I stopped smoking (cigarettes and pipe) fifteen years ago, and I still miss the ritual of packing and lighting the pipe, the smell and flavour of the smoke, and the closure of cleaning it after.

Don't miss cigarettes at all, but a good pipe is something else.

There used to be a Flying Pig pub in Cambridge, popular among students. Bit of a dive, but the beer was cheap.

Thinking back, I think that generally I've lost it after a period of stress, or after a burnout, or a covid infection.

Then it remains tantalisingly out of reach for years. I can remember doing it, but not vividly, and any attempts are flat and fizzle out.

I hurt my knee in the battle of Hastings. Didn't think much of it then, but now that I'm getting old it keeps reminding me I was once young and careless.

I'm doing less swordfighting these days as a result. I have to half-ass the footwork or the knee hurts, but that ruins my structure and flow.

The rooks here lifted the fat ball cage and seed container off the stand and dropped them on the ground, spilling their contents. We've put them back and secured them with duct tape. So far they've held, but we accept this is not the end of that saga.

Oh, definitely!

$NEWJOB let me pick work phone myself, with a set budget. The Fairphone 6 only just squeezed under, with around 50p spare.

Really good battery life, and it's made to be user-replaceable.

You're a highly collectible beanie babe.

He's a retired martial arts master, so doesn't really fight anymore. Instead, he's the provider of sage advice and healing beans.

コリン, you say?

Early on during my sojourn in England, I tried saying "It's pronounced almost like Urien."

*blank looks*

"Welsh name? Made famous by king Urien of Rheged? Father of sir Ywaine in Arthurian legends?"

*more blank looks*

"Don't you learn history?"

"Was he related to Alfred?"

When my SO was studying for her Ethnology degree, I read a lot of her assigned articles because it's interesting. There were some interesting ones about the importance of wives when it came to promotion in the Swedish armed forces from the late 19th c. onwards I'm sure applied as much in academia.

Skipping, I would guess. l think that's what it's called on YouTube.

Due to time's inexorable hurtling ahead, I no longer have any young people available to ask.

When there's something in the book - be it e-ink or paper - that makes me stop and think, the page is still unturned when my mind returns from its wander.

The audiobook marches on, regardless of where my attention is.