theAdhocracy | Journal

2021: The Year of Adulting

As far as years go, 2021 held some pretty big surprises and featured some fairly grown-up decisions. Life will never be the same again...

Halloween 2021

Last year was the first in many that we didn't meet up with Tom, JK, Nat, and Adrian for a Halloween of over-indulgence and board games, so I'm […]

Mastering SVG Animation

For the past couple of weeks I've been lucky enough to take part in Cassie Evans' latest SVG workshop (the first truly exceptional perk of the […]

Go Fest 2021

Following on from the success of last year's pandemic event (and the follow-up at Christmas) it looks like Go Fest will likely be an […]

A Small Slice of Normal

The summer solstice started like most Sunday's of the past year: we had a fairly lazy morning, ate brunch, Alison read a bit whilst I tinkered […]

Green Versus Red

Clearly last year's global Go Fest was a success, because six months later Niantic have followed it up with a ticketed Kanto event. Focusing on the […]

A Wander through the Woods

As our time in Cumbria comes to a necessary close, it felt right to head out for our longest local walk yet. We drove down to the Middle Gelt viaduct […]

Geltsdale in the Snow

One of the walks I had most hoped to squeeze in during our time in Cumbria was a visit to RSPB Geltsdale. It's a beautiful valley in the North […]

Friends, Just At A Distance

We've been in Cumbria now for more than long enough to know we didn't bring anything rotten with us. Combine that with a brief period where most […]

Campfield Marsh

Time to make some use of the extended freedoms we still enjoy in Cumbria, with a road trip out to the Solway. It's the first time I've been around […]

Brampton Mote

With London in Tier 4, Cumbria heading for Tier 3, and the Christmas "free for all" period cancelled, we've found ourselves a little stranded in […]

Frozen Fieldfares

Each day the weather gets a bit more wintery, which can only mean one thing: snow on the high tops! Both the lakes and the distant Scottish mountains […]

The Hidden Tarn

The various lockdowns have forced everyone in the UK to explore their local areas much more than they had previously, and my parents are no exception […]

A Virtual Halloween

Halloween: the greatest time of the year. A day (or, in our household, long weekend) dedicated to celebrating movies, board games, snacks, junk food, […]

Peak District Getaway

... otherwise known as the Great Vulture Failure of 2020 […]

Fulham Cake Crawl

Another weekend without obvious plans, except for the fact that most (if not quite all) of the shops, cafés, and takeaways near us have reopened. […]

Norwood, Caribbean, and Cards

It's a long weekend, but we hadn't planned anything special. An early invite up to Scotland with my parents felt a little too risky, but a follow-up […]

Picnic @ Kew Gardens

We're still avoiding public transport (haven't been on a train or bus since early March at this point 🤯) so after getting an invite to see […]

Hillier Gardens

After four and a half months of avoiding almost everyone, we decided to meet up with Alison's parents midway between London and Exeter. The pandemic […]

Go Fest Worldwide

I've been playing Pokémon Go for a little while now (as has Alison) so when it was announced that a real-world event would finally be […]

Drumming in the Air

It's July, which means it should be time for the annual Walthamstow Garden Party festival. As the Garden Party is funded and run by the […]

Welney Wetlands

Our week of exploration ended with the longest trip yet: Welney Wetlands. We'd originally planned to visit Welney (and the nearby town of Ely) […]

Richmond Park

For our third day trip we wanted to give the car a rest, so packed our bags and struck out for Richmond Park. Despite living in south-west London for […]

The Isle of Grain & Oare Marshes

For our second outing we wanted to really "stretch our wings" and get far out of the city. At the same time, what with the heatwave, getting to the […]

Devil's Punchbowl & Home Park

With travel restrictions lifting, incredibly sunny weather, and Alison being asked to take some holiday (to help spread out leave), we decided this […]

2020 Challenges: Mid-Year Update

We're almost at the midway point of 2020, so I thought it would be a good moment to take a look at my New Year's challenges list and see how things were going.

