As I type, on January 1st, with a steely resolve to write more in 2022, it strikes me that whilst much is said about the New Year being an occasion for new habits, I’ve never really considered the importance of leaving behind old ones. And, as someone that gravitates towards obsession fairly easily and often, […]
Category Archives: Nonsense
February
19
Back To Black (and Yellow, Green, Red etc)
posted by petegoold
Although I am now starting to pick up the pace with reading once again, I have struggled to focus on books through the last year. So, rather than fight it, I thought I’d switch gears. A lifetime ago I used to buy a lot of music. And yet, what with Mixcloud, Soundcloud and Spotify, I […]
April
30
Getting Tougher With Age
posted by petegoold
There’s no doubt about it, surfing gets much, much tougher as you get older. Anyone that’s remotely health conscious will have seen (most likely: been shown) pics of 50+, 60+, 70+ folks that can throw kettlebells around, run marathons or set the pace at pilates. So yes, of course that’s possible. But as a fairly […]
February
27
A CyberPunk Tabletop
posted by petegoold
In case you missed this post’s predecessor, you might want to take a quick look here, before reading this, which is the second in a multi-part post. For those that – entirely understandably – can’t be bothered, a quick recap: 1) I gave up booze some years back, meaning I wanted something new to do […]
February
20
A Tabletop Renaissance
posted by petegoold
Firstly – a public service announcement: for the optimal experience whilst reading this multi-part post, you may wish to have the Rocky soundtrack playing in the background. You’ll see. A couple of years back, roughly coinciding with quitting booze, I found myself thinking about doing something more social with family and friends, that didn’t involve […]
January
14
The Joy of Kickstarter
posted by petegoold
Not enough people know about Kickstarter. If you’re reading this, then chances are that this seems a fairly ridiculous statement. Yet, if it merits repeating given the events of Brexit and the US election over the last year or so, those of us that do spend a great deal of time online (myself included) tend […]
July
07
The Trick In Adaptation
posted by petegoold
Here’s the thing: these days, a huge proportion of entertainment media is adaptated – and I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that adapting a book or comic to another format, particularly TV or film, must be a largely thankless task where it’s virtually impossible to please both the material’s existing audience and a new audience […]
March
21
On Creative Writing
posted by petegoold
I’ve been keen to invest more time in creative writing for some time – and so this year, I thought I’d get back into it, having signed up for both LitReactor and a creative writing class. As any Weight Watcher knows, these are really good ways to avoid prevarication. Having to present and discuss something […]
January
27
On Reading
posted by petegoold
After four decades or so of reading, I may have finally unearthed what, for me, might be the perfect approach to getting the most out of a novel. Following the latest airing of HBO’s Game of Thrones last year I picked up the box set of all five GoT novels, spread across seven volumes. Although […]
January
05
The Not-On-The-Web Log
posted by petegoold
This year it’s my intention to write a lot more. Not necessarily in public – whether here, on the punch site or elsewhere – but actually to do so more in private. Having been in the PR industry for nearly two decades, copywriting has been a constant throughout that time. A few years back my […]
October
05
2000AD: Where Are They Now?
posted by petegoold
Warning – this post is really only for the nerdiest of comic nerds. If that’s not you, look away now. Here’s a link to one of my favourite sites, The Oatmeal, for some funnies. Despite the underlying fact that print media circulations are flatlining everywhere you look, it’s British comic 2000AD’s 2000th issue this week. […]
May
16
18 Months of Feeding The Owl
posted by petegoold
I’ve just hit my 589 day streak on Duolingo. In other words, I’ve spent some time every day, for the last 589 consecutive days, learning one or more foreign languages using the superb Duolingo app on either my phone, tablet or laptop. Having recently broken the 18 month mark (548 days) and now bearing down […]
October
29
What Is This Obsession With Halloween?
