The Time Bubble

I've been doing a lot of contemplating on the subject of life in general over the past few weeks. I seem to have found myself in a rather reflective and at times melancholy frame of mind. I wonder if it's normal and healthy for us as people to spend time reminiscing about the past, "the good old days" as we often refer to them, or whether we should be always looking forward. The fact is, I think I've been using the phrase "the good old days" since my mid-twenties which means either my life has gone progressively downhill since then or I'm just looking through rose-tinted spectacles at a golden era that probably wasn't as great as I remember it. Perhaps our minds subconsciously choose to remember the good bits and tune out the bad ones. Let's look at a couple of examples. Firstly, work. Last week, on Facebook, one of my old colleagues from Nielsen started a thread which quickly turned into a nostalgia fest. Over a few days, I had plenty ...

And so it was, that on Saturday evening, the lesser spotted beast of Bicester came to be observed partying like it was 1999 on the dance floor of the White Hart. Once a familiar sight around the pubs and nightspots not only of Bicester, but of Oxford too, sightings of this once prolific creature have become increasingly rare in recent years. In fact, prior to Saturday night, some had feared it may have even become extinct. Thankfully  I am alive and well (apart from a bout of man flu) and safely ensconsed here at the HQ of Chapel Street Press, from where I am currently dreaming up my latest time travel masterpiece. In theory, I am currently "between jobs" as actors say, which has freed up some time for a little socialising, both of the alcoholic and non-alcoholic nature Today I shall be focusing on the alcoholic side of things. It's a sad fact of life that drinking as a career is much like a career in professional sport. Just as you don't see any 45 year olds pl...

When I was about sixteen I used to go to friend's house parties. This was a time of great excitement for me. For a start I was at an all boys school so these parties tended to be full of females who were full of novelty value for me as I just didn't have that much interaction with them at the time. But I wanted to - wow, did I want to. Those hormones were running rampant at the time, I'm sure if you think back you'll remember what that was like - it was the same for all of us, wasn't it? Aside from girls, the other exciting thing at these parties, which was considerably easier to get my hands on was the booze. At that age we were too young for pubs and booze wasn't that easily accessible, so most consumption took place at these parties, which happened maybe once every month or two. Alcohol was new and illicit and exciting. And also dangerous. You could guarantee at every one of these parties there would be at least one attendee who would over do it and end up ...

I may have to rename this blog and my twitter account Bicester Banger soon, such has been the huge response to my recent excursion to Shropshire in my newly found role of sausage taster. In the meantime, in an attempt to come up with an amusing title for this blog entry you can see that I've come up with Bangers 'n' Cash - this is in recognition that I was delighted today to receive my first offer of a paid interview for my story - I won't say who from or how much as that would be inappropriate, however, it's very pleasing for me that all the time I have invested into my writing career is finally beginning to come to fruition. Speaking of inappropriate things, I went all through the alphabet thinking of words that rhymed with "Mash" whilst looking for my blog title, which produced some amusing combinations! I shan't lower the tone but I have been trying to think of a title for my going around the world eating a sausage in every country TV idea, but...

Out with the old, and in with the new. It sounds like New Year, doesn't it, but I have been sitting here thinking how this year really has been a new dawn for our town. One of the things that really gets my goat is people running our town down - both people that live here and people that used to live here. It is a shame that there are so many that want to see the negatives, because there has been so much good happening this year, that barely a month has gone by without some exciting new event or opening, that me, in my journalistic capacity as Bicester's leading blogger, I feel duty bound to report on. However it seems I am destined still not to get in to the cinema to see the film I wanted. Yes, despite the cinema being open six weeks I am still to go there. The fact that the opening has coincided with the school holidays has not helped, along with the fact that the film I specifically wanted to see opened on the weekend we left for a two week holiday. But even so, I was...

I still get emails from Friends Reunited imploring me to go and look at their site, but I never do. In fact it amazes me that it even still exists. Now it was a great idea when it started, about 15 years ago, but has been massively blown away by all the social networking sites that have come since. Asking me to go and try and talk to anyone on their site is about the equivalent of trying to sell me music on wax cylinders. Seriously, why bother? If there is anyone in the world who still uses Friends Reunited I'd be amazed to hear from you. Now why am I talking about Friends Reunited? Well last night was retro in every sense of the word. Allow me to elaborate. Now on bank holiday weekends, I no longer run my karaoke night at the White Hart, instead I put on a retro disco. This weekend it was a pure 80s night, which went down an absolute storm. The pub was packed to the rafters. However, when it came to my regular Sunday night karaoke people - well none of them were there. That...

