January 2024

January 31, 2024

Paid my taxes today. My accountant managed to reduce the amount owing based on the shit year I’m having. My earnings are substantially down in 2023-24, thanks largely to the move.

Lyra and I went to see All Of Us Strangers this evening. Headed over about 8:45 after a supper of sausages and mustardy cauliflower cheese (a very nice Ottolenghi dish). Thought the film was good but not great – maybe my expectations were too high.

I love both actors – Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott and their performances were top notch, but the script wasn’t strong enough. I thought I recognized the story part way through, or rather that I’d read a Japanese novel with a very similar premise, not realising that it is an adaptation of that very novel, Strangers.

January 30, 2024

Adam is off to Amsterdam for a few days. I had a pretty good work day, if “good” is measured by not getting out of the house because you’re working so hard. Got my taxes sorted, arranged payment and did client work until gone 8pm.

Lyra came back for the afternoon and then off for dinner at Loki’s dad’s. I’d eaten at odd times and wasn’t hungry myself. On a whim, I decided to take a bath, my first ever in this house.

The main family bathroom has ended up being Lyra’s domain. We have the en suite, and there’s a loo downstairs, so I rarely have occasion to use the main floor one, which is where the tub is. Afterwards, I changed into pjs instead of getting dressed again. Sorted the cats, confining Cleo to the loo so she could eat her dinner in peace while Elsie zoomed around the living room.

I’d just settled down on the sofa to indulge myself with Lessons in Chemistry when Lyra called me from the front door. She’d returned with Loki and his dad, who wanted to see the kitten. I would have preferred to be dressed rather than wearing ratty old pjs with my hair in a scruffy bun but invited them in and had a visit.

The first time she brought Stew round I emerged from the bathroom doing up my trousers and now this. We should stage something where I’m fully dressed and coiffed and making something impressive in the kitchen instead of these awkward encounters.

January 29, 2024

Another Monday… Got Lyra off to school, Adam off to work, then settled down to work. Cleo has taken to skulking in the futon frame to avoid her little sister. Elsie is keen to engage, and there was lots of hissing and growling, but no major brawls today.

Knocked off early to see Zone of Interest with Lyra. It was brilliant but hard to watch. That Sandra Hüller is amazing – her performance in this and in Anatomy of a Fall are both really something. I could see her winning an Oscar for either one.

As good as the acting, was the sound. Read a couple of interesting articles about how the background sounds the Höss family heard as they went about their daily lives. The designer did careful research about what sounds they would have heard and where they were located to make things as realistic as possible.

Lyra’s life more interesting than ours these days. She’s going to see Jonathan Glazer speak at a BFI event with Ava later this week.

Minestrone soup for dinner. Started a new TV serial with Adam called Criminal Record. Well made, good actors (Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo), if a bit predictable. We watch a lot of police procedurals and are hard to impress….

January 28, 2024

Another leisurely Sunday start, followed by a pond swim. My knee was fine on the walk and swim, and I expect the cold immersion is a good thing.

Bought groceries to for Burns Night, which we’re having tonight due to the annual clash with Beulah’s birthday. Pete and Pasc arrived about 6:30. They were certainly pleased to meet Elsie, and didn’t think her name was stupid or that she shouldn’t be held and cuddled.

They are off to New Zealand soon, which is exciting. I’ve never been to Australia or New Zealand, and don’t feel a burning desire to visit. There are other places higher on my list for sure…

January 27, 2024

Jules and Mary are travelling down from Suffolk for lunch and a visit. It has been much postponed for various reasons, and Mary was determined to come despite being in quite a bad way. She’s done something terrible to her back and is in obvious pain. Even worse, had been sick and passed out this morning (a bad reaction to the strong opiates she’s been prescribed for the pain). I was quietly horrified that made the journey.

Mary definitely wasn’t well enough to go out for lunch. We’d booked Le Deux Garcons a month ago, and she insisted the three of us go without her. The food was great, but the occasion overshadowed by her absence. I had chicken liver parfait, sea bass steak on the bone with fennel and tomatoes, green beans on the side. For dessert we shared the tarte tatin for two and a rum baba. Such assured cooking – I’d actually order kidneys or something equally unlikely here, knowing that it would be cooked to perfection.

Lyra and Loki were hanging out with Mary by the time we got back. She seemed a bit improved. They’d brought us a big bag of Suffolk goodies, and the kids had got stuck into those.

