A Life More Ordinary

Running backwards, forwards and sideways in time.

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Writer. 52 years old with a tendency to overthink and overshare. Likes to create worlds and people. Dad. Survivor. Rubbish at writing bio entries.

Category: Uncategorized

  • I Don’t Like Cricket…

    For as long as I can remember, cricket has been a massive part of my life. Watching, playing and finally moving into coaching the game has presented me with many memorable opportunities that I look back on with fondness, pride and occasionally, a little regret. And now, as my cricketing journey begins to come to…

  • A Good Day is Hard to Find

    Well, then. We’re now into what was Chapter Two of the book before it became a blog. So far, so good. Now we come to one of the things that I’m most afraid to share. So, why share it on a public blog, you may well ask? Justifiably too, because I’m not sure that I…

  • Strange Glue

    Football at Bishopsteignton was a big thing for me. I suppose that I was a bit unusual in that I could use both feet, so would often be employed at left-back in the absence of anyone else who was genuinely left-footed. I was stronger with my right, but was comfortable enough with the ball at…

  • There is Always Something There to Remind Me

    School days, we are often told, are the happiest days of our lives. I hope you’ll forgive me if I disagree! Primary school, to me, was an endless stream of navigating mini-popularity contests while trying to work out what the fuck was going on with myself and the world in general, a harsh lesson on…

  • Strangeland

    I mentioned in ‘Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale’ my fear of water. From memory, I was always quite cautious as a child. Nervous, timid. During the summer holidays, we would regularly visit the beach at Teignmouth, both when we lived in the town and in Ideford. I found the beach a bit of an ordeal.…

  • Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale

     We left Teignmouth after Mum and Dad separated, although I’m not too sure of the hows and the whys involved in moving out of the town. In fact, thinking about it, it must have been a little while after the split that we moved because more stuff happened before we made our way out to…

  • This Must be the Place I Waited Years to Leave

    We stayed in Teignmouth for a while, in the Devon-based equivalent of the house from the Amityville Horror movie, after my parents had separated. I remember my Dad being involved in a relationship with a woman named Sharon. I think she was a bit younger than him and if I’d been in a different headspace…

  • Bridge Over Troubled Water

     It had been a busy day in the seaside town of Teignmouth, the sort of day that publicans loved as it precipitated heaving gardens and thirsty punters. The sun had shone and the beaches had been busy, ‘early busy’ too, as families had fought for space to lay down their towels before the sea had…

  • We Let the Stars Go – Part Four

    A Sky Full of Stars The first few flakes of snow had gone unnoticed by pre-occupied shoppers and Christmas revellers. Undeterred and perhaps a little disgruntled at the lack of interest, winter descended upon the picturesque scene that might have adorned the front of festive cards of previous years. Huge, white flakes fell in flurries…

  • We Let the Stars Go – Part Three

    Why Does it Always Rain on Me? It was raining. No surprises there, obviously, in England. But it was raining and I was getting married. In about six hours and twenty-one minutes. I checked my suit, for the umpteenth time, gave my shoes another quick polish and looked in on my so-called best man, who…