Author: couchmagpie

I was born in North Wales to English parents with their roots in Cheshire and Lancashire. I left Loughborough University with a BSc and PhD in Economics. I worked in IT for about 17 years and then changed jobs to become a Communications Consultant – a job in which my interest and skills in writing come in very handy. I love film with a passion and have an eclectic music taste. In my spare time I read a lot and write books of my own. I have written several books and there is a lot of information about them on couchmagpie.com as well as my somewhat random musings on film, tv, music, games, books, writing, food, drink and life in general.

04/07/2020 Visiting

Day Tripping in Greece No. 2 – Nisyros

In 2015, Siggy and I were in Kos and we took a boat trip over to the neighbouring island of Nisyros.According to Greek myth, the island was formed when the sea-god Poseidon cut off a part of Kos and threw it onto a giant called Polybotes during a fight.

03/07/2020 Visiting

Day Tripping in Greece No. 3 – Skiathos

In 2013 we went to Skaithos – like many others before us, not for the first or last time. We went on ‘around the island’ and ‘Mamma Mia’ boat trips from Skiathos Town on a boat called the Kalypso.

02/07/2020 Visiting

Day Tripping in Greece No. 4 – Chania

Next stop on our 5-day jaunt down memory lane and the islands of Greece is Chania in Crete. Chania is the second largest city in Crete and was the capital of the island before it moved to Heraklion in 1971.

01/07/2020 Visiting

Day Tripping in Greece No. 5 – Kalymnos

Given that we’re not going on holiday to Greece (or probably anywhere overseas) this year, I’ve been reminiscing about places we have been in the past, and I’ve decided to do a top five run-down over the course of the next few days.

29/06/2020 Watching

June movie roundup

Da 5 Bloods | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom | Moonrise Kingdom | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Isle of Dogs | Missing Link | Get Out | Handsome: A Netflix Mystery Movie

28/06/2020 Reading

Philip K Dick – The World that Jones Made

The World that Jones Made is a short book running in at only 200 pages, but one of Philip K Dick’s most entertaining and well-plotted novels full of interesting invention and ideas.

26/06/2020 Gaming

Burnout Paradise Remastered

I gave the original Xbox 360 version of Burnout Paradise a glowing five-star review. Having played the remastered version of this open-world racer for about a week now on my PS4 Pro, my high opinion of this game has not changed at all.

26/06/2020 Listening / Reading

Adam Buxton – Ramble Book

This audiobook is like a 10 hour 50 minute podcast with lots of new jingles, puns, Bowie-based reminiscences and the usual mix of comedy and pathos that has come to define Dr Buckle’s podcasts.

25/06/2020 Gaming / Listening / Reading / Watching

My lockdown story continued…

So here we are a month or so later since my first post about my particular circumstances, minor #firstworldproblem gripes about working from home and the various nuances of the COVID-19 lockdown. It’s almost July! Crazy.

12/06/2020 Watching

June midpoint movie roundup

Every cloud has a silver lining and if the COVID-19 lockdown means I get to watch more films then great.

Continue reading