Mary was keen to see the house and managed the tour, although the movement was much for her stomach. They headed off about 6:30 for the drive home. Lyra and Loki went back to his mums. Bread and cheese for dinner and watched Oppenheimer. What an awesome film – we both loved it.

January 26, 2024

Feeling very low this morning. Thinking a lot about Jackie (and John of course). He was still doing well enough at the end of November that we were emailing about possible dates for their next visit to the UK. I guess his immunity was so compromised that a bad case of the flu was too much for him.

Adam offered to cook dinner tonight if I found something I wanted to eat. I’d noticed the fishmonger had some lovely Cornish mackerel the other day and found an Ottolenghi recipe that sounded both tasty and simple. Lyra is spending the night at Loki’s so it’s a good time for fish. 

The pistachio pesto was especially delicious and with the rest of the tart from last weekend for dessert it was a very nice meal. Watched Nyad with Annette Bening and Jodie Foster. Made a nice change to watch a full cast of people our age (and older) represented on screen.

January 25, 2024

Happy birthday, Beulah! My knee is easing up and felt half okay in the morning. I’m going to build really slowly from here, maybe one of those couch to 5k programmes. I’m not ready to swear off running, but I can’t be having this nonsense.

Gave Beulah a call. She sounded better than yesterday, though she’s spending the day in bed. Antonia wondered if she might be having mini strokes, which are causing the falls. It’s a possibility. She really should get that investigated but is very resistant to going to the doctor.

We’re all heading over tonight, and we’ll try to broach the subject. Strength in numbers…

To that end, I popped out to buy her a birthday card and a cake. I would have made one, but I’m pretty stretched this week. Had a meeting on the Hubspot integration in the morning, and then another one with a Canadian senator in the afternoon for a possible web project.

Grabbed a takeaway from the Durum, and arrived bearing that, the cake, a bottle of wine and the gifts. Ate round the kitchen table, with Beulah in her bathrobe. I was relieved to see that her face looks pretty good. I’m not sure you’d notice the bruising if you didn’t look for it.

The food was nice enough and we had a pleasant evening, though it was hard to include Beulah in the conversation as her hearing aids didn’t seem to be working. Adam and I washed up while she took a phone call, after which we cake and pressies. She was very happy with everything. She’s hard to buy for but always appreciates whatever you give her.

While we were there, I received a message from Greg that John had died earlier today. I’m really broken up about it, he was a fine person and I loved him to bits. I can barely remember not knowing him, and had many good times with them over the years…

January 24, 2024

The knee is finally calming down, but I’ll give it at least one more day of rest before doing anything. Adam and Lyra were both out all day, so cat management was on the cards.

After feeding Cleo and giving her access to her crunchies/litter, I moved her to the living room and closed the door so Elsie could race about. She went straight for Cleo’s food, managed a few crunchies before I realised what she was up to.

She wasn’t happy about being shut out of the living room, and actually did some growling and attacking the door. She then tried climbing me like a tree. I think Lyra should be feeding her more and gave her an afternoon top-up of crunchies.

Managed sundry bits of work around the Hubspot integration and some updates on a couple of sites. Had a long chat with Beulah, who sounded a bit off. She’d had an episode where she lost her sense of what was going on but that she was feeling better again. That doesn’t sound good at all. She’s very resistant to seeing the doctor, but I think the guys should push for it.

Took myself across the street to see The Holdovers. Absolutely loved it, laughing out loud at times. The Coop next door has been replaced by Asda. It’s pretty similar, and some of the staff has stayed on. Looks like they might offer a broader range of groceries as well.

January 23, 2024

Got up at 6am to work on the website build. Took all morning, as there was a lot to do. I worked like a demon and finally got a decent version of the bloody thing built by 2pm. In liaising with the agency about transferring the site, it sounds like they weren’t expecting a full build, which is annoying. I was definitely badly and inadequately briefed and will bill for the hours spent. 

Ran out of work energy by about 4pm and headed to the shops to get groceries for bibimbap. Loki came round for dinner. We waited as long as feasible for Adam, but when he didn’t turn up by 7:30, went ahead without him.

Beulah had another fall yesterday, clipping her face on the kitchen counter this time. Didn’t mention it to anyone until the following morning, I so wish she wouldn’t do that.

