Nearly 40 years after receiving our first tandem for our wedding in March 1977, we’re taking our heavyweight long-distance tourer Daisy2 to NZ/Aotearoa to cycle from Cape Reinga at the top of North Island to Bluff at the bottom of South Island. We’re raising funds for the wonderful Rory Peck Trust, uniquely dedicated as it says … Read more …
Misc
New Psychlotherapist blog settings…
PA psychotherapy client asked me the other day, “Why, Mark, do you blog? What a strange thing to do.” It was a very appropriate challenge, and it made me think. And indeed, I thought so much that I’m changing the public visibility of this blog in a way that allows – for the time being … Read more …
If we’re f**ked on the climate, what can we do?
Those who visit this blog know how concerned I am about climate change, and the psychology of human denial of the urgency of approaching catastrophe. Our 32-year-old son Alastair is now on a kind of retreat in Peru, where we as parents were ourselves recently doing much the same – and where, as picture illustrates, … Read more …
On Anglo-German Reunification and Reconciliation
A hundred years from the start of World War One, I’ve finally found the peg I’ve been seeking on which to hang my first Braynework blog post in nearly a year. It’s been the most extraordinary year, in which I left Cirencester and my former partner Sue, sold the beloved Wychcroft home which we bought in 2003, moved … Read more …
Brompton folding bike in New York snow mercy wine-dash
Wonderful fellow-Brompton-folding-bike-owner’s email today from my old Dart Centre friend and colleague in snowed-in New York Bruce Shapiro. “Mark – I have one more reason to be grateful for your introducing me to Brompton bikes all those years ago: As you probably know we were hit by a blizzard overnight. I am hunkered down at home … Read more …
Right, NZ ahoy. This bike trip’s for real…
So, after the disappointment and nerve dramas of the RTW bike ride that wasn’t last Easter, Raven and I (doesn’t it irritate when cyclists anthropomorphise their bikes!) are on our way to cycle the South Island in New Zealand. And this is also my first attempt at blogging with WordPress direct from my mobile. Hope … Read more …
Climate Change and the Failure of Today’s Journalism
(Cross-posted with kind permission of Greenpeace Energy Desk) What was the most important angle in the news coverage of Superstorm Sandy? Was it – should it have been – the storm’s impact on the US presidential elections a week later? Was it the number of human deaths – the usual measure of newsworthiness – or … Read more …
Journalism and Climate Change – a wake-up call
Climate Change and the Failure of Today’s Journalism What was the most important angle in the news coverage of Superstorm Sandy in 2012? Was it – should it have been – the storm’s impact on the US presidential elections a week later? Was it the number of human deaths – the usual measure of newsworthiness … Read more …
Back in Action – and Planning a new Ride
Ah well squared. The great 6000-mile bike ride from Cirencester to Hanoi didn’t come off, but there have been compensations. Since my last post, I was for quite a while in a bit of a grim state, recuperating at home from what a lovely young German neurologist – eventually consulted at the John Radcliffe Hospital … Read more …
Dreams Postponed – the Bike Trip is Off
Ah well. It was worth the planning and the effort. But in the event, I’m not going to do the Great-2012-Bike-Trip-Of-A-Lifetime to Moscow and Hanoi. So instead of images from the road to Moscow and then from Beijing to Hanoi, let me illustrate this blog entry first (left) with the lovely balloons from Meg and … Read more …