I probably qualify as a Grumpy Old Git as I was born in 1960. My views on life have changed many times over the years. My politics have, despite me being a Royal Air Force (RAF) veteran, swung hard left. People often assume that we vets are both conservative and right wing. Wrong! Some are. Many aren’t.

I try to move gently through the world and my personal philosophy can be summarized as “Be kind.”. My practice of this is imperfect, but I try hard and will think about something I’ve written or said if confronted with it possibly being unkind. That being said, if you are a Tory, Nazi, MAGA, TERF, racist, homophobic, misogynist, sexist, ableist, Brexiter, member of the 1% (or any combination of those things), go away, you are not welcome here and I will not waste my precious energy being kind to you. Nor will I engage with you. I have discovered the hard way that there is no point, and this saddens me greatly.

I am a keen amateur digital photographer. It is about the only hobby that osteoarthritis has left me with. I used to make plastic model kits to high levels of extra detail. No longer, as my hands are phuqued. This is also the primary reason I use a DSLR… my hands would struggle to load film into an analogue camera. My last film camera was a Pentax ME Super and a full range of lenses. I currently use a Canon 77D and leave the 28-105mm on it most of the time. When I need to get closer, I use the 80-300mm lens. So this blog will also be home to some of my photography. I mostly short garden birds, sea, sky and cloudscapes.

So, what will I write about here? Well, this blog is called Random Blatherings for a very good reason. I started it because a friend, who writes in a far more erudite and interesting manner than I can ever hope to do, recently started one because she believes (quite rightly in my opinion) that more good-quality sites are needed to combat the relentless waves of AI-generated drivel that has contributed to the enshittification of everything.

The fire quote refers to how I unexpectedly found someone online last year – my wife and I are polyamorous – and we just ‘clicked’ instantly.

PS. Many of my ramblings here should be read with a CTTT (Certified True Tall Tale) warning in mind.