She hasn’t been answering her phone all afternoon and evening, so Adam and Doron headed up to check she was okay. After ringing the bell, they let themselves in with the key to find her dozing in bed. Gave them hell for startling her and for not calling first to ask if they could visit. So her personality is still in full working order, but the birthday dinner is now off.

I finished watching The Lobster, which I really enjoyed. Another great performance by Colin Farrell.

Jackie texted earlier today to tell us that John is in hospice. Greg called me with an update this evening. John had flu, which developed into pneumonia. He’s on heavy opiates and a respirator and is winding down. So bloody sad, I can hardly stand to think about it…

January 22, 2024

The knee is a bit worse if anything today. Spending my working week sitting at a desk can’t help – I need to ensure I get up and move around more regularly.

Lyra is home sick. It’s isn’t covid ) or at least the test isn’t registering it). She has her final exam tomorrow, and this doesn’t help with the studying.

I was plagued by IT issues all morning, and unable to access any of my websites. Turns out my IP address was being blacklisted by my web host. I’ve had this happen a couple of times with clients and it’s a tricky one to diagnose. I eventually worked out what was happening and tethered my computer to my phone while hounding IT to resolve it.

Frantically building a one-page website for a sports data product, sod’s law. Great design assets, but no brief and far too little time to do the work… Broke off to go to the theatre at 6:15pm. The tube was in disarray, but I got there with ten minutes to spare. Jared Harris in The Homecoming – a Pinter play I haven’t seen before. I wasn’t in the best headspace but I didn’t think much of it. The rest of the audience seemed enraptured, so it was probably me.

January 21, 2024

My knee still isn’t right… I was hoping it would sort itself out in the night…😉 I guess I need to accept that I can no longer hop off the sofa and run 5km, but why can my right knee do it but not my left? That’s part of what’s bugging me. They both did exactly the same thing, and one is A-OK, raring to go and the other complaining bitterly.

Visited the farmers market, where we bought stewing beef from the butcher, a raspberry-almond tart for afternoon tea, Colombian coffee and a few other bits and bobs.

Adam drove to Finchley to collect his mum and brought her back to meet the kitten. I thought she might like Elsie – she’s told us any number of times about her dear white kitten Persil – but I was mistaken.

Turns out that “Elsie is such a strange name for a cat”; “she’s not a plaything, she’s a living creature – I should report you [Lyra] to the SPCA the way you molest her”, “don’t let her climb on the sofa/coffee table/shelf – she’ll ruin it” etc At least the tart was a hit…

Beef barley soup and an episode of Friends for dinner and finally finished The Crown. As much as I think there’s a logic to them covering E2’s entire reign (ie finishing with her death) I also think they’ve run out of road.

January 20, 2024

My left knee is pretty stiff…☹ I’m annoyed at myself for doing two new things at once. Now I don’t know what caused it, unless it was doing too much? I’m not resigned to the reality that I can’t just get up off the sofa and go for a 5km run anymore.

Limped to the pool and swam a mile. The knee was fine aside from pushing off the wall, and I favoured my right leg for that. Took it pretty easy for the rest of the day. Lyra and Ava had gone off to a car boot sale by the time we got home, so let Elsie out of Lyra’s room.

Had a few hours or cat integration. Some minor hissing incidents but nothing too alarming. Elsie managed a tiny hiss herself which was pretty cute.

Caught up with Tanja and Niall this evening, who we haven’t seen since leaving Highgate. Showed them the house then walked (limped) down to the Queens for dinner. We ate in the dining room, which was better for conversation, as the pub was heaving.

Niall’s dad died in October, and they have moved his mum in to live with them. She has Alzheimers, and is unable to cope alone. There has been no mention of her husband (who she seems to have forgotten), but seems very low and conscious of not being a burden to them or causing any trouble. Such a cruel condition, however it manifests…

Tried watching the last episode of The Crown when we got in, but both flaked out before the end…

January 19, 2024

Adam and I went to the gym together this morning. I did a half hour of running followed by a couple of the weight machines. Nothing excessive – I just wanted to check the facilities out, see how long things take, how busy it is, what I might do in future etc.

Spent the morning doing a website estimate for a possible new Jx project. I hadn’t used the estimating worksheet before, so Adam gave me a quick tutorial. Kind of fun. The website is to support a campaign by a Canadian senator for a better business act that seeks to ensure that, in addition to being profitable, businesses benefit wider society and the environment.

