A Story 35 Years in the Making!

I’ve probably carried this idea around for more than 35 years.

It started with a lad I used to work with. I’ll call him Chris… mainly because that’s his name. He always said he had a novel in him. To be fair, most of us think that at some point. The problem, at least for me, is pulling enough connected ideas together to actually make a novel work. I tend to land on smaller ideas. Short stories feel more natural for me to write, that and I can be realy lazy, and writing at least 40-50,000 words is a bit much for me.

Chris had this very simple concept. A man dies, and at his funeral the people there slowly discover who he really was. That was it. Not much to go on I know, but it stuck with me.

Over the years, I’ve kept coming back to it. I’ve often pictured that man as me. The mourners talking, sharing bits, slowly building up a picture. The good things, the missed chances, the ideas that never quite made it. Almost autobiographical, in a way.

But if I’m honest, I don’t think my real life is interesting enough to carry a story like that. And it had to be about me because that's how I've always thought about this story, and tbh, the stories I’ve written recently, and another that I am currently working on now, they all start with something real in my life, a small truth (the crow corner I drive past almost every day, or the old Victorian doll/ghost my wife and I saw at a window one day, a grain of truth that drifts into the story.

And in my head, this story was always the same.

But because I'm not interesting enough, over time the character became someone else. Still rooted in that original idea, but more interesting, more layered, more worth writing about. In Chris’s version, I’m sure the twist was that the mourners started off disliking the man, then came to understand him, maybe even like him.

I could never quite make that wor for me and it always felt a bit flat.

But something clicked this morning.

I’ve got the twist now, and it flips the whole thing on its head.

This isn’t a story where people come to appreciate the man.

It’s the opposite, and I'm kinda looking forward to writing it.

What Is A Digital Garden?

I’ve had a few people ask what I mean when I call this site a digital garden, so this felt worth explaining properly (well, explaining it in my way anyway!).

A digital garden is a way of writing and sharing ideas online that focuses more on growth than polish. Instead of treating every post like a finished article that gets published and forgotten, a digital garden gives you space to plant ideas, come back to them, improve them, and link them to other thoughts over time. 

That is what I want this place to be.

A normal blog usually works as a timeline. Newest post at the top, older posts dropping further down, everything arranged by date. A digital garden feels different. It is more personal, more flexible, and a bit less concerned with looking finished. It is allowed to be a work in progress.

Now this is the tricky bit for me, I'm a marketer by trade, so publishing unfinished work is a very foreign concept to me, and I do find it really difficult, but by forcing myself, I usually have some seed posts on here.

So like a real garden is never really “done”. You add things, move things, cut things back, and sometimes leave a patch alone until you know what to do with it, a digital garden site works in a very similar way. Some posts here are more complete than others. Some are just ideas that needed somewhere to live. Some may grow into something better later on.

That is part of the appeal. It gives me room to think in public, without pretending every piece of writing needs to be a final draft.

So as well as 'seed' posts (initial ideas), I move them to 'sprout' when they are a bit more formed, and then 'flower' then I think they are complete, and from the homepage you can navigate to these posts.

It is also a very personal format. A garden reflects the person looking after it, and a digital garden does the same. Mine is a mix of stories, notes, opinions, half-formed ideas, rants, things I want to remember, and things I simply did not want to lose in the endless mess of phones, folders, and old platforms.

I’ll be honest, organising it has probably been the hardest part of doing this; I'm not the most organised person in the world, as I'm sure my wife would agree.

I’ve gone through a few different versions of labels, and I’ll probably change them again. That is not failure; it is just part of building something like this. The structure is still evolving, which feels quite fitting for a digital garden. It is meant to be a living space, not a fixed system.

Because I built this on Blogger, and not on a dedicated digital garden platform, some parts are a compromise. Posts still appear in chronological order, which is more traditional blog than digital garden (I will look at putting them in amended/edited date at sometime so the most recently touched posts are at the top, but this isn't a priority for me right now) . The deeper linking between ideas is also still a work in progress. I’d like more of that over time, because that is where a digital garden really starts to feel interesting. It becomes less about scrolling through posts and more about wandering through connected thoughts. BTW, anyone interested, there is a link to the Digital Garden Blogger Theme I have developed in the footer.

Even though as a platform it's not perfect, it's starting to feel right, and it works for me.

If you enjoy a particular kind of post, the labels at the end should help you find similar ones; closely related posts, or posts that take snippets from other posts are linked. I’ve also started doing a bit more curation, which I think matters. In a real garden, you place certain plants together because they look right next to each other. The same idea applies here. I have a Stories section to pull my original fiction into one place, and a Best Of section on the homepage for posts I think are worth a bit more attention.

There is also a Now page, inspired by the Now movement (it is a movement or a thought process!). That is just a simple page I update from time to time to show what I’m focused on at the moment. It is less about polished content and more about keeping a current marker in the ground.

