David Coveney

A personal blog transitioning into an exploration of the intersection of design, technology and ethics

Tag: pain

  • Taller buildings let us design better towns

    Taller buildings let us design better towns

    I lived in a range of places as a kid, partly because my father was a bit of an itinerant who didn’t know what he wanted in life, other than that I mustn’t live with my mother. Go figure. Eventually I got to settle down with my grandmother, but in the process I learned a…

  • Recovering from a heart bypass. The physical and mental challenges.

    Having a coronary artery bypass isn’t much fun and comes with challenges. Four years later I thought I’d describe some more of my experiences.

  • Steps and missteps on my path out of poverty

    Steps and missteps on my path out of poverty

    At 18 I was skint and got made homeless. It took a lot of graft, patience and mistakes to get out of that and into a moderate middle class lifestyle. Here’s how.

  • I broke my heart in five places and got it fixed

    I broke my heart in five places and got it fixed

    A year ago, I was sitting, shorn of all body hair and waiting to go in for a five or six hour operation. I knew the next two weeks would be hell.

  • Bono’s office, some time in 2014

    Bono’s office, some time in 2014

    Hi guys, I suspect you know why I’ve called you in here for this meeting. Adam, Larry, uhm… hat guy… you know that costs have been rising and, what with piracy and everything we just don’t get the receipts we used to. Obviously that means we have to find some savings and, after looking through…

  • Finding a missing person in South America (and elsewhere)

    Finding a missing person in South America (and elsewhere)

    I promised, ages ago, that I’d write up some tips on how to find somebody who’d gone missing in South America. Recently I had an email from somebody in the same situation which has spurred me into action. Since 1997 I’ve found or been found by my mother, my brothers and my sister. Here I’m…

  • Extreme Landscapes

    Extreme Landscapes

    I’m now back in Arica following my trip to San Pedro de Atacama and Bolivia.  I have a couple of things to deal with here before heading back to Lima for my flight home. I’ve been foiled by this computer in the hotel from getting a decent image gallery up from the last eight days…

  • Quiet Weekend in Arica

    Quiet Weekend in Arica

    I’m staying put while I wait for the headstone to be finished and fitted, and consequently got to see an Arican weekend. There’s not a lot for me to do in many ways, so yesterday I spent some time going through all of my father’s papers and notebooks.  I found evidence of one email address…

  • The Story of Juanito

    The Story of Juanito

    Here’s something… a smiling, happy and charming man who knew my father in Arica, lives just around the corner from the hotel I’m staying at. He actually lives in the cabin that guards a car park.  Just him.  He’s been married twice, I believe, but that’s all I know. So how can I tell his…

  • The Funeral

    And so it came.  In a way it’s weird… I always felt there were only two likely things to happen. First, I would find my father (or he would find me) and a period of reconciliation may take place.  Closeness, perhaps never, but reconciliation would be fine. Second, I would never find him, and that…