Took Lyra and Ava to something called Poetry and Poppadoms this evening. Walked to Wood Green for 6pm, as the “poppadom” portion of the evening is a vegan Indian meal. There were three poets in the line-up, plus the compère who is also a poet.

The first poet drew on her experiences as a 6^th form teacher, which was interesting for the girls. The second one wasn’t my cup of tea. The poems were clever but there was no emotion in her work.

Elvis McGonagall was the main draw. Excellent political stuff – I particularly enjoyed his version of the William Carlos Williams plum poem, Sorry Bout That, and What Did You Do I The Plague Daddy? but they were all good.

January 18, 2024

Alicia came round to see the house after her hot yoga class this morning, bearing champagne. I gave her the full tour, and she seemed pretty impressed – particularly with the opportunity to see both sunrises and sunsets daily. I used to really enjoy the sunrises from our old kitchen, and now have to venture to the roof terrace to catch one. But the sunsets from the office are pretty awesome.

We had Elsie in the living room with us while we had coffee, and Cleo took the opportunity to shift her base from guarding the foot of the stairs, to usurping Elsie’s usual spot on the office sofa.

Lyra got home about noon. The English exam went well, and it’s a relief to have it behind her. She has a second history exam on Tues and that’s it for mocks.

Nova arrived home in the evening for one night. For dinner I made turkey enchiladas and a cabbage-corn slaw that was excellent. Charring the corn kernels in a dry frying pan gives it a wonderful smoky taste.

Lyra had baked tahini chocolate chunk cookies, so we had those as well as some baklava that Adam brought from Bethnal Green. Sat round the table talking until late – it was fun to be together again.

January 17, 2024

Went for my lido swim first thing, knocking off a mile in the fast lane. Shared it with one other swimmer I was faster than for the first half, and then a guy for the second half that was in a different league.

He was almost twice as fast as me I’d estimate, at least at the start of his workout. I was feeling a bit guilty about sharing the same lane but thinking about it, just because he can swim like Michael Phelps he’s not entitled to a private lane in a public pool. People of different abilities can share lanes just fine. The main thing is to be aware of the other swimmers and their relative speeds, stick to the edges and use the turns at the end for passing people, rather than forcing them to overtake you.

More cat hijinks today. Elsie sprung towards Cleo who made several quick swats at her face, then pursued her into the living room when Elsie zoomed off. Confined to the office, Elsie overturned a glass of water on my desk, soaking my papers, but mostly sparing my computer, which was closed fortunately.

 Elsie has worked out how to ring the bell – she’s such a clever little thing:

Made a Palestinian chicken dish with chopped salad for dinner. Watched the finale of season one of Friends, all Lyra has time for while mocks are going on. I quizzed her on quotes for the English mock tomorrow – Mrs Dalloway, Paradise Lost and The Duchess of Malfi.

Put in some work on the field website before bed. Adam has created a volunteer sign-up sheet for the planting weekend next month and needed to update the text to link to it etc. The post he created is acting strangely – not sure why…

January 16, 2024

“Can you come down here please?” Adam shouted up to me at 6:50am this morning. A big jar of kimchi had fallen from the top floor of the fridge when he was getting something and smashed all over the kitchen.

 It looked like a murder scene – I really wish I’d thought to take a picture. It was a complicated clean-up that took almost half an hour, with kimchi slow cooking on the heated tiles the whole time – nice…

 Lyra started her mocks with a history paper. Sounds like it went pretty well – she was happy with the questions that were asked at any rate.

 Got stuck into work and forgot to plan dinner. Adam was out having a drink with someone, so we ordered a Dominos pizza. It’s 50% off if you collect it. Given they are right across the street, it’s a no brainer.

 Went to the cinema with Jane to see Poor Things. I thought it was really good – Emma Stone’s performance is Oscar worthy, and the costumes and sets were fabulous.

January 15, 2024

Adam and I are in “negotiations” about the blackout blinds. He wants the room pitch black while we sleep, while I’d prefer light coming through in the mornings to wake up naturally. It’s interesting how a new living space means questioning established routines and renegotiating territory (just like the cats).

The weather is cold but very bright. There was a gorgeous sunrise from the roof. Headed off to the pool for an 8:30 swim. It was a great morning for it. Shared a lane with one other guy who was exactly my speed, then had it to myself for the last half mile.

Laundry, housework, client work… Lyra has her mocks this week, and is taking advantage of the fab Crouch End library as a place to study. Returned home for lunch – grilled cheese and sauerkraut sandwiches on sourdough rye, an awesome combination.

