it's dmc.lol yeah?
Life Survived work till Thursday. Now I’ve got two weeks of holiday. I plan on spending it wondering why the builders haven’t finished our flat yet, going to the splash-pad (as a transparent means to ice-cream acquisition) and cycling to Highams Park every day to feed the cat. I had my NHS podiatry appointment which reiterated that there doesn’t appear to be anything broken. And he told me that I…
Life The commentator’s curse hit hard and Ηη shat himself three days on the bounce. To be fair to him I think he was probably poorly, but it’s a bit of a worry. I had a reasonably significant wobble about my future as a not-particularly-architecturally-minded frontend software developer and what the role is now that Claude’s doing all the fun bits. Something fairly innocuous knocked me off kilter…
Life I had my toe x-rayed and nothing showed up. Another physio gave me a thorough working over and failed to pinpoint the problem, but said (in no uncertain terms) that I should stop running for at least two months. I probably needed to be told this but it’s definitely not what I wanted to hear. I’ve got another podiatry appointment lined up next month and hopefully they can figure something out.…
Life The Weaver line wasn’t running for most of the week because of a line-side fire last Sunday. This pushed the commute up to c. 2.5h each way, and stretched everyone’s patience to a hair’s breadth shy of breaking point. At no point over the last 10 weeks have we found any desirable characteristics associated with a life in Higham’s Park. I guess it’s good to have our life choices vindicated,…
Life Me Σσ and Αα went to watch Ηη ’s sports day where he retained his title as undisputed king of the sack race. The highlight of the day though was when he didn’t bother holding the egg or spoon for the egg and spoon race and just sprinted as fast as he could. The morning ended without any real drama which was a sign of how much all the year 1s have grown up. And Ηη seemed happy with how…
Life The Black Dog came for me. Or continued to come for me in gradually more obvious increments. It coincides (perhaps unsurprisingly) with my acceptance that my foot is properly fucked and in spite of what the podiatrist told me I think I’ve got to stop running. Σσ has always got my back thank god. I took the kids to Ηη ’s School fair on Saturday. The kids got a selfie with Gunnersaurus and Σσ ,…
Life Yes, it was hot. I caught up with old Fridayers in Soho Square on Tuesday for a pleasant if prematurely curtailed evening. Everyone seemed to be in fairly fine fettle, general workplace malaise notwithstanding. We went to see Empire of the Sun on Wednesday evening with Lou, which was an absolute mission of travel, cat, and children management. On the world’s sweatiest bus to the gig, through…
Life The low point of the week was the builder laying the bathroom floor tiles without checking with us how we wanted them. I don’t think me or Σσ thought we had an opinion until we saw how they’d been laid when it became clear our opinion was ‘not that’. I thought I’d saved the day when I pulled a row of them up so that they could be offset, but it transpired Σσ and I were also at cross purposes…
Life The cat chilled out a bit after a few days and didn’t inflict any more damage on the kids. Ηη is still (understandably) refusing to move around the flat without a chaperone though. The presence of the cat has precipitated a slew of intense anxiety dreams, but I think my stress hormone levels are gradually receding now. Hopefully we’ll all get along soon. I was in charge of monitoring bugs for…
Life Robbo invited us over to stay in their Islington palace for the week. It has just been entirely renovated and it’s slightly depressing how good it is. I feel like after our place is done we’ll feel like it’s a pound shop version of hers. Nevertheless it was excellent staying there and our kids bollocked about with hers non-stop. We were back in Higham’s Park for the weekend which was another…
Life We got back from Scotland remarkably easily (having been emotionally primed for Bank Holiday Travel Chaos™). Then we spent the week in Stokey at the Popes house while they were on holiday. It was kind of like a mini holiday for us too, especially with the weather being glorious. Greek salad picnics in the park every evening. And Ηη and Αα had their first taste of bunk bed life. On Saturday I…
Life The commute with the kids has been a lot . But they’ve been excellent about it almost exclusively. It’s obviously no particularly great hardship to have to spend more time with the kids in London’s travel network, but it’s a shock to the system. The builders have started smashing stuff up at a remarkable rate. It’s cathartic to see all the manky laminate torn out and the wall knocked down.…
