The Strange World of Axel Fendersson

I have taken up a new pastime: modern jive dancing. Dancing of any kind has always been something I’ve been terrified to do. It’s just so…revealing. To be expressing yourself with your whole body. There’s just so much potential to look ridiculous. I don’t mind looking ridiculous, but it has to be on my terms. [...]

I have a problem. I have spent the last 18 months unemployed. There is nothing on my CV more recent than 2008. And so when applying for jobs, a lot of employers will see this, assume I’m a work-shy slacker and bin my application. They’re not completely wrong. For a good while I was only [...]

I am sick of being unemployed. I am sick of feeling useless and inadequate. I am sick of being bored because I have copious free time but rarely have the money to do anything with it. I am sick of being lonely because I cannot afford to visit my existing friends who live long distances [...]

According to a popular online dating website, “At Match we’re proud that every day 160 members leave us … as couples.” That does sound pretty good. But how did they get that figure? Fortunately, thanks to trading standards laws, there’s a handy footnote explaining. According to a poll of 1000 people who had ended their [...]

I heard back today from a job I applied for about a fortnight ago. I didn’t get it. That I didn’t get this particular job specifically is only slightly disappointing. It would have been a good opportunity to get into a job that would provide development and training, and which might have involved some interesting [...]

So, election tomorrow. And for the first time since I became old enough to vote in 2000, the result is not a completely foregone conclusion. Except that in this constituency it still is. Whatever the overall result across Britain, it is pretty much certain that David Cameron will still be MP for Witney. So in [...]

I don’t think this is news to anyone by now, but I have been booked to play at this year’s Oxford Folk Festival (see here, near the bottom of the page). I must admit this is quite intimidating, for a few reasons. I’ve played at OFF before, but not by myself and, Melomania aside, not [...]

On Tuesday, I had a haircut for the first time in nearly three years. And it got me thinking. How is it that hairdressers are allowed to price their services based on the gender of the customer? Now, I can see how women’s haircuts would typically be more expensive than men’s. Women’s hairstyles are often [...]

So, it’s a new year. And indeed a new decade, unless you feel that the decades have to sync up perfectly with the centuries. I don’t. We don’t refer to decades as part of a sequence as we do with centuries (as in ‘the twenty-first century’), we refer to them in terms of the digits [...]