Cleo seemed a bit less territorial with Elsie this morning, which is encouraging. Nova called to say she’d received an excellent mark on her latest paper, and is currently averaging a first for her masters. Go girl!

January 14, 2024

Had a leisurely Sunday morning, which isn’t usually how we roll. Made it up to Highgate about 11am for our pond swim, parking and walking down the private road as usual. The water was an icy, exhilarating 4°C.

I’ve been thinking about how to use our patio garden space, and it occurs to me that it functions primarily as a view. Realistically we won’t be doing much in it, especially as well can open up the back wall completely if we want. So why not approach it that way, creating something to look at rather than be in? I’m not sure what that might mean – it would be good to discuss it with a garden designer.

Bought groceries for brunch, which was poached eggs on toast. I’d heard about a new poaching technique that had me briefly excited (poaching the egg in a tea strainer) but it was still crap.

Adam headed over to his mums for a visit, and I watched Decision to Leave. Beautiful camera work but I found the story a bit confusing. Dinner was brussels sprouts and potato curry, chana dhal and basmati rice. Pretty nice if I do say so myself.

Watched an episode of Friends then turned off the telly and spent the evening reading. Mary Gaitskill’s The Lost Cat then started my new Vita Sackville-West novel from Pasc.

January 13, 2024

I’m still feeling a bit off – not sick, just sort of meh. I’d booked swimming at 8:30am and decided to go regardless. Fed thecats, close Cleo in the living room with the cat flap open to the patio, and gave Elsie the run of the house, first making sure doors were closed to places I didn’t want her to go.

It was pretty cold and gray. The water was very chilly, aside from little zones of warmth next to the vents. Did my laps in the fast lane, which was fine. The people in there all knew how to share lanes, and it wasn’t that busy. Had an issue with the arch of my foot cramping, but managed to swim through it.

Back home, I reintegrated the cats. Cleo took longer to get hissy with Elsie, but is hell bent on eating kitten food. Read Kevin Kelly’s book, Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier, over breakfast. Some examples:

• “Collecting things benefits you only if you display your collection prominently and share it in joy with others. The opposite of this is hoarding.”
• “You can’t reason someone out of a notion that they didn’t reason themselves into.”
• “You should demand extraordinary evidence in order to believe extraordinary claims.”
• “How to apologize: quickly, specifically, sincerely. Don’t ruin an apology with an excuse.”
• “A balcony or porch needs to be at least 6 feet deep or it won’t be used.”

Spent the afternoon doing our taxes. No fun, but needed to get that job done. For dinner, I made gochuchang noodles, a recipe from the NYT food section. Pretty good, if a bit sweet for my palate.

Watched the rest of the Slow Horses season this evening. Stew drove Lyra home and came into meet Elsie. Apparently their rescue cat is weirdly smelly, with no sign of that new kitten smell we are revelling in.

I moved Cleo’s food into the downstairs loo so she doesn’t feel she has to defend the hallway. I occurred to me that she doesn’t have a place of her own like she did in Kingsley Place.

January 12, 2024

Doron cried off sick so I went along with Adam to the Heath. I was hoping we’d get a lovely sunrise – they can be amazing at this time of year — but it was too cloudy.

The air filter guys were coming round for the annual service, so we moved stuff out of the storage space in advance. They were very appreciative, and commented on how lovely and clean our laundry room is. It’s all relative I guess.

Headed over to see my architect client in the afternoon. Built another project page and started drafting the text. I got home about 6pm. Lyra was still in but heading down to Brixton for a dinner party and then staying at Loki’s for the night.

Adam and I went to the Humble Grape for dinner. I’d thought it was a hole in the wall kind of place, but it goes back a long way and has quite a few tables, with an area of outdoor seating in the summer months.

They are featuring Venetian wines this month, with dishes to match. I had baccala on polenta and a glass of something white they recommended, then a chicken supreme with wild mushrooms and green beans for my main. We shared a carafe of chardonnay with that then a small glass of red with some cheese. Very nice meal…

Home before 11pm, we attempted to watch Slow Horses. Adam fell asleep within minutes, and I didn’t make the end of the episode either.

January 11, 2024

Had the washing machine repair guy around again this morning. This is getting pretty old, let’s hope this is the last of it. This time he secured the hose that vibrates off with some electrician’s tape. We’ll see how that works out…

Finished the art portfolio work – I’m not a big fan of that Cargo platform. I pretty much had handcode everything, and how can they expect their target audience to be able to do that?