Life Most of the week was spent packing up more of the flat and getting prepped for a move to The Frozen North (Highams Park). I dismantled the cot for the last time which threatened to make me quite emotional. Ηη got pukey on Thursday and we assumed we’d all end up with the vomiting bug that’s doing the rounds, but somehow the rest of us avoided it. He was actually pretty good about it by his own…
Life We took the train up to Bev after school on Friday. Four hours’ travel would historically have been incredibly stressful with the kids (maybe even more so just with Ηη alone) but they’ve grown up so much it was bordering on pleasant. Σσ and Em were concerned that the state of the garden would have annoyed Ange when she saw it (they came down from Scotland on the Saturday) and pressed me into…
Life Got a last-minute invite to an all staff agenda-less meeting which is never what anyone wants. It inevitably heralded in the latest of five (5) restructures since 2024. My role isn’t (at least as far as I can make out) currently at risk, but the vibes aren’t great. We had our annual long weekend in The Lakes with the Scotland crew. It was made considerably more palatable on this occasion by…
Life I spent all of Monday watching telly with my feet up. Ηη (at his request) started Performing Arts Club on Monday and, unsurprisingly, we’ve been able to glean almost nothing about it out of him. He didn’t immediately complain that he hated it, so that’s good enough for me. I’d been planning on taking the tube in to work on Tuesday, but the strikes convinced me that I should have a go on the…
Life I ate so many carbs I had a consistent mild headache for a lot of the week. I just about kept the maranoia in check, but I had zero interest in riding my bike to work, and studiously avoided sitting in meeting rooms wherever possible. Αα mercifully made a deal with us and agreed to stay in her cot for a couple of nights on the bounce. I was too edgy to be getting particularly high-quality…
Life We drove to Beverley on Monday.’Nobody puked’ is the most positive spin you could put on the journey. I was working for most of the week. I don’t think I was on particularly good form but don’t think I broke anything either, so call it a draw. I finished a shade early on Thursday and made a dash for the seaside where we enjoyed chips, ocean spray, and an extremely bracing walk in the early…
Life I continue to find Ηη ’s moods completely unplayable. And my behaviour in the aftermath of a combination of his outbursts is never anything that I’m particularly proud of. Σσ floated the option of me heading back to London with her to get the flat prepped for the renovation, leaving Jim and Ange to deal with the kids for a few days. I feel slightly guilty about it, but not so much that I…
Life It was a firebreak week at work which meant I got to try out the css anchor positioning module and the popover api in an attempt to rid ourselves of PopperJS . I think it will ultimately prove to be the right decision, and I also think I’m going to regret it because of all the niche hot-off-the-press bugs which, crucially, Claude has no idea how to address. It’s probably good to have had to…
Life Σσ went to Paris for a family ladies weekend jolly leaving me having to fork out for a childminder in order to go for a long run – the most expensive run I’ve ever been on. The kids were pretty good for me in the main though, even given they couldn’t hide the fact they’d have far rather it was me that had fucked off for the weekend. We went to Heather’s birthday party at an adventure…
Life I went to Brighton for Web Day Out which was excellent. There’s lots of new web platform toys to play with. We went to Rawi’s party at the Britannia leisure centre indoor splashpad which I wasn’t mentally prepared for and at which (upon discovering we were going) I fully expected to have an awful time. As it was it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d feared. And a bit of a reminder that we probably…
Life Had a party for Ηη in Finsbo at his request. Only a handful of his pals were able/could be bothered to come, but in truth that was probably for the best. We’ve long known he doesn’t deal particularly well with any form of organised fun (got me to thank for that) so a low key run around in the playground with a handful of his good friends was probably best for everyone. I think he seemed happy…
Life Ηη got what sounds like it’s probably croup on Friday. He was pretty scared. And to be fair it’s not like we weren’t not scared either – it sounded pretty horrific. Apparently getting stressed about it makes it worse, but there was no hope of us conveying that to him at 2am. Αα (not wanting to be upstaged) also started wailing and the only acceptable outcome to calm everyone down was for Σσ…
Life Ηη went willingly once more to ‘Simon’s sports camp’ and came home each evening impressively exhausted. Αα (and subsequently Σσ ) got a cold and quality sleep is currently not an option for anyone. My sympathy well has almost run completely dry because I’m idiotically selfish – I just need everyone to stop coughing on me because of the ridiculous amount of running that needs to happen. I am…
