was to sell 1,000 books this month. By the end of yesterday (the 14th) my sales stood at 283. This was some way behind the target figure of 466 at this stage of the month, but with all the promotional activity to come, I'm confident of catching up. So how did t...