As the title suggests, this entry is to tie up a few outstanding loose ends to nicely round off the month of April.   Then we start again next month with a whole new world of adventures in the mysterious world of Bicester Blogger. First the back - very painful again this morning, but then the morning's are always the worst. It's like an old car, needs a bit of time to get going. A combination of paracetamol and Ibuprofen should do the trick and get me through to this evening in order that Bicester's No 1 Sunday night karaoke entertainment can reliably take place at the White Hart as it has done since time immemorial. Well 2009 to be precise. A bit of heavy lifting to do but I have plenty of offers of assistance in place should I need to call on them, so thank-you to those concerned. New to Bicester Last night we checked out the Brewers Fayre up on the new Kingsmere estate. With the kids away and it being our wedding anniversary it was more than overdue for us to go...

I have really enjoyed this past week or so with the kids. In fact I am really going to miss them when they go back to school. Playing with the boys, well we are like 3 kids really, I just join in with them. Whether it's chasing each other round the kitchen table, building elaborate train systems with our ever growing collection of track and accessories (the wooden kind) there is always plenty to do. We had a nice day out in Oxford yesterday as well, so easy to jump on the train and take them, at £2.50 return well that's a bargain in my book, can't see what all the moaning is for about train fares in the papers. I've hardly seen or spoken to any adults this week, but I've been just fine. The thing is, I think holidays should be dedicated to the kids, there is less holiday time than term time, so I can catch up with my friends (most of whom also have kids) once they go back to school. I'm really getting through to Ollie now, and I think we've built a rappo...

What have Towcester and Perth got in common? Answer - they are both towns that are home to National Hunt racecourses - one here just 20 minutes drive from Bicester and the other up in bonny Scotland. Towcester - on a sunny and somewhat warmer day than we had For the non-converts to the glorious game, National Hunt is the name given to jump racing here in the UK, just in case anyone starts accusing me of killing foxes. Ha ha - bet you thought I was talking about the other Perth, in Australia, well I will get on to that in a bit. First - Towcester - UK. A nice little town, straight up the A43. And what makes Towcester's racecourse different to all the others in the UK - simple. For most meetings (except very big ones on Boxing Day and Easter Monday) - it is free to get in! Get that - a free day out? Compare that to the cost of getting in to other racecourses - £25 last time I went to Cheltenham. And not to mention other sporting things you might like to do - £25 is the g...

I find myself in a most unusual situation this weekend. For reasons that I needn't elaborate on, my wife and children are in York for the weekend and will not return until Sunday night. This leaves me in the rather unique position of being home alone - with nothing I "have" to do until I head off to DJ at a wedding tomorrow afternoon. This is something that hasn't really happened before since the kids came along, and is unlikely to happen again any time in the forseeable future. Now some would see this as an opportunity to have some "me time" but myself I just don't know what to do with myself to be honest. Why? Well - when you have the responsibility of parenting and running a house, your days are one long list of things to do - and they also have a defined structure working around the school runs and mealtimes. You become almost programmed into the routine. When that routine is suddenly ripped away, well, in my case I am a bit lost as to what to ...

Hi everyone, Well - it seems that having been saying it for months I have finally broken free of the chains of facebook! It's really not all that hard if you really try. No longer do I have to read an endless torrent of moaning about the weather, traffic, cryptic attention seeking statusues (or should that be stati?), a load of links to crappy bands that I don't like or have never heard of, supposedly "amusing" pictures and all the rest! I'm free! OK - I am not totally off facebook, I need it for work, and the PM facility is very handy - fortunately if someone PM's me I get an email so I can come on and respond - a lot of my work comes through facebook, also we have our little racing game on Saturdays which I can't abandon bearing in mind how far I am winning it by. Though come to think of it I am so far ahead even if I didn't post any tips for the rest of the year I probably have an unassailable lead! This blog should be pulled automatically acr...