Nikki Coates

Absolute chills

We’re on to ‘will no one think of the chromosomes?’ discourse, are we? Fine fine fine

Tbf unless they’ve had a whole series of epiphanies since I left what remained of the PSR in October I can probably guess in any case

Well, I used to care about this a lot, but alas, for self-care reasons I cannot click that link. I had to have an ECG last week, can’t be too careful

Yeah, totally unfair, Labour have very clearly laid out their Genius Electoral Strategy for ages now, how dumb do the electorate have to be not to understand their job

Black & white photo showing my long shadow on the ground, then a tiny squirrel that you can hardly see in the centre of the frame sitting at the foot of some sort of pine whose dark leaves fill the top half of the frame

You know when you know something is not going to work and you try it anyway and then something else happens? Well here I am taking a picture of a squirrel

The Evidence of Our Eyes and Ears Is Under Attack Extensive video footage is prevailing in debunking false accounts of Alex Pretti’s killing in Minneapolis. Next time, it may not be enough.

I wrote about Minneapolis and why that Orwell quote everyone's been sharing makes me nervous about what comes next

…and how that is the least effective way of dealing with a public who are signalling quite clearly that they just do not trust the politicians we have now. It is just markedly strange that now is the time they expect to be able to appeal to me with stories about the fate of their party

So this is the exec sum of a Parliamentary briefing from May last year, so current-ish, let’s say. I was just thinking about how odd it is that both Tories and Labour are falling into the trap of tribalism: it doesn’t matter what our policies are, the armies under our banner must win

Oooooh

Thank you!

Okay. Last push.

Apropos of nothing there are a lot of people helping with buggies and thanking bus drivers in London at the moment aren’t there?

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Well, I cannot vouch for their snackiness myself just yet so I shall refer you to my supplier: myexoticfruit.com/shop/ws-/cit...

And! while I was out my citrus sampler box got delivered. Wonderful and beautiful (and quite a kind amount for the money tbh)

Not pictured: paper bags containing ‘snack lemons’, calamansi, and key limes. £22, mazin. Now what on earth will I do with all this?

I am not adding things to the official observations so you don’t think I’ve padded it (not that anyone should be relying on the results for anything!) but I will say that I’ve just been the recipient of total kindness from a practice nurse at my GPs clinic

Beginning to wonder whether January was the correct month for mapping optimistic events.

Or…maybe that means we can draw more strength from the presence of good things, right? Right?

Just refreshing my memory and have just been reminded that you have a lengthy detour into flower-arranging to look forward to also. But I do really like the kinda bohemian character of the newly-weds’ household and I like how proud of her he is

I like this book a lot, if slightly begrudgingly: 75% ‘my wife is so clever and resourceful and wise’, 25% ‘ah the floating flower girls of old Canton!’

You too could be as cool as Chris with only a couple of clicks…

Yay! Thank you

Not bitter, don’t put in the newspaper that I am bitter

The Guardian view on Europe’s payments problem: sovereignty starts at the till | Editorial Editorial: Donald Trump’s leverage over Visa and Mastercard highlights a blind spot in Europe’s ‘independence’ strategy. Emulating India’s response might help

Now to take a big sip of coffee and see how the discourse in my old field, payments policy, is evolving…

Ahahahahaha… oh thank god we got rid of the quango tasked with innovation in payment systems

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Well I hope so! Perhaps I’ll get the whole ‘work’ thing right this time … or equally perhaps I will not rest until I have installed a beacon on Sadiq Khan’s desk that flashes every time kindness awe or beauty are detected within the M25

Having a ball so far but then it is only 2 weeks. ‘CSM student’ seemed like a pleasingly unlikely thing to put on the CV directly after ‘financial services regulator’

Ikr???

Kindness at work or on your commute counts too!

I have seen the Northern Lights here before, if v faintly! But when we got home and I did a bit of research it turns out that areas close to football grounds are increasingly reporting similar on evenings with low cloud: reflection of LED grow lights on the pitch. Also kinda wondrous, in a way

Not entirely sure what caused it but it was certainly very pink to the extent that just as we were arriving home from a day in town a neighbour was running out of her house in a dressing gown to take a pic

Thank you so much if you have already submitted an observation! If you haven’t let me just nudge your memory to see whether you might in fact have detected something beautiful in London this weekend

Just guilted the husband into a wonder observation by pointing out that he said ‘wow’ while looking at the sky