I was meant to be going into town with Beulah this afternoon but she has cried off with a cold. An antiques store she and Freddy once patronised sent her a flyer admitting two people to a drinks reception at their premises in Bond Street and she wanted to attend.

I was to head up to hers mid-afternoon, take public transit into town during rush hour, have a glass of prosecco at the shop, public transit her back to Finchley then drive home. I wasn’t keen but was willing to do it after Adam and Doron both cried off.

Adam and Lyra were both out, so I opted to stay in with the cats rather than go to the cinema. It’ll be good when I don’t have to worry that Cleo might eat Elsie in our absence. She’s such a big fattie these days.

January 10, 2024

Went for a lido swim at the start of the day. Felt a bit guilty that my mermaids are meeting today, but it’s at 2:30 which doesn’t work well for me. I did pop out and have a coffee with Kate and Lynne after they’d finished.

Received payment from a client on a few invoices (the oldest dating from August), followed immediately by a request for further work. They weren’t large, but it’s satisfying to be all caught up.  

Adam tells me that now I’m a company director I can sign passport forms. Of course, the main passport forms it would be convenient to sign are our own…😉

January 9, 2024

Lyra’s first day back to school in 2024. We all slept in and it was a fraught rush getting her out the door.

It was my first day home alone with Elsie (and both cats) and the kitten was quite a pesky distraction. I had a couple of important work meetings on my beauty and engineering websites, and Elsie played a role in both. She loves walking across my keyboard and has an uncanny ability to hit obscure combinations of keys that have all manner of unhelpful results.

Paula Vennells, former CEO of the Post Office, has returned her CBE.

January 8, 2024

Went for a morning swim at the lido. The air was icy, with sharp little flakes of snow swirling in the air. Did my mile, sharing the lane with a guy my age in a body swim suit and fancy looking snorkel goggles. He also had hand paddles, a leg float, water bottle and some sort of device that he set on the edge of the pool to track his laps? Analyze his stroke? Calculate split times? Who knows… none of it has done much to improve his swimming abilities thus far…

Made a salad for lunch with Lyra and watched American Gigolo. Hard to see what I ever liked about that movie (aside from the obvious attractions of Richard Gere). It’s pretty shit, and I put it in the charity shop bag after we finished.

Worked until 8:30 on the art portfolio site and Hubspot integration. Lyra was at Loki’s for dinner, so it was a good night for fish. Grilled salmon and made a cucumber salad. We’re watching Mr Bates vs the Post Office, which tells the story of how local postmasters were issued with software that didn’t work properly. People were held liable for the discrepancies – bankrupted, jailed, and driven to suicide. It turns out the Post Office knew the software was faulty but hid the fact despite the devastation it had caused.

The show has had such an impact that there are now a million signatures on a petition for the woman who headed the Post Office at that time to be stripped of her CBE. I don’t think the show is particularly well done, but am very pleased the scandal is now getting the attention it warrants.

January 7, 2024

Got out of London today. Packed a lunch in the morning and headed off for a walk in Oxfordshire with Kiran and Birgit. It was a cold day, and I definitely needed a toque and gloves, even when we were walking.

We did a loop from the village of Ibstone. There was an impressive standing stone in the field we set off from. It had the look of a megalith, but a bit of googling informed us that it was an upstart from 2000.

Veggie sausages, mash and peas for dinner while watching Dirty Harry. Lyra had seen Magnum Force round Stewarts the night before and suggested it. I definitely saw Magnum Force at the Parkwood Cinema with Patty C and David when it came out. That was 1973… hard to believe they were admitting 7-9 year olds, but they did. It made quite an impression on me…

January 6, 2024

Went for a swim first thing. Added another 200 metres and am up to 1,400 now. The pool was nice and quiet, which is always a bonus.  

Took Elsie to the vet for her first vaccination, opting for the fancy course that protects against leukemia. She was so well behaved – she is a sweet-natured little thing. Though she did produce a tiny squeak of indignation when the vet stuck her with the needle.

The next client in the waiting room was very taken with Elsie and got most excited when she heard she was a free rescue kitten. Free kittens are a rare phenomenon in London. She gave me her number and Lyra checked in with her classmate, but all the litter are now spoken for.

