Jan 2, 2012 |
There’s a tradition in our family. Whoever leaves home or moves to a new house gets ‘the tacky box’.
The tacky box is just what it sounds like – a box full of stuff nobody really wants, but is actually kind of useful when you’re moving into a new place – especially if you’re just starting out and moving away from home for the first time.
For instance, the tacky box is likely to include old, chipped and mismatched mugs and plates. It’ll have cutlery that does not appear to be part of a set. It might have a spare iron or an old coffee maker in it. There’ll be a bottle opener and corkscrew – but also some frayed blankets, old pillows – and maybe even a deck of cards. Sometimes some non-perishable foodstuffs end up in there for good measure.
Contributions to the tacky box are welcomed from the extended family, and cousins are just as likely to end up with the tacky box as siblings. There’s one tacky box. It’s just to get you started. You use the tacky box, you’ll take some things out and keep them, and you’ll put other unwanted but potentially useful things in.
But the time will come to pass it on.
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Dec 24, 2011 |
Just thought I’d say a quick Merry Christmas before the yuletide activities kick off here in the Dubber house. A quiet one this time: friends over for dinner tonight, and then since Jake’s away in India and we Skyped today (he’ll have no internet for the next day or so), we’re probably going to eat delicious food and watch the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy all day tomorrow.
Hope you have a great one, made better by this perfect Christmas song, in which my friend Rhodri reworks the Smiths into a cheery, festive masterpiece. Enjoy.
Heaven Knows I’m Christmassy Now by freefrench
Apr 26, 2011 |
This is a photo of my Grandmother, Ellen (Nellie) Dubber (née Dempsey), on the occasion of her 95th birthday, 1st January 2011. Behind her, left to right, are my father Chick, his sister Ann and brother Fred. She was born in Glasgow where she lived until she moved with her family to Auckland in the early 1950s.
Last week, Nellie died, quietly and in her sleep. The funeral was yesterday in Auckland. I was there for her birthday (something I’m really pleased about), but I was 12,000 miles away at my home in Birmingham yesterday, so couldn’t be there for the funeral.
I was chatting on Skype with my two sisters back in New Zealand a couple of nights ago. We talked about the things we remembered about Nana – and without wanting to duplicate anything anybody else might say, we came up with a few anecdotes to share, and a bit of perspective on how we saw her.
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Aug 16, 2010 |
I’ve been having conversations over the past 24 hours about the ‘value’ of social media. The social transparency and personal profile that this kind of medium affords is one of those things that crops up from time to time in articles such as this one in Techcrunch and this one in Music Think Tank – and I find myself ending up defending Twitter, which certainly doesn’t need my help.
There are several common complaints:
1) It’s inane. People just tweet about what they had for lunch;
2) It’s just celebrities and narcissists full of self-importance;
3) It’s a waste of my time;
4) It makes people I thought were interesting and exciting seem mundane and ordinary.
And I have very simple responses to those complaints.
1) No it isn’t. You clearly follow boring people with nothing to say. Don’t do that;
2) Again, no. You can follow celebrities if you want, of course – but it’s far from compulsory;
3) Really? Having conversations with other human beings is a waste of your time, but passively watching television shows you don’t actually like is a good investment of your attention? Writing a sentence about what you’re up to or thinking about a couple of times a day is a time-consuming activity that takes you away from all that important stuff you were doing?
4) If you want real people to be profound, entertaining or fascinating each time they open their mouth, you’re always going to be disappointed. If you want larger-than-life heroes, go to the movies. If you want to just be entertained and not engage, just turn on the TV. If you want mythology, read a book.
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Aug 14, 2010 |
My son Jake is doing the AQA Baccalaureate at his college. It involves the usual A-levels (he’s doing Philosophy, Music Tech and English Language), an extra AS-level class in Critical Thinking, 100 hours of extra-curricular activities, and an extended project. The extended project can either be a 5000 word essay on a topic of your choice, or an artefact of some kind with a 1000 words explaining what you made and why.
Jake’s chosen to go down the practical project / artefact route – and for his, he’s recording an album.
He became interested in producing electronic music a while back, and wanted to improve his skills on that front, so this seemed like a good idea. And in order to get better at it quickly, he decided to record a song a day for 30 days.
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Jul 18, 2010 |
Relaxing is a serious business for Craig & Clutch
Clutch and I decided it would be a good idea to host a whisky tasting in St Andrews during the Golf Open. Turns out it wasn’t, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have a good time. Not quite the generator of extra pocketmoney we were hoping for though…
We also have quite a lot of excess shortbread to contend with.
Our friend Craig came with us as our designated driver and dram pourer, and Jake tagged along, as he’s considering studying in St Andrews when he goes to university. He’s even more convinced that’s where he wants to go now – and after our adventure, is extra motivated to get the two As and a B that he needs in his A-levels in order to get accepted.
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