Backburner

Two days ago, a computer somewhere ticked over, and our house became slightly greener. Adding to our already quite high smugness quotient, we’ve decided to take the plunge, pay the few extra pounds, and switch over to wind power. Not quite in the sense of putting a turbine on our house, though maybe in a few years who knows? But for now, we’re with Ecotricity. That company’s New Energy tariff allows you to buy about 30% of your electricity from their windfarms, and crucially the profits from the tariff are ploughed back into new windfarms, creating a sound environmental … Continue Reading

OK, here it is, Life in 2020 as viewed from 1984. I make no comment, or apology, but should probably point out that this is a translation from the original Welsh, which you can read, uncorrected, here.

Apologies to the two of you that actually wanted the rubbish poem. Maybe I’ll set up another Battle of the Homeworks sometime later.

Life in 2020
Sunday-29-1-1984

7.00. “Hello Rhys. Tea or coffee today?” asks my robot. “Tea” I say. This happens every morning at seven. After I drink the tea, I go into the floor mover. I press the button “Living … Continue Reading

It comes to something when you offer to post on your blog something you wrote over 22 years ago, but I’m afraid that’s what I’m about to do. It’s not that I’m bereft of ideas, honest now, really; it’s just that I found some homework books from 1984 when I was at my mum’s over the weekend. Reading them now gives me much the same feeling that I expect to get reading this in 2030 – torrents of mediocrity interspersed by occasional gems of averageness.

Still, which would you rather have first? I’m afraid there’s no ‘reopen nominations’ button, and I … Continue Reading

So we live in quite a studenty area of Swansea, and at the end of September each year we get the stereotypical student junk mail through the door. So far we’ve got the flyers from PETA claiming that we’ll each eat three cows during our lifetime (what, only three?) We’ve got Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat proto-Assembly members trying to be legends in their own press releases, all with some justification. We’ve yet to get the Legalise Cannabis Alliance pushing any hemp-based paper through our door for us to throw straight in our recycling, but I’m sure it’s only a … Continue Reading