Software Developer for the University of Hull specialising in critical systems for the emergency services. Cyclist, runner, blogger and motorsport enthusiast.
September 1, 2018 1:23 pm
Cultural erosion is often cited as an argument against European Integration. A fortnight ago I was in a Belgian roadside café. They had three different types of mayonnaise in pump dispensers and a man sat eating moules marinière with a tiny bottle of rosé. Britain has always been a bit special – and that’s not Read more →
September 1, 2018 9:28 am
Someone recently accused me of replying too slowly on WhatsApp. “First Class post” I replied, “is the most rapid form of communication of which I approve.” I wasn’t joking. The fact that you’re not going to get a reply for at least 24 hours, if not the best part of a week, tends to rather Read more →
August 3, 2018 12:00 pm
Whilst I was looking for something else I found an explanation I wrote years ago to try to explain to senior management how testing had changed and become critical in the Agile environment. It’s not the easiest thing to try to get across: the business wants features that it can sell. I don’t think I Read more →
December 29, 2017 7:08 pm
“That image looks awfully familiar” I found myself thinking when reading an article on vinyl record run-out groove etchings. Then it clicked, it was one of my images, reproduced in someone else’s article without my permission and with no recognition that it was my image. I’m not a professional photographer, it’s true I do know Read more →
December 15, 2017 9:00 am
I was writing some unit tests: largely out of completeness I wanted to test that you couldn’t insert two records with the same primary key. The code is simple enough. var car = db.Cars.OrderBy(g => Guid.NewGuid()).First(); var pool1 = db.Pools.OrderBy(g => Guid.NewGuid()).First(); var driverName1 = Guid.NewGuid().ToString().Trim('{', '}'); var created1 = PoolAllocatedCar.Create(car, pool1, driverN… Read more →
November 20, 2017 10:28 pm
I really genuinely hate air travel. I will do pretty much anything I can to avoid it. I’ve taken a 16 hour train journey from Suffolk to Barcelona to avoid a 3 hour flight. It’s not that I’m afraid of flying, there’s just something about the whole experience that I find fundamentally unpleasant. South Africa Read more →
September 26, 2017 8:39 pm
I’d barely got into the corridor before I found myself being bundled into the wall by a rotund sales guy. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he barked in my face, “If you ever pull a stunt like that again I’ll making fucking sure we put you out of business. Consider this a Read more →
July 21, 2017 3:07 pm
I have been known to point a camera at a thing – quite often that thing is a racing car. I do it as my own personal challenge but other people seem to like the results, which is one of the reasons behind the TanyaAndTomDoRacing Instagram account. I do find however that I get asked Read more →
May 12, 2017 7:18 am
I am, and always have been a witch. As I sit here in an anonymous business hotel just off the M1 I watch droves of middle aged men in anonymous shirts prepare for the day. They pile their plates high at the breakfast buffet, beans on sausages on hash browns and then retreat to their Read more →
April 24, 2017 8:01 pm
[originally written February 9th 2017] You know before you step out the door. You’re going to the rescue centre, there will be something small and cute there and you will fall in love. You might tell yourself that you’re just going to look, but you’re not. You’re going there because you want to fall in Read more →