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Buying a can of soda is a pretty routine activity. It’s almost automatic. You go the store, find your favorite brand, buy it, and drink it. While quenching your thirst, that soda is not likely going to be the most thrilling, emotional moment of your day. If it is … well, we won’t go there.

English Literature was not my favourite subject at school. In fact I would go so far as to say it was one of my least, only slightly ahead of woodwork and French. I used to spend most of the lessons gazing out of the window towards our sports field wishing I was playing rugby or cricket, depending on the time of year.

Becoming a grandparent for the first time is a very special experience. Suddenly a new family member appears, in our case Lowe Mulvaney in July 2015, but without the same familial responsibilities that came with the job when her dad was born.

My wife has a very simple view of navigation. She does not rely much on maps, since she cannot read them and more importantly if we are going south rather than north the whole thing is upside down to her.

According to Elsevier’s Dictionary of the Printing and Allied Industries, the fore-edge of a book is the blank space occupied by the outer margin of a page, opposite the folds in the section and I suppose you might think it’s not much use or interest to most people.

On the 22nd October 2000, I made a significant alteration to the way I ran my business life. It is the last written entry in my Filofax diary, because on Monday 23rd January 2000, I started up my Palm Pilot and never made another written note in the Filofax. It was a scary day – I had run my whole life through my Filofax for many years.

In the centre of the city in which I live, Nottingham in the UK, there is a rather elegant Georgian portico incongruously sandwiched between a shop selling newspapers and a clothes shop. There is no clue to what’s behind the door, but there is a small sign above it showing it to be Bromley House, built in 1752.

We have seen a number of successful US imports into Europe over the years – Halloween, School Proms, Thanksgiving and Disneyland amongst them, but one of the more recent imports, Black Friday has got off to a stuttering start.