A 6 year old boy in a brown bear onesie holding a sign saying "Exit, pursued by a bear"
My kids are too old for World Book Day now but this memory popped up for me today of the time I completely forgot about it until about half an hour before the school run and had to make something up using his pyjama onesie!
10 years ago we spent half term in Wales and my husband thought it would be fun to take the kids to the Big Pit museum. And that is how I spent Valentines day stuck in a mine with kids and inlaws for several hours whilst they fixed a broken lift. I am always relieved now when he has nothing planned.
I am not a great believer in my kids using ChatGPT or similar to help with their homework. I try to help or share articles, etc. But my daughter just asked it "Please explain the Krebs cycle again, but this time like I'm a six year old" and honestly, fair enough.
Why did my brain at 4am wish to solve all the problems and my brain at 9am would quite like a nap? It might be a long day!
What should the Department of Health and Social Care be doing to improve the nation’s brain health?
@hdemnitzking.bsky.social and I brought UK experts together to produce a consensus roadmap for dementia risk reduction on behalf of @denpru-qm.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
My teenagers are wonderful but parenting this age group is hard. They want to be picked up from friends' houses at times when I am exhausted and should be in bed, like 9.30pm.
Woke my daughter for school this morning- turned on the lights, opened the curtains- only for her to take one look outside and duck back under her covers with a rather disgusted "Ugh, January is just a whole month of Mondays." She's not wrong (but I still made her get up for school).
Black cat asleep on a turquoise blanket with his arms stretched in front of him
Apparently this is how you sleep when you can't read the news
Trees and lawn in the back garden coated in a layer of snow (not that much snow really...a bit like icing sugar on a cake...but still)
Well that was a surprise to wake up to.
Sunrise over a field with a single tree
Black cat resting his head on the arm of the sofa
Fire in the woodburner
2026 off to a good start! (I have a good book and the last of the chocolates too) 😊
Black cat in a red paper crown. He looks more peaceful and less enraged than you might imagine given someone put a paper crown on him
Happy Christmas!
😂 I'm going to be kind to the editorial team and wait until January. There is no way at all that this is because it allows me to see virtue in my procrastination!
My GP's diagnosis of "Chronic urticaria. Seems like you might reacting to the cold or to the heat when you come in from the cold" is a little troubling. I mean, I've never liked winter, but I feel developing an allergy to it is taking the dislike a bit far! Have I got an excuse to hibernate yet?
Silver chanukiah with candles lit for the first night
The world has felt very dark in many ways of late. But we keep sending what light we have out into the world.
Anyone looking for a nice Christmas donation to make, the Kevin Jenkins Newham Toy Appeal is now in its 46th year and is still trying to collect enough toys for children in Newham this Christmas. There’s an amazon wish list here (or search justgiving for the appeal to give cash):
Struggling with a bit of syntax for part of a trial analysis and I'm still not sure I've gotten it right...but I've gotten it equally wrong across both arms and that is what matters, right?
Question asking - when running meetings should we- a) offer an option to attend virtually, b) hold all meetings in person, c) don't hold any meetings
When the training comes with 2 answers- the correct answer and the answer you really want to give...
I needed to look at something in a paper I wrote some years ago and due to a slight spacing error it looks like we have written about 'a cute respiratory tract infection'. Which sounds like a nicer thing to research (and indeed have...this latest one is not cute but tiresome).
One of my children's friends had her first ever job interview (waitressing in a local restaurant). When asked "and what do you think is your biggest weakness?", apparently she panicked and responded "bees". I have no idea how the interviewer kept a straight face!
Join the QResearch Scientific Committee
QResearch is recruiting new members for its Scientific Committee to support high-quality, ethical, population-health research using one of the UK’s largest anonymised health datasets.
www.qresearch.org/about/scient...
closing date: deadline 8 January 2026
Today I attended a meeting so unpleasant that at the end I hung up Teams and cried. I've been trying to figure out how I might have handled things better to diffuse the situation but, after 2 chocolate bars and a cup of tea, I have decided that some days are just awful and to try again tomorrow.
Blue sky with white clouds over the shingle beach and the sea at Whitstable Bay
Short and chilly walk along the sea before lunch.
Black cat curled in a ball with his head buried in a grey blanket
Salem has buried his head under a blanket and opted to hide from today. He's not wrong. #caturday
Oh joy! One of those automatic updates that you cannot override, where the computer randomly reboots itself and installs things in the middle of a meeting. And we're currently at 27% and waiting... Is it too early to just decide today is a write off?
That rainy Monday feeling. And he doesn't even have to make sense of a budget reconciliation.
A person (me!) with almost their entire face blocked by a purring black cat.
I have had a lovely break but it is nice to be home and I think I'm ready to tackle my inbox. However, it is going to have to wait because someone else is glad we are home and he is really hard to see through!
Suwon library- located in a mall there are about 4 floors of illuminated bookshelves and balloons suspended from the ceiling. I have not worked out how you get hold of the books
Bell of Filial Piety at the fort in Suwon. A large cast iron bell in a structure with red wooden supports and a tile roof
Part of the fortress. Dark wooden floor with green painted walls and a red timber ceiling
Me at the top of the fortress overlooking the city
Enjoying some time with my sister and her family in Korea!
📢 As one of the next round of TRMP PhD students (below) you could join me, Clare Robinson, @averoniki.bsky.social and @marionkcampbell.bsky.social to work on developing a typology of research outputs in trials methodology, based at @wiphcem.bsky.social. Details here: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Nurse doing my blood test: "And have you had anything to drink today"?
Me: "Yes. Had my usual coffees"
Nurse: "Anything else? Some water?"
Me: ....."Coffee has water in it, right?"
Upside- I have no conflicts for today's funding panel meeting so I get to discuss lots of interesting proposals with colleagues
Downside - I have no conflicts so by about 4pm my brain will have turned to mush just in time for parent-teacher consultations for my daughter.
Answer- all the coffee!