This comes from my reply on a Facebook comments thread on American healthcare reform.  An American friend suggested I make it more widely available.

...many Americans don't seem to be asking these questions for themselves, to find out what is possible, what other countries are taking for granted… Read full post »

I recently enjoyed spending time away with my wife's family in California. We left England 2 weeks before Christmas, on the coldest day I could remember, at -7 Celsius. A week into the new year, having enjoyed our stay but ready to return home, well, we couldn't return because… Read full post »

Why is it that I so often do the very things I don't want to do? I wish I could trust myself.

I am feeling sad.

I avoid writing when I'm feeling sad,… Read full post »

The experience that first inspired me to study architecture was visiting Barcelona in Spain on a school trip and seeing the buildings by the architect Antoni Gaudi.  They are unique and astonishing, inspired by organic forms.

I recently revisited the city and some of Gaudi's buildings, and I was… Read full post »

This is a poem I wrote, called Dragonfly.  I was thinking about how I couldn't decide whether dragonflies are ugly, or beautiful.  And maybe they're both. 

And I was thinking about other stuff too, the tensions and dualities I felt.  Somehow, as I was putting these thoughts into… Read full post »

Some time ago I took my pocket trumpet (a smaller version) to Italy. I spent a month in the summer busking my way from north to south, and photographing and sketching the things I saw along the way. On my first night in Bergamo,… Read full post »

I want to carve a turtle dove, or just a turtle, or a glove, or the hands of the woman that I love.  I want to carve, just to carve!  To take a tree that time has crafted, setting seasons in it's branches  - dark dense winters, light bright summers, leaving… Read full post »

Every where I look it's Obama and McCain.  Important I know, but I'm across the Atlantic in Britain, thinking about other stuff... So if you want a break from all that then my blog's the place to come!

'Simplicity is on the far side of complexity'

This statement is one of the most memorable I learnt while studying Architecture.  The simplest solution to a problem is usually the best solution - and the most sophisticated.  Finding it can take a long time, but when you do, it seems/… Read full post »