I’ve performed on stage many times at various poetry open mic nights and at a few literary festivals also, despite stage fright and all the joys of being neurodivergent. When I did perform I found that I couldn’t sleep, eat (or keep food down) due to the anxiety that it caused.

I tried a trick that Roy Orbison used to use to battle his crippling stage fright, (not that I’m in the same league as him) sunglasses. You see they create a barrier between you and the audience. This works extremely well and I used it right up until the pandemic as a strategy to cope with the stage lights (eyes are v sensitive to bright light) and other people. Unfortunately after that I decided that the anxiety’s effects both physical and mental were becoming too much, so I now settle for just writing poetry that appears in magazines, books and websites globally. This way I can still create some really great poetry and it reaches an even bigger audience without the health issues. I do miss performing and I hope one day to be able to return to the stage. Until then most of my (unpublished) work an be found on here.

My favourite physical activity is archery. I’ve been doing it on and off since I did a taster course in the midlands in the early 2000’s and I was hooked.

I have spent many hours and a lot of money on this sport, while I’m no Robin Hood I have had quite a lot of success. I’ve placed well in competitions and even became a member of The Sons of Archery, uk chapter.

While some might say archery isn’t exactly exercise or physical activity, I’d suggest you spend hours in the hot sun pulling back a string producing up to 60lbs of draw weight on only a couple of finger tips. I’d say why not look up your local club and try it out for yourself.

This is a very tough choice to be honest and it boils down to a toss up between two 80s cartoons that I remember as a child.

The first one has seen a massive rise in popularity over the years due to rebooting the toys and cartoons, then the big screen treatment courtesy of Michael Bay.

I still have a couple of the original G1 toys and I still have the complete animated series and original animated movie on VHS (what we had in the days before) fortunately I don’t need to explain the premise as it’s still a popular franchise in 2025.

The other cartoon was another Gen X Saturday morning show, or more during school holidays. It was called M.A.S.K (mobile armoured strike kommand) who had vehicle that transformed from say a motorcycle to a helicopter etc. MASK were the good guys fighting V.E.N.O.M (vicious evil network of mayhem) it was a cheesy cartoon created by Kenner to sell their action figures. Which I still have a couple of that I always wanted as a kid, tucked away safely.

Honourable mention

I can’t write about 80’s cartoons without giving a shout out to one of the other classics, whose action figures I got one year for Christmas. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. This was a quintessential 80’s cartoon action figure tie in by Mattel. This is another series that has been rebooted a few times. Including by the legendary Kevin Smith (Silent Bob) it was a tale of good He-Man and evil Skelator. Set on the planet Eternia.

The one one thing I, and probably if your honest you too could do less of is (probably) in your hand right now.

That’s right our mobile phones. Although the phone part of it nowadays is sadly a barely used feature, giving way to the thousands of apps we load onto them, the worst being. Social media. So we can see other people showing their unfiltered (there totally was) spontaneous shot (out of like 50) of the perfect life, we so don’t really have.

I make it a rule at the weekend to leave my phone etc in another room and totally disconnect from the virtual world and read a book, write, draw etc. it helps me to relax. We’ve become so dependent on our mobiles and reachable 24/7 which while in an emergency is great, it’s not ideal when you want some me time.

So let’s all try to leave our phone alone for a short period and spend time with a good book or tiddles the cat. Your online friends will still be there when you get back.

Stay safe Bc

We’re do I begin. The last twelve months have been super exciting for me and has given me lots of moments where I thought it couldn’t get better and the universe politely leaned in and said, “hold my beer”

Firstly in December last year a culture and literature magazine was launched in Scotland called AEos. I was lucky enough to be in that issue, with a piece called “The Illusionist”. I said to Mrs Bob it was the sign of a good year, and boy was I right.

This year I have been blessed to be featured in issues 1-4 (12/2025) of their magazine, which has in turn really got me more exposure.

I have also been involved in a couple of collaborations to raise money for different charities. One of which was a year long project.

I also had a piece accepted in a book about grief to help people who are recently bereaved. 

I’ve also (anonymously) collaborated with one of my hero’s to share ideas for the second No Kings day. That was a highlight for me, and also it was a chance to help other people.

So as you can see all of these events have made this year full of positivity, not always just for me.

I work at the side of the river Dart here in Narnia (Twinned with Totnes) there’s a 8-12ft bit of land with lots of trees between my office window and the river, with a field on the other side. So I see lots of different creatures on a daily basis.

There’s a family of 6-12 pheasants in the field over the river, which makes me happy as I love pheasants. one will usually shout as I get out the car. I’m sure it’s fluke, but some days a pheasant yelling. “You got this!” Is what you need to hear.

On the river it’s self there’s two swans very regularly and lots of ducks and seagulls washing and feeding at low tide.

Then there’s the menagerie of wild birds that come and sit on my office window from Robins, to Ravens and even a very tame pigeon or two. This is because I have a window feeder for the small birds and the larger (and small) can eat off the window sill feeder.

There’s more. I also have a lot of tame(ish) squirrels who at times will wait on the fence by my parking spot or sit watching me through the window. This may (or may not) be down to the supply of whole peanuts next to my desk and a squirrel feeder near my parking spot.

So as you can see I’m very blessed to have such beauty and nature at work. It’s very calming sometimes when it’s busy. I stop look out the window while I catch up on paperwork. It’s so grounding.

One of the most memorable and truly magical places I’ve ever visited is Norway. In particular Tromsø for its amazing university, complete with science museum and planetarium, but a little further up the cost of Norway is the city of Alta, which is incidentally inside the arctic circle and depending on the time of year you visit you can experience some of the strangest phenomena mother nature has to offer.

Firstly there’s the obvious one, and the thing most people say is on their bucket list. Northern Lights or aurora borealis. This is caused by charged particles from the Sun (solar wind) colliding with gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere, interesting factoid. The Northern and southern lights (aurora Australis) should actually mirror each other. The meat time to see the northern lights is late sept to late march. 

Then there’s the phenomenon known as the midnight sun a natural phenomenon in summer. where the sun stays visible for 24 hours in regions near the poles (north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle) because the Earth’s tilted axis keeps that pole continuously facing the sun as it rotates. This results in constant daylight, which can be very confusing as I found out on a cruise some years ago, when I woke up to daylight, made a coffee and sat on my balcony. Only to discover it was 0320hrs

There’s also the opposite of this which is polar night. Polar night is the period in polar regions when the sun remains below the horizon for more than 24 hours, plunging areas within the polar circles into 24-hour darkness. It occurs because of the Earth’s axial tilt, which points the polar regions away from the sun during winter. The duration of a polar night ranges from a single day at the Arctic/Antarctic circles to up to five months at the poles. in Tromsø, it usually lasts from late November to mid-January. This like its counterpart is a very disorienting experience as I’m sure you can imagine.

That’s why for the above reasons and many more I would recommend everyone visit, don’t worry if like me your Norwegian isn’t very good. As I found out in Alta, the locals leave school fluent in sometimes five languages and they’re super friendly so if like me you don’t mind the cold then Norway and Iceland are waiting to be discovered.