Life We caught up with Si and Lou at the Great Northern Railway Tavern in Hornsey, a pub selected on the basis that it provides a free and staffed arts-and-crafts table for kids. It was a huge success – we managed to enjoy a leisurely meal and have a normal grown-up conversation while the kids bollocked about with pipe-cleaners and glue for 2+ hours. We watched a reasonable amount of the olympics…
Life The highlight of the week was taking the kids to The Emirates to see Arsenal Women play Man City Women (Woman City?). Ηη announced that the pitch was “slightly smaller than the one I play on at school” and “there are about the same number of people here who watch me playing football at school” (c. 40,000) setting a new high bar for bullshit. Αα was really into it and fully engaged for the…
Life I can’t believe my baby girl is three years old. And I can’t believe this is how old Ηη was when she was born. It’s all blowing my tiny mind. Gabriella and her mamas came over from Spain for a short visit. I was working so they took Ηη out to the playground after school. I took his bag back home with me, but only then it occurred to me that I’d deprived them of his…
Life We palmed the kids off on Jim and Ange for the weekend and hot-footed it up to Edinburgh for our first break without them since before Αα was born (nigh on three years ago). It was so good. A hipster boutique-ish hotel, a meal out in town, a reasonable amount of boozing, a long run somewhere new, and Catriona’s 40th in the caves on the Saturday night in the company of all of our best pals.…
Life Ηη ’s continued inability to understand when he needs the toilet is now apparently interfering with his school life. It would make it easier if he didn’t immediately shut down any time we tried to talk to him about it. Σσ shut down some faintly racist chat in the school parents WhatsApp. She never fails to impress me by how she can stay true to her principles while avoiding getting into…
Life We dragged the Christmas tree out and seemingly wound up with more pine needles on the floor than were ever on its branches. Two hoover bags full sealed the decision to plump for a fake tree next year. I survived the day-long quarterly planning meeting at work and got back into the swing of telling Claude what to do then getting increasingly frustrated with Claude for fucking it up while…
Life Ηη continued to turn triumph into disaster at every available opportunity. We really shouldn’t have bothered with the second ice skating trip (although everyone enjoyed a trip on the W3 bus to Ally Pally at least). We went trampolining on New Year’s Eve and Ηη managed to do his ankle in within minutes of arriving. Because he will never shy away from any available drama we felt compelled to…
Life We took the kids to Skate at Somerset House at 9am on Tuesday. Thank god for the plastic zimmer frames they give you to try and keep kids upright. A casual observer would have had a hard time discerning if anyone in our party was having fun at any point, but after the fact both Ηη and Αα have declared that they had fun and are keen to do more of the same. So we may need to remortgage…
Life Met the builders. The next day they sent someone round to cut some holes in our wall which definitely feels like progress. Apparently it looks (even-more-but-nobody-is-ready-to-say-for-sure) like it isn’t structural so that’s one less thing to worry about (having to haemorrhage money on). Took Αα to the doc and she’s been given more antibiotics and an inhaler. Whatever it is, it hasn’t…
Life Σσ is still fighting tooth and nail to get a result from government ahead of the budget. I really hope she’s winning. Αα ’s health (and, inevitably, everyone’s sleep) has further deteriorated. We watched quite a lot of fireworks displays out of the loft windows. Spent some time wondering what life would be like if Guy Fawkes had pulled it off. Reading The Voyage Home by Pat Barker – right…
Life Σσ has got far too much on but I don’t think there’s anything anyone can do about it. She was supposed to have the majority of half term off with the kids but couldn’t avoid getting dragged into countless work crises. I’m hoping it’ll calm down before Christmas before something snaps. I felt very busy and productive at my work for a day or two of NodeJS upgrades, right up until the point we…
Life What was billed as a three day vibe-coding hackathon arrived unbidden in my calendar, immediately filling we with existential dread. Fortunately it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d been bracing myself for. It was certainly fairly exhausting but fortunately I like my colleagues and it was very well organised. Bits of it were almost good. It didn’t do much to put me at ease regarding what the future…
Life A builder who seemed like he knew what he was talking about came to take a look at our flat. I reckon his quote’s going to be astronomical but hopefully that’ll help us choose the first guy we were probably going to pick anyhow. Me and Σσ booked Thursday off work so that we could hang out without the kids for once. Then Αα got tonsillitis and shat all over that plan. We’ve had a very long…