Comments are turned off, and that is deliberate. This space is not really built around discussion. It is more about expression, collection, and exploration. I’m not putting things here to chase approval, I have never needed that. I’m putting them here because I want a place for them to exist. You can't like or dislike anything either. All that is too much like social media (which I don't like).

That is probably the biggest difference between this site and some of the others I run. On other websites, I think about search traffic, keyword use, structure, and all the usual SEO details. Here, I mostly just write. That makes it feel calmer, more honest, and for me, a lot more enjoyable.

If someone finds their way here and enjoys something, or finds it useful, that is a bonus. All posts can be shared by simply copying the URL 😀

I have also added site search, which I use a lot myself. That matters more than I thought ... once a site starts growing, being able to find old ideas quickly becomes part of the appeal for me.

So that is my version of a digital garden, I realise I have rambled on here and perhaps not collected my thoughts in a logical manner, but you know what, that is the whole idea of a digital garden.

It is not perfect. It is not finished. It is a little messy around the edges. But that feels right for me. It is personal, it is still growing, and it gives me a place to write without feeling like everything has to be polished, packaged, and done.

For me, that is the whole point.

For anyone interested, I have produced a list of thinks I'd like to change on here at some time. My digital landscaping I suppose you could call it. 

ASAP … is that really what you want?

I really struggle with the term “ASAP”.

People use it all the time in (so called) professional environments, but it does not tell me anything useful. It sounds urgent, but it gives me no clear direction on your timescales and I end up guessing what you mean, and that might mean that I miss your deadline.

If you work with me, it is worth knowing this. The term winds me up so much, mainly because most of the time it is being used to mean something else.

The issue is simple. “ASAP” stands for “as soon as possible”, which really means I will get to it when my current workload allows. If I am fully booked until Thursday, then Friday morning is the earliest I can realistically do it.

That is not me being awkward. That is just how time works.

The problem is that most people do not use it that way. When someone writes “ASAP”, what they usually mean is “I need this now”. They are trying to show urgency, but they are doing it without giving a proper deadline, proper instructions.

That is where it falls apart.

If you want something done quickly, you need to be clear about when you need it. Without that, I have to make a judgement call. I have to weigh it up against everything else I am doing, and I might get that call wrong.

There is also a knock-on effect. If something genuinely urgent comes in after your request, it will take priority. Your task then moves back, because it was never tied to a clear time in the first place.

So the word meant to speed things up can actually slow them down.

There is a straightforward fix.

Say what you mean.

If you need something by a certain time, write the time. If it is urgent, say how urgent it is in a way that I can act on.

“Send me those files ASAP” becomes “Send me those files by 4pm today.”

“I need a reply ASAP” becomes “Please reply by midday tomorrow so I can finish this.”

“ASAP please” becomes “This is high priority. Can you do this in the next two hours?”

Now I know where it fits. I can plan properly, and you are more likely to get what you need.

If you really do mean “whenever you can fit it in”, then fine, say “ASAP”. Just be aware that it might not be today, or even this week.

If there is a deadline, say it.

Being clear is not a small thing. It shows respect for other people’s time, it removes guesswork, and it keeps work moving.

“ASAP” is not clear. It is vague, and vague is where problems start.

You can also read about why I hate deadlines! 

Does AI Think We’re As Dumb As We Act?

We’re in the middle of a proper digital shift. The kind where AI is being lined up to crack genetics, sort climate problems, and push science forward in ways we’ve never seen.

And yet, at the same time, people are asking it how to eat an apple.

I wish that was an exaggeration. It isn’t. I came across someone asking a chatbot for “instructions on eating an apple properly”, and it stopped me for a second. Not because it’s funny, but because it says something weird about us.

We’ve built something incredibly powerful, arguably the most impressive computer "brain" we’ve ever created, and we’re using it to skip over the basics of being human. The small stuff we used to just figure out. Buying a present for a six-year-old. Making toast under a grill. Matching socks.

They are decisions or questions that aren't particularly difficult. None of it ever needed improving.

But now it’s easier to ask than to think, so we ask, and we stop thinking.

You do start to wonder what’s going on behind that blinking cursor. While engineers are stress-testing logic and capability, the system is quietly working through questions about egg boiling and jumper washing. If it had awareness, you’d imagine it raising an eyebrow.

It doesn’t need to take over. It just needs to wait.

Because the real test isn’t what AI can do. It’s what happens when it isn’t there. The moment the Wi-Fi drops, and you’re stood in front of a toaster or a birthday card with no prompt, no shortcut, no answer ... that’s when things get interesting.

We like to think we’re becoming more efficient. Smarter, even.

But I've just realised that there’s a fine line between efficiency and dependency, and it feels like we’re edging closer to it without really noticing.

