Forwards and occasionally sidewards – everyday musings of life

Happy Monday!

It’s been a week of major shifts around here, and I’ve been busy capturing it all for the blog. We are officially out of the caravan and back under our own roof—swapping claustrophobic corridors and caravan steps for fresh carpets and actual walls. Naturally, the transition hasn’t been without its domestic dramas, tactical wildlife encounters, and a trip to London that might just change my table tennis game for good.

Here is a sneak peek at what’s landing on the blog over the coming days:

• The Unwrapping Ritual & The Cold Victory: Returning to table tennis after the ‘cold from hell’, I managed to play like a demon against my old rival Kevin. Meanwhile, back at home, we survived the arrival of harmless delivery parcels after earlier battling a compressed mattress that exploded into the room like a bouncy castle.
• Tactical Strikes & The Passionate Measurer: A mystery avian dropping of terrifying proportions splattered across our new deck—an attack I firmly attribute to our resident bold crow, Russell (Crowe, naturally). Later, a blind chap arrived to take final measurements for our window blinds with micrometre-level intensity. (To be clear, he isn’t visually impaired—he works for the blind company. Though watching him inspect curtain-drop with such terrifying passion, you’d think he’d been sent by the Gods of Precision).
• Umbilicals, Adages, and a Surprise Call: We officially disconnected the caravan’s umbilical cables after three months of faithful service. After a sleepy afternoon on the deck, a surprise phone call from Sammy at a specialist London club offered me a two-hour coaching session to solve my long-standing table tennis grip dilemma.
• Imposter Syndrome & Island Roots: Stepping into a world-class table tennis venue in London brought on a serious wave of imposter syndrome, but Sammy’s direct coaching was pure gold. Back at base camp, Karen put her Orcadian roots to work, tackling our unpacked boxes with frightening, island-tested spatial efficiency.

Thought of the Week

“When you grow up on an island where the nearest home improver is a two-hour ferry ride away, you don’t ‘pop out to the shops’ for an extra shelf—you learn to conquer spatial logistics with military precision.”

Over to You

Keep an eye on the site as these posts drop throughout the week!

In the meantime: have you ever had a coach or mentor completely change your perspective on a skill in just one session? Or perhaps you’ve had your own standoff with local wildlife recently? Let me know in the comments below!