Life Σσ went to a conference in Manchester and aunt Kika came to visit. The kids loved having Kika around and subsequently didn’t resent Σσ too much for going away. Αα continues to be a general screamfest but she spared Kika the worst of it at least. Ηη has managed to remain remarkably calm throughout the majority of Αα ’s meltdowns. Ηη wanted to make it three from three at junior parkrun. He…
Life I saw a picture of Aila walking outside the hospital without wires coming out of her and I started weeping. I hadn’t realised how much I had bottled up. I kept on thinking that I had got myself back together but it kept on turning out that I really hadn’t. Fortunately it was firebreak week at work so I didn’t have to embarrass everyone by breaking down in the office. I’ve continued on my…
Life The ops were a success. It was a rocky few days for everyone post-op – Johnny in agony without nearly enough pain relief and Aila having to go back in for some extra surgery to fix a leak. But everyone’s now stable and the doctors are very happy with the outcome. Aila now goes back to the renal ward for six weeks. She’s not out of the woods by any means, but I really hope this is where her…
Life I pushed through a charity shop clear out of a heap of almost-never-played-with toys and felt pretty good about it. Although of course because the kids insisted on coming to the charity shop this inevitably meant we couldn’t avoid coming home with some new tat. We went to the Wellcome Collection cafe to catch up with Sharif and Tibs who were over from Paris for a 40th. Ηη was disappointed…
Life Ηη went back to school on Wednesday. No drama. Αα started in a new nursery room and the brought about a couple of days of tears at drop off, but by day three she was waltzing in professing to be ‘a big girl’. I think it took Ηη about two years to get to that point. She is different gravy. To be fair they are both different gravy, but on orthogonal dimensions. We had pizza in Clissold with the…
Life On Monday we took a bus into the old town. It was most probably our own fault for playing the ice cream trump card far too soon, but Ηη went rapidly from ‘this is the best day ever’ to being an insufferable pain in the bum and the rest of the morning was a bit of a write-off. We resolved not to do much else in the way of trips for fear of a repeat performance. I was fairly confident I was…
Life After what feels like several weeks (perhaps months) of feeling almost dead, I now finally feel unequivocally fully dead. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more ready for a holiday (although I am very forgetful). We went to the pub with Gabs on Tuesday evening for a final goodbye. It was much better than the weekend play date that preceded it. I don’t think Gabs or Ηη appreciate what’s about to…
Life The summer holidays started in earnest. I can’t quite believe Ηη has finished his first year at school. He’s definitely grown up quite a bit. We got him into a holiday club with Glastonbury levels of ticketing desperation. So far he seems to have been fairly happy with the situation which is nice. Αα has decided to go absolutely fucking ballistic about pretty much everything at least 50 times…
Life We went to Ηη ’s sports day. He had early dramatic success in the sack race (other parents wondered if he was part-marsupial) but never quite reached those dizzy heights again so his mood gradually declined throughout. Was (largely) fun to witness no less. Gabi had her birthday party after school on Friday. It was pirate-themed, and Ηη had as good a time as he ever has at a birthday party…
Life One of Ηη ’s pals had a party at the splashpad on Sunday morning. It threatened to be stormy but we just got away with it. All the kids seemed to have a nice time. I regretted the glass of sparkling wine I had. More so because I went for a run at lunchtime and had to pull the ripcord very early – everything felt weird and off. Perhaps this is why pre-run boozing has never been widely espoused…
Life Caught up with Andy P ( Andy P! Andy P! ) for a very pleasant run in the evening sunshine on Tuesday. It had been far too long – he’s a scholar, a gent, and exceptionally good company even when panting and borderline dehydrated. Niamh was coincidentally also back in town on some high-powered book business – the last time I saw her was also the last time I saw Andy (also too long ago). The…
Life I went for an injury diagnosis and rehab session at London Met Uni on Monday. I didn’t really know what to expect, but the therapist put my hip under various stresses and concluded that my left glute had locked up. I was pleased to hear that 1. apparently I wasn’t injured in a manner that should stop me from running and 2. he said he could give me some massage treatment to help. I thought I…