posted by petegoold
As the father of two young kids, inevitably I get exposed to the marketing assault on Halloween each year. Whilst I can’t comment with any conviction on what things were like in the UK more than a decade ago (before I had children and when, frankly, I probably didn’t either notice or care) and I […]
July
21
Latitude: Family Match Report
posted by petegoold
Sixteen+ mossie/insect bites – including two on the face Two days of walking at least 14 miles (30k steps) Two terrifying lightning storms whilst in the tent Slap in the face from sleeping child: one One two hour battle with the elements to drag gear back to the car Beautiful sunsets: two Pleading with nice […]
February
21
The Drowned Man
posted by petegoold
A few weekends ago, my brother surprised me with a trip to London and two tickets to a mysterious event, which turned out to be entry to a ‘theatrical adventure’ called The Drowned Man. Set in an abandoned former post office building in Paddington, the doors are opened a few minutes before the show and, […]
November
08
Uncle Drew
posted by petegoold
I stumbled across the fact that it was the start of the new NBA season last week and have subsequently rekindled my love affair with basketball. In a matter of days, I’ve subscribed to the League Pass, seen more games than I have in ages, found that the date for the London-based game this season […]
March
10
New To Hitchhiking
posted by petegoold
I’m new to Douglas Adams. Well sort of – I’ve read a couple of his books previously, out of sequence. So, I have just set about reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide series from beginning to end. Consequently, it’s now hard not to see his fingerprints over many aspects of modern life, ranging from his prescience regarding […]
October
27
An Early Start
posted by petegoold
So, it’s that time of year again and after a brief hiatus in 2011, I’ve thrown down the gauntlet to my colleagues to join me in having a crack at Movember, in aid of Prostate Cancer, obviously. I have been sporting about ten days or so of beard until this morning and so decided to […]
August
17
Flags or No Flags?
posted by petegoold
I thought it was really interesting to see that the typical ubiquity of St George’s Cross and Union Jack flags, which tends to coincide with major sporting events, has not been a significant part of the last few weeks. It got me thinking about both the nature of national pride – a tricky subject under […]
March
16
The Other Type of Comic
posted by petegoold
Last weekend I went to see Stewart Lee in Northampton with a couple of mates – and have to say I was decidedly unimpressed. He’s the third or fourth comic that I’ve seen in the last few years that has not lived up to expectations – others being Jason Byrne, Dylan Moran and Ed Byrne. […]
December
21
Rediscovering Old Friends
posted by petegoold
Last week we had the Punch Christmas party and the theme was defining the Punch DNA. In the run up to the event I’d asked everyone about some of their favourite music, which I bought and turned into the soundtrack for the day and also a book that they had always wanted to read and […]
Talking Nonsense Since …
posted by petegoold
Another month, another WordPress theme. This time however I’ve spent some time going through all of this blog’s content – this is post number 94, apparently – creating a range of new categories, tagging each post according to subject matter and integrating the categories as a means of navigation, both to the right in the […]
WordPress Confessional
posted by petegoold
Forgive me WordPress – it’s been several weeks since my last post, and I feel terribly guilty. It’s true that things are a shade on the busy side, what with trips to Istanbul, Dubai, Sweden and Munich in the last few weeks, on top of recent visits to Moscow, Budapest, Athens and others – but […]
Holiday Packing
posted by petegoold
So, we’re heading away for a couple of weeks and there’s a growing disparity between the fact that when I go away I want to leave all worldly trappings behind for a while (possibly aside from my flip flops and a healthy stack of paperbacks) yet somehow the quantity of things we take with us […]
March
03
Deadmau5 & Eldritch Coincidences
posted by petegoold
As someone that enjoys this kind of thing I’m not entirely sure why Deadmau5 has passed me by until this point. I’ll put it down to the onset of middle age. Anyway, having listened so some this week, I quite liked it at first and then found myself becoming increasingly irate that it seems to […]
Up Periscope
posted by petegoold
I’m emerging from the longest period of being away from work since we started the company in August 2003 – an unprecedented (almost) three weeks – and feel fantastic for it, particularly by comparison to how I have felt on returning from the Christmas break in previous years. We took the week before Christmas off […]
Movember, Week 2
posted by petegoold
Right, so Movember is now nearing the halfway park. The thing is now looking visible enough to be an irritant for me and sufficiently amusing for everyone else, but it hardly seems worthwhile at this point. Still, it’s been a bit of an icebreaker this week on a number of occasions and I remain game […]
