Third batch of the season, and I have reached the ‘I never want to see a Seville orange again in my entire life’ (or at least not until next year) stage of marmalade making.

My cat has never been fed by anyone in her entire life, and if there appears to be food already in her dish then you're merely imagining it.

Just saw my first Waymo driverless car on the streets of London. Call me a Luddite, but there was something very sinister-looking about it...

Tit Hall by (nick)name, bunch of tits by nature, it seems.

@tomshakespeare.bsky.social Happy New Year from my very sticky kitchen (I’ve just had a little lick of it, and I think it’s worked out ok)!

This afternoon I’ll be singing carols outside while freezing my bits off for at least 90 minutes. Wondering if I can take a companion for extra warmth.

Something a bit unusual for the season, from our new @peterhousecam.bsky.social Choir disc: Byrd's Ne irascaris, Domine re-arranged for Christmas, as heard in Peterhouse Chapel at Christmas in the 1630s open.spotify.com/track/51kurW...

Just managed to catch my cat in the nick of time as she was about to lick the brandy butter. Which would have been...interesting (if hilarious).

Top tip of the day: do not stuff your fridge so full of Christmas food that an entire tub of beetroot soup falls out and spills everywhere. Not unless you actually *want* your kitchen (not to mention your legs) to look like the scene of a particularly brutal axe murder.

I've just been catching up with @siglodeorovocal.bsky.social on the radio this morning www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/.... Wonderful stuff! Now Radio 3 needs to broadcast an entire Siglo concert.

Very chuffed to have won a copy of this beautiful book by @mattfromlondon.bsky.social and @thisismikehall.com (plus accompanying print). Looking forward to regaling my family with nerdy nuggets of Londonness.

Loving the BBC Singers performing the O antiphons set by female composers on Radio 3 right now. This is basically my idea of radio heaven.

Enjoyable carol service singing with Faire is the XI this evening (I'm not a cricketer - I merely got roped in), made even more enjoyable by this fabulous typo.

For years I was misled by 'misled' - it wasn't until I was in my late teens that I realised it didn't rhyme with 'bristled'.

Enjoyable evening belting out carols with the choir of @peterhousecam.bsky.social under @sjjackson32.bsky.social, whose timely arrival with copies of the music (no thanks to the trains between Cambridge and London) meant that we didn't all have to improvise our own interesting harmonies/descants.

Dead

For those of you in the UK, especially if you are a UK citizen, can you please take part in the consultation on changes to Indefinite Leave to Remain (Settlement) that were just proposed by the UK government. We need as many people as possible to reject these proposals. www.gov.uk/government/c...

You’ve seen Stir-up Sunday - now let me introduce Whirr-up Wednesday.

Genuinely affordable housing?

They could market a gluten-free version under the tagline 'Pleni sunt coeliac et terra gloria tua'.

Good to see there are still some decent Labour MPs out there. I just hope voices like Creasy's can prevail.

@patrickallies.bsky.social Apologies if I turn up tomorrow with a slightly hairy copy of the Manchicourt!

My mum (who, bless her, is well known for her malapropisms) yesterday kept referring to the Ministry of Sound (large nightclub in Elephant & Castle) as 'The Sound of Music', and I'm still silently laughing.

Very much a 'there but for the grace of god' moment reading this. My incredible daughter is thriving now, and training to be a doctor, but she's said that she's alive despite the system, not because of it.

So relieved to have bought a non-tickling teapot.

This week I'm tackling why creative women need to be allowed to fail. Women composers have been judged as women first and artists second for too long. It hampers creativity, and does nobody any credit to make gender such an important part of listening. leahbroad.substack.com/p/why-creati...

There has been a lot to despair of in the world recently, but a Christmas tree at the start of November in my local supermarket has clinched it for me. Complete abomination.

The Telegraph with its finger on the pulse of the nation once more.

This is excellent news! Armand is my cousin’s lad, and definitely one to watch.

Catching up with today's Early Music Show from @hannahcfrench.bsky.social while chopping up quinces, which seems a suitably 16th century pastime.

Local fox posing for his autumnal portrait.

While the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours, survivors return home – to a wasteland | Nesrine Malik

My second-year uni accommodation is number five on this list! Not the most beautiful building in Cambridge, but I loved living there. My ground floor room was surrounded by garden (or the 'Deer Park' as it was known, despite its complete lack of deer). www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Wonderful to switch on the radio a few minutes ago and hear @musicasecreta.bsky.social singing as I was cooking tea.

A brilliant piece about autism from Rhiannon Lucy Coslett, to counter all the negative coverage the condition is getting. As the mother of two autistic children (one only recently diagnosed), their wonderful autistic quirks are what I love most about them. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I have just been to see @ifagiolini.bsky.social perform Monteverdi's Vespers, and it was complete and utter musical perfection.

Off to the march (ok, so it looks like an owl. But I had all of 5 minutes to make this, and I don’t suppose owls like him either).

Signed actionnetwork.org/petitions/e8...

Add your message and we will deliver it to Number 10 to show the strength of feeling in our communities. ✍️ secure.hopenothate.org.uk/page/177398/...

Eurovision embodies a culture of unity, defiance & joy. To platform Israel, a state carrying out genocide in Gaza, killing 64,000+ people & silencing journalists on that stage, is obscene. The BBC must join Irish state broadcaster others in saying: no genocide in Eurovision.

@byekitty.bsky.social Have you seen this? Apparently they need a couple more altos.

This should be brilliant. Of all the choir workshops I've attended, Patrick's stand out as being among the very best, and the music is to die for.

Reposting this because it should never, ever become normalised, or just background news. Nobody would attempt such a crossing unless they were desperate. We need safe routes, and we need them now.

The late John Okell who taught me Burmese language when I did my soc. anth. MA at @soasuni.bsky.social back in the '90s. One of the kindest, humblest, and most erudite people I've ever had the honour to meet, and the most brilliant teacher anyone could wish for. I miss him dearly.

My most eccentric teacher was Mr Turner, who taught A level music. He would often break off mid-sentence and talk about his incontinent cat, but even more idiosyncratic was the way he dealt with latecomers. When the class was due to begin, he would ask us if anyone had a piece of chewing gum 1/

It's Release Day! Volume 2 of our Morales series is out today. <Put amusing Morales-related witticism here> Buying it from Amazon, Presto Classical, or Hyperion Records will help our UK Chart Position. (Yes, really!) We'd be awfully grateful.

Excellent work from my old choir. We never did anything so exciting back in my day as a choral scholar!

Huge thanks to @auroraorchestra.bsky.social not only for their electrifying performance of Shostakovich 5 at the Proms tonight, but also for programming one of my favourite symphonies on my birthday. An astonishing feat all round.