Blogs

It’s very nearly that time of year. The time of year we all start trying to sum-up the year which has gone, trying to make sense of all that went on and by doing so put our minds in a place to tackle the next 12 months. How do you sum-up a year? Look back on your year, what stands out for you? Was it a good year, or a bad one - hard isn’t it?

I'm going to cheat a little here. My 2012 is so tied up in 2011 that I have to start there. During 2011 I had the fortune of meeting a great bloke. I didn’t know it at the time but the meeting was going to be a life-changing meeting....

Leaves whirl off the trees, darkness comes early, the briefly lighter mornings darken too. The sun rises closer to the south, and at noon gets lower every day. A walk through the woods is a walk through lots of leaves, before they start breaking down to leaf litter. The last of the apples come off the trees, a rich cider smell rises, reproaching us for the apples we didn’t pick. I saw a robin, bold and curious, with that intensely sweet song, sitting on the wall in a watery gleam of sun, king in his own territory now the noisy summer visitors have gone. The fallow deer finish their rut,...

In his latest blog, Chris Whitehead, the Exeter Chiefs hooker, reflects on how retirement always looms large for the professional sportsman.

For people who love their jobs, the prospect of retirement is a frightening one and the spectre of how to provide for yourself and your family in retirement is ever-present.

In professional sport, though, it is something that hangs over your head pretty much from the moment you start your career - this must be the only profession in life where you have to find work post-retirement. If I had a pound for every time I have heard...

After months of unemployment, I have got myself a job. This is great news for me but also pretty good news for you too. ‘Why?’ I hear you ask... (still single, live alone, still having make believe conversations to fill the time. You know the drill by now). Well, as you ask, this has saved you from, by my own impossibly low standards, the dullest blog ever about unemployment.

It would have started with my first trip to sign on, where a man decided to relieve himself on the Jobcentre chair. I was shocked but looking back I think perhaps he had a point. The blog would have...