Amy Gray

Obviously any Apple update has its annoying features, but restoring the typing click (which I obviously turned off as soon as I got this phone 3 years ago) is top of my list for this one.

(Does it count if all those times were 20+ years ago?)

How many reviews & reports must it take before poor maternity care is fixed? I wasn’t listened to (resulting in a birth injury), my basic needs weren’t met (I had to empty my own catheter bag), I wasn’t fed (arrived on the ward ‘too late’ for tea after 20hr labour) - & that was nearly 7 years ago

Well now I do

Interesting to note that Trump's govt wants its European allies to "restore their former greatness." Is this an invitation for His Majesty's government to restore the United Kingdom's rule over The Thirteen Colonies of the United States' eastern seaboard?

Nigel Farage tells donors he expects Reform UK will do an election deal with Tories Rightwing populist party could pursue a merger or pact with the Conservatives

Nope. No thank you. I would probably resign my membership if this happens.
www.ft.com/content/ecf5...

'Carspreading’ is on the rise - not everyone is happy In the UK and across Europe, cars are becoming longer, wider and heavier.

Last night I got stuck behind a huge car which was trying to get between bikes parked on one side and oncoming traffic on the other. Cambridge's streets simply aren't built for cars this size, and we already have a very healthy collection of large potholes.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Who doesn’t want to pay £40mn/bedroom

Only 5 bedrooms?!?!

I do not like your AI slop
I do not want this worthless glop
I do not read its overviews
I don't care what Grok says is true
I do not like it here nor there
I'm tired of it everywhere

How did I miss that stamps to anywhere else in the world are now the same price? Cost the same to send Christmas cards to France, Italy, Canada, the USA, Ireland and Zimbabwe 😳

If your business model doesn’t work without breaking the law, you’re not in business.

You’re in organized crime.

YouTube video by Mandetriens Charles Wood - O thou the central orb

A timeline cleanse. Our music director says anyone who was ever a chorister can sing this in their sleep, but somehow it has eluded me until now in 25 years of choral singing. Do I still have a top A? We will find out tomorrow!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIAq...

My favourite Stoppard story is how he wrote his son's school essay on Arcadia - and didn't get a very good mark...

Some mornings, it’s endless chat about hostile mobs in Minecraft (🥱).
But then sometimes I get to say things like “and can you remember the difference between the suffragettes and suffragists?” And my 6yo does.

Such as, for example, a very readable biography which will introduce you to a fascinating woman you should know more about - and it literally has Christmas in the opening sentence! Also @bookshop.org has free delivery all weekend…

uk.bookshop.org/p/books/red-...

Have you been to the Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC? It is *weird*. You’d almost think the tribal cultures were all flourishing and there is absolutely no admission of genocide (at least not when I was there c10 years ago)

It is not gatekeeping to say that authors deserve to be paid, and it’s not gatekeeping to say you can get a book from a library — and, be part of a community whilst you do so! — rather than download it instantly from a faceless site from someone who stole it.

Why do you read (or not read)? Take part in this survey about #reading practices, experiences & habits & you can enter a prize draw to win one of six £100 prizes in book tokens. Responses will inform Prof Marion Turner’s research. app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/oxford/why...

“That’s the Prime Minister behind her! He looks just like his cartoon!” says my 6yo, a keen fan of @mortenmorland.bsky.social (trying to explain @thetimes.com editorial cartoon over breakfast in terms he can understand is a daily delight)

With inflation now forecast to be higher than when Spending Review envelopes were set in March 2025, overall real departmental spending growth would have been 0.1 percentage points lower on a pre-measures basis. In addition, the Government has stated that the full cost of SEND provision will be absorbed within departmental budgets in 2028-29, but no savings have been identified to offset the estimated £6 billion pressure this will create. Other spending risks include: the impact on the NHS budget of further strikes and negotiations over NHS pharmaceutical spending; the assumption that the Home Office will reduce small boat arrivals and end the use of hotels for asylum seekers by mid-2028, and deliver savings on the asylum budget of £1.1 billion; the unfunded cost of digital ID cards at a provisional annual cost of £0.6 billion over the Spending Review period; and the commitment for defence spending to reach 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035, which would cost an additional £32 billion in today’s money.

Here be dragons.

"mummy I want to do some cutting"
OF WHAT, OFFSPRING MINE?

I think its applications in data analysis for science are exciting and positive. I think large language models and generative AI being open to all are rendering the internet unusable and our culture sterile.

"This all falls short of standards that the House expects" = the Speaker and the Deputy Speakers are £$%^ing livid.

What baffles me is the number of retailers who don't offer any kind of gift packaging so you can send something straight to a recipient (looking at you Waterstones and John Lewis)

We have a better class of graffiti in Cambridge public toilets

Are you wondering if it might be Stranger Things? Because I thought the last season was a waste of time and probably won’t watch the new one

Hard agree

What about Ramsay MacDonald? From illegitimate son of a labourer and a maid to PM. What do you mean, Starmer might not want to remind people of people who made it to PM from challenging childhoods….?

We are watching The Family Plan 2 and they are on a bus which was at Piccadilly Circus and then heading north over Westminster Bridge towards Parliament Square and now I hate everything about this film