Mat Waugh

I remember reading this at the time, the day before my own daughter’s brain surgery. What a loss. Thinking of his parents.

Sliced through the flex with a Flymo. Touched the exposed end ‘to check if it was live’. Guess what?

Letter to student from Dept for Education beginning, “First of all, congratulations! I remember the day I got my GCSE results. The potential for your life to change has just begun. And I don't mean just financially, strong exam results are leverage. They allow many more doors to open for you and are yours and yours alone. Hold on to them and make the most of them. They mean more than you know. In 2017, I was in a similar position. Shaking, I opened my results on that dreaded day and was in shock. I did not expect to see what I saw. That day I realised that maybe someone like me can study medicine.! write this to you from my final year of Medicine at King's College London as a working-class student from a not-so-good area who was in care, went to state schools, and was on Free School Meals. Even though I don't know your individual circumstances (life is full of challenges), I do have confidence in your future success. I feel a sense of pride and privilege to even be able to write this letter to you. The one great indicator of future success is continued success in education, and that is something that is firmly in your grasp.”

Can anyone figure out this ‘motivational’ letter, arrived in post to my Year 13 daughter? It’s a year late. It’s from a mysterious Kemi. It’s full of URLs she won’t be typing in - “it’s just junk, Dad!” Weird boomer attempt at nudge theory? Maybe @samfr.bsky.social knows?

Ha! She absolutely was both of those things. So funny to read nobodies in the comments telling the world it was a PR stunt. And K is doing as well as we could hope right now, enjoying the spotlight. Thanks x

Yes, I can confirm this, as can the chancer in Romford who got a free tank of fuel this evening - ironically while I was having a miserable time trying to find things in the reorganised TW Sainsbury's. I'll call them in the morning, I've got nothing better to do.

Left 3 items outside my mum’s house this AM for anyone interested. A safe with no key for scrap. Working monitor. Brand new camping coolbox. Monitor went quickly. 20 mins more, safe had been thrown to pavement in vain effort to open - and flex had been cut off coolbox to trash it. Hard to fathom.

Looks fabulous in the low winter light. I must admit I’d never heard of it. Does the rest of the place warrant a visit?

I’m sure there’s a PhD in here somewhere about language as a virus…

Occurrence of "at pace" in Parliament, which grows rapidly post 2000

I'm an idiot. It's "at pace" that irks me, not speed, a much more recent tic. Barring a tractor, a hare and terrorists, nothing moved "at pace" until 2000, when Dr Fox set it running. Naturally, I remembered how much I loathe it when a minister said today that they're working at pace blah blah

seagulls against a Thames sunset

winter on the river Thames

Graph from Hansard showing occurrence of "at speed", used minimally until c2020 when usage shot up

and it got me poking around, too – in search of a time when the only things that moved 'at speed' were warships and cars, not ministers making promises

Thanks for offer Suzie - quite the end to 2024 which was already tricky, as I think it was for you. So much has changed. I think the theme for 2025 is emerging: grabbing normality wherever we can. Schools, clubs... (prob not holidays, mind! Boo.) 66 weeks to go.

This would be Spotify for the written word - or Kindle Unlimited, isn’t it? Except they use pot of subscriber cash shared according to listens/reads. The most popular clean up, the rest get crumbs. I forget why they don’t allocate *your* sub to the content you choose: complexity?

Exactly this, right down to the circumstances in which 3 generations watched it here (including hard-to-engage teens). Disbelief happily suspended in exchange for jokes and plots that rattled along to satisfying conclusions.

A month bought for someone I know will value it - it’s a shame there’s no option for 3 or 6 months, my munificence wouldn’t quite stretch to a year!

Is this what they mean by trickle down?

Since the HS2 bat tunnel is back in the news (turns out it may actually kill the bats), time for one more story.

Which came first – HS2 or the bats?🚄🦇🧵

I’m excited to know that my season-critical box from Butcombe Brewery will be delivered on Thurs 19th, per DHL’s website. (I know this as they sent me an email on 20th.)

Three thoughts in rapid succession:
- that’s one *ugly* Oxford comma, and I say that as a fan
- are vapes and ecigs different then?
- Never considered cigarettes as little cigars before now
Then, happily, it was time to get off

See Tidal pays way more than Spotify to artists for same monthly cost, with bigger library. Download. Impressed. Sign up for family acc. Discover it won’t work with Alexa in the UK. Cancel. Uninstall. Boo.

Email showing password to be used for service renewal, including asterisks that relate to a footnote on how to use the password

Pretty sure Peugeot have their own engineers, but tech is definitely cobbled together by an intern. Who else would put footnotes against a password? #UXFail

I’m never sure either. But I do know that you can only procede at speed (going forward, obv). Anything more specific should never be contemplated.

At speed
Chapeau
Cold cuts (up to and including funereal usage)

What are you talking about? He’s already posted a thin slice of it through your door. It’s not called a leaflet for nothing.

Yep, first side room meeting at Pembury will be two weeks tomorrow. You’re spot on: not being a nuisance-eg obeying ‘don’t chase an appt until…’ letters-was a mistake (in hindsight). Cld be why I’m compiling qu’s at 3am on a fold out bed! Thanks.

Thanks Sally. It's quite the whirlwind. As eldest put it, "I just don't want to hear that stuff about her." But we have to. Still, primary emotion today has mostly been low tempo frustration at the slow-turning wheels of the NHS. Fewer tears.

4. You can’t chop onions as fast as they think you can. If it’s a butternut squash, add half an hour
5. Check the dishwasher first. It will be clean/full
6. Just as the coriander goes on, everyone will mysteriously disappear.

I’m done crying for a bit tho. I want to see her smiley face and tease her, and that’s where I’m going now.

People who haven’t moved me to tears, must try harder:
* people sending thoughts and prayers
* anyone telling me to take it one day at a time
* anyone who’s got a grim story to tell of their own that’s meant to make me feel better (I think?)

* consultants and anyone who’s invited us into another side room. If I refused to go in would the bad news not exist?
* friends: the lovelier, the more tears flow
* anyone who really knows K and shows it