Played in a ‘band’ with my 5yo son and 65yo mum this evening. We recorded a song (obviously) and my son asked if I would put it on YouTube. He said our band name would be ‘Slop’.

Being able to see the silly little reels that my friends like on Instagram make them even funnier. (I have spent my time well while Phil does drop off).

We picked a haul of brand new books from the library including this one - mythical recycling trucks! (Brum, IYKYK)

Made more baby pantalooooons this time in one nap - and they’re made from an old shirt of her dada’s. I used the button holes as a panel down the side of one leg, managed to keep the pocket, and made them long so she can grow into them. Excellent doomscrolling alternative.

Don’t study them too closely but my latest sewing project is finished! More cute trousers for my little babe, made during three of her naps. These trousers have cuffs I can let down when she gets bigger.

Had a panic attack before going to baby yoga but made it 👍 now to spend the next 7 days worrying about everything I did and said there, probably everyday until the next class 👍 thanks brain! Instructor took cute pictures at least.

‘Home is were your Heart is’ - can’t think why this was donated to the charity shop.

I thought that playing nineties hits on Spotify would be a fun option for my son’s telly time compared to the usual cartoons.... but I quickly had to switch it off when my son froze in horror at Robbie Williams peeling off his skin in the 'Rock DJ' video.

I can’t believe I’m still poorly with a cold / chest infection. Thought I’d recover of my own accord but no. Antibiotics next week I think!

Trying to guess who tomorrow’s Dispatch article is about and there’s actually too many men in hospitality to choose from 🫠

I don’t think I’m less valuable than I used to be. If anything, I’m more. Eg when you’ve vibe-coded some React-based thing (that as that article says, works), you’ll wonder why mine is 7 times quicker and more accessible: bsky.app/profile/drac...

(sea monster bio) You've probably seen my writhing in The Atlantic

<Insert moan about how difficult things are and how awful everything is.>

We’ve told the 5yo that the telly is broken, as the telly appears to turn him in to a zombie. We are on day 3 of no screens and it’s the first day of half term. Will we make it through the week without it? Tune in to find out!

I was simply not prepared for the sheer quantity of bananas and cucumbers my two kids get through in a week.

Shout out to the other five people who are looking at the exact same doormat as me on Dunelm on Valentine’s Day evening. We know how to live!

Everyone in the UK right now

Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick

I don’t mean to brag but I’m up to date with washing. Does that mean a sickness bug is incoming?

One thing I unironically like about this website is that a lot of times the top trending topic is Antiques Roadshow.

This story will be in my next collection, 'Thin Places in Hard Concrete'. I'm chuffed to have been able to collaborate on this audio version with Giles who is one of the most interesting people on social media and has been for years.

I did the school run without the baby and went to the supermarket on my own. Me time 😆

“We built the web on optimistic assumptions. We assumed good faith. We assumed people would respect robots.txt because we all understood we were building something great together. The Web was supposed to be for everyone.” This is a very true, very depressing read.

While walking the kids upstairs to start the bedtime routine we sing ‘get the babies in the bath’ to the sound of Drowning Pool’s Let The Bodies Hit The Floor which is not _age appropriate_ to share my with my 5yo, so imagine my DELIGHT that I can show this video tomorrow youtu.be/u8ccGjar4Es

📢 Can you or your organisation help us to gather the emails of 2026 local election candidates? We're happy to share the spreadsheet with local charities and orgs! ✉️ Get in touch using our contact form - choose the '2026 election campaign' option: betterstreetsforbirmingham.org/get-in-touch/

My baby has learned to crawl - as has her baby best friend who is 9 days older than her. Can’t wait to race them like snails in the week.

I haven’t done any sewing in weeks. Managed to sort my newsletter *and* clear my desk before N woke up. Hopefully it doesn’t become a dumping ground again before I can sew in my next window of opportunity (tomorrow night!)

Spending my child free time before bed / baby dream feed, moving my newsletter from Substack to Beehiiv. Didn’t take long moving existing content. Just a bit fiddly moving draft content as I’m three newsletters ahead.

Tonight I really need to go to sleep at the same time as the kids. I say it every night and never do it. If you catch me on here later, tell me off!

I'm going to share a very good story about the internet. I won't tell it well because I apparently have the flu, but I think we all need a good story about the internet. It starts in 2021, when I took a sabbatical and got a little workspace to write a design book.

Once again left standing at a pedestrian crossing unable to cross, despite the green man showing, because of drivers continuing to go through on the red light. What is wrong with people? How do we get them help?

Latest food hyperfixation is soft boiled eggs on toast with harissa butter. I shall eat this every day until I can no longer bear to eat it. See ya, cheese and marmite toasties, you had a good run.

We are dedicating our February "Circle the City" ride to the memory of Councillor Waseem Zaffar, champion of bold transport policy and cleaner air for everyone. Riders will be welcome to say a few words about Councillor Zaffar when we gather at Hippodrome Square at 6 PM on Friday, 6th February.

We made it! 1 hour each way from home to the children’s hospital and both 5yo & 6 month old were angels. B’s back at school now and me and littlest are home recovering 😆

Eldest has a hospital appointment tomorrow morning and we are going to get there via public transport. It has been a while... ear defenders at the ready 🙉

As it’s LGBTQ+ History Month I thought I’d share some bits from my new book Tales of the Suburbs: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains (out in mid March) just to give a flavour of what was going on beyond the privet…

The 5yo is at his grandparents so I haven’t needed to have a drink* after a double bedtime. *I’m not a wine mum, I’m a hot choc mum.

Still on our Ottolenghi roll (recipe book: Jerusalem), we had meatballs, rice/lentils, a nice salad and boiled eggs with sumac which was well past its best before date. I Ottolenghi’d too hard in 2019 and haven’t been able to face it since.

If you take a breath of Birmingham's air today, give a thought to Waseem Zaffar, an all too rare example of a local politician willing to tackle the problem of car dominance. Our city is greatly diminished by Councillor Zaffar’s shocking passing.

Shocked to read Birmingham (Lozells) Councillor Waseem Zaffar has died, aged 44. www.itv.com/news/central...

Shocked everyone including myself by going for a run this morning. Ran a 6m kilometre which I haven’t done in over 5 years! (I’m being relentlessly chased by a metaphorical black dog.)

I’ve never kept my son in after school club past 5pm, and he’s never been to breakfast club, because I’m on mat leave so there’s no need. As a result: he thinks some children sleepover at school because he sees them already in the classroom in the morning.

Left the house for the first time since …. Wednesday? Maybe even Tuesday. Anyway. Took compost to the allotment child-free. Bulbs pushing through mulch feel metaphoric for me pushing through brain mush.

It’s only now, two babies later, that I realise why some of the hand me down clothes I’ve been given had stains. It’s because they were probably being sorted in the dark like I’m doing now 😂

Colin Stetson at the conservatoire! Unfortunately Tuesdays are a tricky night for us childcare wise so I won’t be going but you may wish to! supersonicfestival.com/product/coli...

The cats have claimed my electric throw.

Anyway I made a gnome bonnet from an old babygrow (too faded in parts to pass on) and a bib with material from the fabric swap a few months back. Also made a big felt mess making a solar system and burgers with my bigger kid 😆

Solo bedtimes are really tough on the bigger kid. Wish he had the concept of time so didn’t shout for me every 90 seconds pulling at my heart strings - baby might stand a chance of sleeping and then he might stand a chance of more 1-1 time.

‘This is what fascism looks like’: terror in Minneapolis reminiscent of civil war

Right, these garden birds aren’t going to watch themselves