The Wrong Kind of Petrolhead
posted by petegoold
There are people within the Punch team that are petrolheads – the kind that tend to like car valves, exhausts and alloys a little more than is deemed normal by most people. I’m not one of them. To me, cars are something that get one from A to B with the minimum of hassle – […]
I Have A Confession…
posted by petegoold
We’ve been out buying Harry Potter lego. It’s all under the guise of being a parent of course and I do admit that I do have certain leanings towards ‘buying the set’ (which I haven’t done, I hasten to add here – although it took some restraint on my part) – but there is a […]
Disinformation
posted by petegoold
I’m taking perverse pleasure in withholding information this week about our forthcoming team day out. Current guesses range from white water rafting to working at a soup kitchen. None are close. The process of disinformation is particularly satisfying – I’ve casually asked how people feel heights a few times, which has resulted in lots of […]
A New Love
posted by petegoold
Just back from a full two weeks away, which have been extremely restful. In particular, I’ve discovered an hitherto unrealised love of Lego. The fruits of our labour during the first week are certainly a far cry from the blocky monstrosities that I remember from my childhood…
10 Years On
posted by petegoold
Last Friday I left London early and jumped on the train to head to Borth in West Wales for a couple of days with my family, who were there already. Although it was a five hour mission across the country, it was well worth it, not least for the day of seaside sunshine I was […]
A Summer First
posted by petegoold
So, Thursday was a very strange day indeed. A week or so back I was given the opportunity to snap up a couple of last minute hospitality places for the Ashes test matches over the next few weeks and, despite having little or no interest in cricket and literally having never been to a cricket […]
Pasties, Cider & A 14ft Swell
posted by petegoold
We decided to break up the journey down to Cornwall, thinking that 5 hours would probably become 10 through the stops required with two little people in the car. So, we’ve been in-situ since Friday morning. This time last year the weather was glorious – unfortunately the rain for the first 48 hours this year […]
Living Without Money
posted by petegoold
If someone had said to me at the start of the week: “If you give me £x, you can have whatever you want, whenever you want it, all week.”, I would have thought that ‘x’ (the cost of perennial contentedness?) would have been at least three times and perhaps even five times the sum that we ended up paying, if not more. In other words, I think I need more than I actually do to be highly content – which is, in itself, a revelation.
The Dark Side Of The Recruitment Industry
posted by petegoold
So, recently, I overcame my reluctance to work with the recruitment sector and commissioned three consultants to help us with our recruitment needs. To be fair, I’ve created decent relationships with all three and one of the three actually appears to have a great deal of integrity. We found someone and hired her through the […]
New Look, New Home
posted by petegoold
So, a few weeks ago I moved this blog from it’s former home to this new location, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the software I was using, from a site called ‘edublogs’ was proving extremely painful to use despite being based on WordPress, resisting updates on a seemingly arbitrary basis. Secondly I also wanted […]
Conker Madness
posted by petegoold
Oh and on a slightly less cerebral note, I’m loving conker season this year. Admittedly it’s slightly fuelled by the enthusiasm of my three year old but, correct me if I’m wrong, there’s nothing quite like finding the mother of all conkers, particularly if you’ve ‘unwrapped it’ (as it were). My house has bags of […]
It’s Gone Dark
posted by petegoold
I thought it was just me but even my three year old noticed that everything has gone dark this morning. Since having gotten into the office, the conspiracy theorists amongst the team seem to think it’s related to the goings on in Switzerland at present…
Topic of the Moment: Buttered Bacon?
posted by petegoold
Having asked around the agency, one topic seems to be a clear candidate for hot topic of the day at present, at least in terms of polarising the team: “Should bacon sarnies should be buttered?” Very much a Friday question for a PR agency, obviously, but one which astounded me given the vigour that different […]
Talent Vs Money
posted by petegoold
So, clearly the benefit of lottery funding on Team GB’s success at the Olympics has made a fundamental impact on the team’s overall success. Also, I have heard several commentators referencing one or two key individuals that have made a significant impact – notably the controversial appointment of former swimming Coach Bill Sweetenham who was […]
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