The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan

Like most other single twenty-somethings I find myself using dating apps like Tinder. I don't use them that much but when I have a spare few minutes I find myself swiping furiously. "Swiping furiously" is not a euphemism and refers to the process of swiping left or right depending on whether you want to match with someone on the app. I find that I get very few matches and can never quite understand why that is. Whilst I don't consider myself particularly attractive, for my own sanity I have to assume that some women are attracted to me. Even if only 5% of everyone that sees me on the app swipe right then I still ought to be getting more matches than I do. Maybe it's me. To match with someone both parties need to state that they want to match with each other. Am I too fussy when I'm swiping? Whilst I hate the way these apps promote physical appearance, that is the first thing I find myself judging before swiping. I'm not especially judgmental when it...

At the start of the year I pledged to walk a thousand miles this calendar year. #walk1000miles is a challenge run by Country Walking  magazine and I decided to only count 'boots-on' miles; I do a lot of steps at work so I'm only counting miles I do when heading out for a walk rather than the actual distance I walk in total. This week I reached the half-way point of the challenge, having achieved over five hundred miles so far. It's been brilliant so far as I've rambled my way across the Hampshire and Dorset countryside. Whilst I've enjoyed walking for some time, my love for it has grown this year. Medical professionals are increasingly realising that spending time in nature can be excellent for your health, both physical and mental. The early part of last year was a really miserable time for me and as the new year began I couldn't help but be fearful that I was in for a repetition of it. Fortunately my work life was significantly better than it was in 2018...

Being dyspraxic can be really embarrassing. A lack of co-ordination and clumsiness leads to endless scenarios where you want to crawl into a hole and never come out. This week, I thought I'd share some of my most embarrassing moments. February 2001, Center Parcs Longleat Forest We were on a family holiday in Center Parcs- my parents, my brother, a family friend and me. Someone had the bright idea of hiring bikes. I was about nine at the time and was just about able to ride a bike around the local housing estate without falling off. What nobody considered was that Center Parcs is not a flat housing estate and has plenty of hills. Shortly after hiring the bikes, we found ourselves heading up an incline. It wasn't exactly Mount Everest but I was wobbly at the best of times on a bicycle. The incline slowed me down enough to cause the wobbling to be somewhat worse. Inevitably, I wobbled too close to the edge of the road and ending up tipping off my bike. To make matters worse, ...