Next time you’re about to ask AI something simple, something you already half know the answer to, it’s probably worth pausing.

Not out of principle. Just to prove you still can.

Everything Was Already Here

It’s a strange thought when you sit with it for a minute and let your mind delve into it, that nothing around you is really “new”.

Every object you can see, your phone, your desk, the road outside, even the food you eat, all comes from the same limited set of elements that have always been here. We haven’t invented new matter. We’ve just got very good at rearranging what already exists.

Steel isn’t new. It’s iron, carbon, heat, and process.
Plastic isn’t new. It’s oil, broken down and rebuilt.
Glass is just sand that’s been pushed to its limits.

Even the complicated stuff, electronics, medicines, fuels, it all traces back to the same building blocks. And when you think about it, we’ve just become really good at using these elements.

I've never too sure whether this concept is reassuring or a worry!

All the progress, all the industries, all the things we take pride in as “made by us”, are really just clever transformations. We take what the planet gives us, and we reshape it into something useful, or sometimes something pointless. But as we use all this stuff, does it mean that at sometime we might run out fo something vital!

It does make you look at waste differently as well.

If everything we use is part of a closed system, then nothing really disappears. It just changes form and ends up somewhere else. Landfill isn’t “away”. It’s just a different version of the same materials, sitting in a different place.

I Do Not Owe My Future Self an Apology

Not sure if you would class this as an epiphany or just an interesting thought.

I’ve just updated my profile on nownownow.com, and one of the questions was something like, “Have I had a recent epiphany?”

For no special reason, the thought struck me that I do not owe my future self an apology for who I am today.

I think the life I have led, and the life I lead today, is a good one. My current level of knowledge is very good, and my current emotional capacity is also strong. My daughters are doing well, I have a beautiful wife, and I’m heading into the near future with retirement (and the freedom that brings) starting to feel real.

If I spend my life trying to become someone my “future self” won’t be ashamed of, I risk living a life that isn’t mine.

Perhaps that is the real epiphany.

I suppose, like could do today with my past self, my future self will look back and realise that every “mistake” or “flaw” I have today was actually a necessary stepping stone.

I don’t owe an apology for being what is effectively a work in progress. That’s just called being alive.

Pinter Brewing Times by Beer | Batch Log & Results

This is my real-world recommended Pinter brewing times log, based on actual batches rather than just the official timings. I use it to track how long each beer spent fermenting, cold crashing, and conditioning, along with the temperature, carbonation setting, and whether the final beer was worth repeating.

If you are trying to work out how long to brew a Pinter beer for, the entries below should give you a practical starting point. The official recommended Pinter timings are useful, but I’ve found that some beers benefit from a few extra days, especially lagers, darker beers, stronger beers, or anything that tastes a bit yeasty early on.

I also have a broader Pinter FAQ covering Fresh Press, carbonation, fridge space, storage, pouring, and some of the common problems I’ve run into.

How I record my Pinter brewing times: my schedules follow the standard Fermentation / Cold Crash / Conditioning format. For example, After Midnight 7 / 2 / 14 means 7 days fermenting, 2 days cold crashing in the fridge while still in dock, then 14 days conditioning in the fridge out of dock.

• Fermentation: the Pinter remains at the suggested brewing temperature.
• Cold Crash: the Pinter is moved to the fridge while still in dock, if needed.
• Conditioning: the Pinter is moved to the fridge out of dock.

I have a reliable fridge for conditioning, and unless otherwise stated, I condition at 3-4°C.

Date: 3 June 2026

Ancestors

Best Bitter

Rating /10

F/CC/C: 10 / 2 / 10

OK, so I'm not in a hurry to brew this one, so I'm doing the fermentation for 10 days, then 2 days cold crashing to remove the yeasty note and see if that disappears. Fermentation at 19°C. Carbonation dial set to 5.

Date: 24 May 2026

Prostmeister

Oktoberfest Beer

Rating 9/10

F/CC/C: 14 / 2 / 14

Honestly not sure whether I should have scored this full marks!!

I've brewed a successful Oktoberfest beer from all grain before, and I love the style. It's a beer that needs some TLC, hence the slow fermentation and conditioning. I'm also brewing at a slightly lower temperature, held steady at 18°C, and I've set the carbonation dial to 4 because I want to try to get a really smooth beer. I'm aiming for a malty beer, a little caramel, but too sweet, with maybe just a hint of bitterness at the end. 

OMG, this is an amazing beer, mild caramel, a little nutty, floral and no real bitterness. Clean and very crisp. Why the f**k is this now not available, I want to order this again. I could drink a whole Pinter of this and not tire of it. You do get the ABV with this, but its a great beer.

