Blog

I love to watch programmes about people doing extraordinary, often wacky and mostly crazy activities. Last week I wanted a programme about three British guys who raced professional long-distance skiers to the south pole. 30 days of cold and skiing, dragging their kit behind them – bonkers!  I listened to an incredible lecture from a guy who walked the length of the...

“Do as I say, not as I do”. We’ve all heard that statement before, but its familiarity doesn’t make it ok. In fact, in our generation it actually won’t be accepted at all. It shouts of something bigger than just a mixed message. It shouts hypocrisy, a lack of authenticity. So therefore, us twenty-somethings have no respect for it, not time...

On the most famous street in York, The Shambles, there is a Bread Shop. The bloke who owns it opens at 9am, sells his bread and closes when he runs out, which is usually 11am. He makes enough, to earn enough then he goes home. Aghast, I asked my baker friend why he doesn't make more, so that he would earn...

The other day I went for a paddle in my kayak, come rain or shine its one of my favourite things to do. As I was strapping it to the top of my car ready to head down to the river, it was raining. It was that annoying sort of light rain that doesn’t look bad but is pretty proficient at getting...

Leaving home for Uni is just as big a deal for your parents as it is for you. Truth. What must it feel like to watch your kids “fly the nest”, leaving to make their own way in the world? I can’t imagine how mum felt the day she dropped my little sister in Durham… the last of the three Swaffield children to...

Speaking to youth workers in Norwich this week really crystallized some key themes in relation to preparing young people for uni.  Three steps now seem impressed in my mind...  Challenge number 1:  Leave them to it.  Stop texting them, reminding them to turn up. Stop telling their parents when they need to be there. Stop making sure they do the things they say they'll...

I dragged myself through the nettles, propped my frame against a tree trunk, took aim and fired. Then in a calculated but ignorant fashion, I shot my own team mate right up his gluteus maximus. I am a counter-productive paint-baller. It is better for everyone if I don't paint-ball. Everyone else wins if I remain at home instead of paint-balling. I forgot...