The Rolling Stones (Quarantine Quiz)

After the success of digital beer and neigh-neighs, various of our friends arranged a follow-up get together over Zoom which took the shape of a team […]

Easter Inspite of It All

We were supposed to spend Easter weekend in Devon with Alison's parents, but clearly that wasn't going to happen this year 😁 Instead, I […]

Remote Beer & Neigh-Neighs

It's become something of a tradition in our university friend group to get together for an early-summer party and watch the Grand National horse […]

The Big 3-0

If you'd asked me how I'd most like to spend my 30^th birthday, I'd have said something like […]

#Quaranteam

Last Friday, my company ran a trial "work from home" afternoon. We were sent home at lunch and everyone had to log on to our services remotely, in […]

Bar Billiards (Or Not)

Apparently, the 1930's saw a craze flooding Britain's pubs: bar billiards. It's a particularly mad (but intriguing) looking game that's 50% pool, 30% […]

DJ Kose & Floating Points @ Printworks

Having spent several years without managing to get to Printworks, I've now been twice in a month. This time was to see DJ Koze; not quite the immense […]

The Climbing Hangar

We're continuing the trend of finally actioning gifts I've given Alison over the last few years. This time it's a session at a nearby (as in […]

Orchids After Dark @ Kew Gardens

We've been members at Kew pretty much since we moved to London, primarily (I have to admit) because it's the best place within an hour of where we […]

Goldfish @ Printworks

It's my third time seeing Goldfish and the first time with Alison and pretty much all the usual suspects. In other words: it was amazing! Goldfish […]

Exploring Bermondsey Street

Who'd have thought it: both Adrian and me set New Year's resolutions to use calendars more, so our first get together actually happened on the date […]

High Timber

For my 29th birthday, my parents bought us a meal at a South African restaurant on the North Bank called High Timber. For several months we had […]

Holiday Fest & Sea Containers

When we got back from Christmas we had the normal stack of letters sitting on the doormat. Most were either later Christmas cards (yay!) or pointless […]

Lazy Habits & Heddon Street

What a great day. My work runs a quarterly rewards scheme known as The Club and I was lucky enough to qualify this time around, so that meant a half […]

2019: The Year of Craft JAM

A look back and a look forward... it must be the start of a new year. 2019 held a lot of change and personal improvement, but I can't help but feel that 2020 is going to be a big one. So what exactly do I have planned and what am I hoping for the next 12 months?

Folk, Friends, Family, Fuzzies & Foliage

A full write up of our trip to Devon and the Chilterns a few weeks ago, from folk festivals to Whipsnade Zoo to tree cathedrals. We had a great, highly varied time, exploring some places we know very well from a new angle and some entirely new parts of the country.

Seeing the Subway Gods & Thoughts on Music

Last night involved a lot of brass, beats and beer, courtesy of Too Many Zooz and some unexpected friends. Needless to say, it was a huge amount of fun, so I figured I'd jot down a few thoughts that occurred to me over the course of the evening.

Forgotten & Surreal Instruments [#42]

We've just had the privilege of listening to the latest show put together by the Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments. Never heard of them? […]

Willow, Wetlands & Nostell Priory [#11]

Edit (21/05/18): Due to an issue with Yahoo, I no longer have access to the Flickr account linked below. If you're interested in my […]

Seashore Safari

Edit (21/05/18): Due to an issue with Yahoo, I no longer have access to the Flickr account linked below. If you're interested in my […]

Journey through time

Today we boated from Exmouth to West Bay, whilst a(nother) geologist talked us through 200 million years of geological history. Apparently, the South […]

Folk Yeah! [Part Two]

Last night was the extremely anticipated Coco and the Butterfields gig. Finally seeing them live did not disappoint. I'm always worried that bands I […]

Folking Awesome!

Two days, five bands, dozens of folk sessions and countless quirky stalls, aka Sidmouth Folk Week (finally)! From the northern melodies of the Wilson […]

London weekend

It's fantastic living "close" to London. Just two hours unlocked an afternoon of the weird/wonderful Alexander McQueen, V&A. The exhibition […]

A different WWW

Today we returned to Dartington Hall for a longer sampling of the myriad topics on offer from Ways With Words. From holocaust miracle babies […]

The humanity of it...

I just spent the evening at Bill's, catching up with good friends over good food (and better beer, despite the confusing […]

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