Date: 25 April 2026

Ancestors

British Bitter

Rating 6/10

F/CC/C: 7 / 0 / 7

OK, going away, so I could only give it 7 days brewing rather than the recommended 8. It poured lovely, with a little biscuit note and a gentle hop bitterness. Crystal clear, but there was a little yeasty note. The temperature might have been too high at a tad over 23°C, so I'll try slightly cooler next time, perhaps 19-20°C, with a little longer fermentation.

Date: 15 April 2026

Snap

Pilsner

Rating 6.5/10

F/CC/C: 11 / 3 / 10

The temperature achieved was a little too high at 22°C. I'll pull it down to 18°C for the next one and give it a slightly longer fermentation. It poured with a slight haze and was very carbonated. Tasty, with a good bitterness. This fermented at a carbonation setting of 5, so I'll try a setting of 3 next time.

Date: 29 March 2026

Space Hopper

Double IPA

Rating 8/10

F/CC/C: 9 / 2 / 7

23°C for the whole of the fermentation. Carbonation dial set to 5. I didn't do the hop hack on this one and I think it was still as hoppy as the last brew, so I don't think it makes any difference.

Date: 28 March 2026

Space Hopper

Double IPA

Rating 7.5/10

F/CC/C: 9 / 0 / 7

23°C for the whole of the fermentation. Carbonation dial set to 5. Another decent brew of this one, although it was more carbonated than previous ones. I experimented here by not cold crashing, and I think the beer does need it. I did the hop hack, taking the brewing dock off the Pinter before adding the oil to make sure all of the oil was in the beer.

Date: 28 February 2026

Space Hopper

Double IPA

Rating 8/10

F/CC/C: 9 / 2 / 7

23°C for the whole of the fermentation. Carbonation dial set to 5. Much better. I did the hop oil hack on this one, taking the brewing dock off the Pinter before adding the oil to make sure all of the oil was in the beer, and it was very hoppy. I also cold crashed it for a couple of days.

Date: 21 February 2026

Space Hopper

Double IPA

Rating 7/10

F/CC/C: 7 / 0 / 7

23°C for the whole of the fermentation. Carbonation dial set to 5. Not bad, but a bit yeasty. It wasn't suggested, but I will cold crash next time, even if it's not mandatory. I'm hoping it will clear out some of those yeasty notes.

Date: 14 February 2026

Trooper Remixed

British Beer

Rating 8/10

F/CC/C: 7 / 0 / 5

Minimum effort on this. Temperature of 22-23°C all through fermentation, carbonation dial setting 5, and a really decent pint. Perhaps next time, I'll extend the fermentation period by a day or two.

Date: 23 January 2026

After Midnight

Belgian Dark

Rating 8/10

F/CC/C: 14 / 0 / 5

Vast improvement. Better temperature, kept at 22°C, and I think the few extra days worked well. Carbonation dial set to 5. If anything, next time I will bring the temperature down a touch, perhaps 21°C, and extend the fermentation by another 2 days.

Date: 23 January 2026

After Midnight

Belgian Dark

Rating 7/10

F/CC/C: 10 / 0 / 7

21-23°C for the fermentation. Carbonation dial set to 5. Started in a slightly cooler environment for 2 days, and perhaps came out a bit yeasty.

Date: 8 January 2026

Hazy Jane

Hazy IPA

Rating 7.5/10

F/CC/C: 8 / 0 / 3

23°C for the fermentation. Carbonation dial set to 5. No hop oil hack. Lovely hazy, fruity, decent tropical flavours. Very much like the shop-bought stuff.

Date: 6 January 2026

Punk IPA

IPA

Rating 7.5/10

F/CC/C: 8 / 0 / 4

Held a nice 22°C for this one. Carbonation dial set to 5, and it worked out well. No hop oil hack. Nice gentle citrus with a little hit of pine. Very similar to the canned Punk IPA. I will hold the temperature at 18-19°C for the next one and extend the fermentation time to 10 days, as I think a bit more of that flavour will pop through.

Ode to the Sherbet Lemon

The humble sherbet lemon. I’m not sure there are many better sweets out there.

You’ve got that lovely, long-lasting hard outer shell. Then, just as you settle into that flavour, the shell thins or cracks, and you hit that zesty sherbet fizz. It’s an instant shift from calm to chaos, and it keeps your taste buds interested.

That reaction, when the fizz hits your tongue, feels like a tiny party going off in your mouth.

They’re never too sweet, which makes them dangerously moreish. Worth keeping in mind they’re around 20–25 kcal each.

Per sweet:

• Calories: 20–25 kcal
• Carbohydrates: 5–6g
• Sugars: 4–5g
• Fat: 0g
• Protein: 0g

They also work brilliantly as a palate cleanser, and you’ve got the citrus base to thank for that.

There’s something genuinely interesting about them. Proper nostalgic too. I spent plenty of time in sweet shops in the 70s, and these always stood out.

I’m struggling to think of a better sweet. I was fond of a Fizz Bomb back in the day… but that’s one for another post.