January 5, 2024

I was gratified to have a few invoice payments come in so promptly. I always appreciate that, but especially in January when my bank account has been pounded pretty hard by Christmas. I need to pay taxes at the end of the month as well.

I got the field website donations plugin working, and we’ve already had a few contributions – friends and family of course, but we can work on getting the site and project in front of a wider audience. I favour hosting a “wine and trees” party at some point to talk about the project and encourage contributions and tree sponsorship.

Read a great feature in the New York Times today, called The Lives They Lived: Remembering some of the artists, innovators and thinkers we lost in the past year.  Lots of interesting stories – Sinead O’Connor, Tina Turner, Cormac McCarthy, Jerry Springer, Harry Belafonte, Burt Bacharach, Rosalynn Carter…

My favourite was Marianne Mantell, a girl Nova’s age who invented the audiobook when she recorded Dylan Thomas reading five poems and a short story he’d recently published in Harper’s Bazaar “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”. They managed to find a record label to release it on vinyl and sold 400,000 copies.

January 4, 2024

Headed to the Lido for a morning swim, managing 1,200 metres this time. It’s satisfying to notice the improvement.

Slowly easing in to work again, clearing email and building my to-do list mainly. Also made a start on the HubSpot migration work for the beauty website – that’s going to take a good chunk of time in the coming weeks.

There was a great story in the news today about a thirteen-year-old boy in Oklahoma who “broke” Tetris by reaching the highest possible score. You can actually watch the whole game on YouTube if you’re that way inclined.

Watched the rest of Superbad, which I have to admit I liked as much as Maestro…

January 3, 2024

Adam headed back to the office this morning. I too went to my office, though it took me a while to get into gear. There was a mountain of emails to sift through (many of them unsolicited) and my December invoicing. I should have done it before stopping for the holidays, but I had the idea I might do a bit more work before the end of the month. Ha…

After Lyra went out, I had Elsie with me in the office, where she tore about like a Tasmanian devil. She’s so cute that it’s impossible not to laugh at her antics. Such a dear little thing, especially in contrast to Cleo’s glowering, lumpen presence. Cleo is slowly getting used to Elsie, but it will be a while before I’d consider leaving them alone together.

Lyra was out for the evening as well at a jazz performance with Loki and his dad. Leftovers for dinner and a long evening walk afterwards. We’re seeing how long we can get doing our 10,000 steps per day. Loki and Lyra came back to ours for the night. She’s still off school this week, and not going back until next Tuesday.

January 2, 2024

We’ve discovered that the manifold in Nova’s closet is leaking, which may be why the boiler keeps losing pressure. Simon came round to look at that and tightened something. Another £50 no doubt…

Took down the Christmas decorations and Adam hauled the tree off to Priory Park for recycling. I usually do it the 6^th but we put the tree up early this year, so taking it down early feels fine. Plus we’re back to work tomorrow…

Got out for a walk late afternoon. There’s a storm lashing the UK today, and although rain let up the winds were fierce. Did a bit of the Parkland Walk towards Highgate but the way the trees were lashing around it felt safer sticking to main roads.

Lyra had taken herself off to Enfield for another nose piercing – this time opting for a more traditional side stud. Ate dinner a bit earlier than usual before crossing the street to see Priscilla, which we all really enjoyed.

January 1, 2024

I was up before 8am, leaving Adam to sleep in. Headed down to Lyra’s bedroom to have a visit with Elsie, who very pleased to see me and full of beans. Fed both cats, then relaxed in the living room with my Trollope novel.

After a bit I brought Elsie downstairs for a little explore. She tore about like a maniac and made her first attempt at climbing the bookshelves – I was dreading that.

We wanted to go for a long walk, but Lyra hadn’t returned from Loki’s and I didn’t want to leave the kitten for too long. Eventually got in touch of her. Loki is feeling very sick and his family had gone out for a walk so she felt she should stay. By time she got home it was too late for what we’d planned to do. A rainy version of our New River/Ally Pally route would have to suffice.

There are a couple London walking routes it might be good to tackle this year – the London Loop and the Capital Ring. I’d like to do the Thames Path at some point as well. And another tube line walk…

Made a vegetarian Hoppin’ John for dinner – basically a variant of Spanish rice without tomato but including black eyed peas. Watched Maestro, which wasn’t great. The acting was good, the directing and script not so much. I came away not thinking much of Leonard Bernstein.