ECHOES OF THE ROAD

In 1918 ‘ Uncle Harry ’ had been fighting for four years on the 18th of July he was killed during an attack on Bligny Ridge we think around 0430 in almost certainly by machine gun fire. He was laid to rest in Chambrecy Cemetry with 400 of his comrades.  The regimental records document to a good degree the events of the day. But Uncle Harry was subject to family folklore that although he died a bachelor, he was a father who was not allowed to marry the mother. There were no records that myself or my mother could find to establish the facts. A lot of my work was done in lead up to the 28th of July 2018 when we visited his grave a long with former members of the Leeds Rifles regiment, including my father. My mother kept up her various posts on facebook and local community groups but I moved on.  I found out recently that my mother had got a ‘hit’ last year when she was contact by a lady who could see some of our digital footprints. They connected and it turns out Harry was indeed...

I have a food priority: A-raw food  B-food I have made from scratch using A C-food like B that I couldn’t make from scratch but couldn’t be arsed D-food that I would need a chemistry set to make  Portion size wise: A is worth 10 points B is worth 7 points C is worth 3 points D is worth -5 points I’m going to write a book ‘Dave’s Diet Bible’ with the help of AI and publish it on Amazon. They don’t check anything so facts won’t matter nor the 10 star fake reviews I will give myself. In the meantime I’m running a spreadsheet, logging my score. With sufficient data I should be able to do a Six Sigma exercise as I currently don’t have the answers to the questions a doctor is going to ask me! 

I love YouTube - it is wonderful resource for entertainment, education, spirituality and friendship. Of course like all platforms there is the usual preaching and prattling from media and politicians. A couple of days ago Sten Ekberg popped in my suggestions. Erik is a former athlete and these days a scientist, his channel focuses on diet and health. In this one he set a 30 day zero sugar challenge. Being a fed added sugar from when I was weaned it has given me a sweet tooth and everyone who knows me is aware of my fondness for cakes, fruit pies, biscuits and chocolate. With plenty of Christmas left overs, specifically 3 cakes, 2 boxes of biscuits, some lovely Latvian chocolates and then more mince pie that my daughter brought round all with my name on it, when I told my wife of the challenge she rolled her eyes and said a few things. So here we go….day one…no problem. After my evening meal I looked longingly at the cakes in the cupboard but resisted and had fruit instead. It occurred ...

I have an uneasy relationship with social media since the days of Friends Reunited, it was hard to put my finger on it and I put it down to the nomadic nature I have with relationships. Around five years ago I joined twitter and found lots of lovely people in my area with a passion for cycling. For some of those the bicycle was a big part of their life and they were advocates for this to be taken seriously as a primary mode of transport. They became targets for ridicule and attack - this was the rise of the breed of the keyboard warrior. It was obvious that media was good at amplifying human nature both good and bad but for the most part it appeared to be in equal measure, like a normal distribution curve. The constant adjustment algorithms was largely unnoticed but I begun to find I was only a few tweets away from  advocates for cycling ranting and advocates for motoring pitted against each other. Abuse in word from was common place and then videos of people riding bikes being del...

A man walks down the street, he’s having a mid life crisis. He is feeling soft in the middle and wondering why the rest of his life is so hard. His guiding light has been lost to age and wondering who will be his role model. Well, AI, if you had AI in 1986 you could have saved yourself a whole heap of trouble writing this crappy tune! Do you get it? I wager Betty does.

I enjoy very much listening the Huberman Lab podcast. For those that have not head, Andrew Huberman is a neuro scientist whose mission is to bring zero cost scientific tools to help people understand and take action. His long form podcasts of around 2 hours really get into detail but like all good teachers there is gentle repetition of the science which helps the brain infuse it. One of the themes is how the brain loses its plasticity as you get older. It is something I have noticed if I compare myself now to 30 years ago, but I got thinking how much it this because I have been conditioned over time? Are there things I can do that do, so in my daily notes I wrote: The return to a plastic brain. Keep routines simple and minimal. Don’t take everything at face value. Started to learn one thing that will take a long time and really challenge you. Identify where your curiosity lays. Explore those curiosity paths. Avoid being an unthinking consumer. Ask yourself the motive. Respect other peo...