I have put off sorting car rental on France for Wednesday, and now Bastille Day has hit me in the face. Merde.

"I win, though" The twinkle in his eye was an absolute tonic during lockdown. Gutted to see the news today. youtu.be/lV-xZqiLAi0?...

Glad to see this happening in our part of town. www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/area/east-be...

My car with the crappy ventilation is a black hellbox today. I thought I was managing ok. Then i went round a roundabout and encountered a new bit of the steering wheel that almost gave me third degree burns.

Ta dah!

I hope you have better plans for your Friday evening than I do.

One of my favourite examples of Belfast street art got painted over (as was foretold within, maybe!), but in Vienna i think i got to see the inspiration.

Lidl lollies rule.

Hannah Spencer stealing the show again. Get ready for her reaction.

Weird siren going for ages in south/east Belfast direction.

All is calm, ordered turn-taking at my bird feeder, until the starling siblings appear. Their squabbling is ridiculous, no wonder their ma sends them out to give her head peace.

An A-Z of Work, by David Arnold, inspired by his time working at Kingsnorth Power Statiok from 1983 to 1992. Typeset and printed by hand on an Adana 8x5 press by @halfpintpress.bsky.social in an edition of 125. Cover woodcut by Billy Childish.

Dream gig.

It's almost time!!!! So very excited. Friends, family, colleagues, so many people i know are going.

Got home from a school trip an hour ago. Ready to go out to my pal's leaving do. prosecco on arrival is likely to floor me, but sure.

The last night of my last ever school trip. It's been a fantastic trip, and taking young people away to show them a little bit of Europe has been a highlight of my career for sure, since my first Italy trip in 2005. Handing over the baton, time for sonething new.

We'vehad art and science and music and history so far in Vienna. Today is rollercoasters.

Temperatures in Austria are peaking around 5pm each day, not the usual middle of the day period. I'd love a science reason why, but am too tired and hot to work it out. Anyone?

It would appear that Belfast is not much cooler than Vienna! Manageable enough so far, but we're sticking to the shade and everyone is inordinately pleased when we go into a museum. Several have bought the genius invention of a fan that plugs into your phone and draws energy from the battery.

I picked Vienna for a June school trip this week partly because I thought it would be cooler than Florence, our previous destination. I mean, it is, technically, but still. 😬

Fantastic sunset up at Glenmachan tonight

We were absolutely spoilt in the 70s for kids books. No celebrity authors and computer generated graphics for us. This is incredible.

A scene from this haunts me still. Lorraine Ellison's Stay With Me Baby featured.

Someone is pretty pleased with themselves for this headline. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Pupils are leaving back textbooks since their GCSEs or A-levels are finished. They can't stop grinning. Biggest smiles I see all year. I'm always so pleased to see them heading off to properly enjoy the summer. I do feel a bit for their poor friends who inevitably mumble, I've physics on Monday...

My eldest is 20 today, somehow. He's to get up for work soon, it's more than likely he's been up half the night watching football, and after managing to keep it quiet for years, I think today a lot of folks will realise he shares a birthday with yer man. Hope he gets decent tips, at least!

Algae vs vinegar. Easy win. Well, not easy. Took two of us a couple of visits, with scrubbing brushes and water and elbow grease, and a fair bit of the algae has come home with us on our clothes and faces and specs, in my case. Still. Victory. 💪 @carnegieoldpark.bsky.social

I've dithered for a week but 12 year old me has won.

Watching from Belfast, this is beyond farce.

I'm taking forty 14 year olds to Vienna at the end of the month and while the admin of it is a beast, I've a renewed enthusiasm for it now because I'm getting them out of the country for 5 days. Our youngsters deserve better than what Belfast is currently showing them.

Belfast schools closed, transport cancelled, we're all prisoners in our own homes, and some people are terrified of what the next days might bring. I'm raging and frustrated. Don't know how to explain to my teenagers how this place is, because today I hate it.

Cars on fire in a driveway. Antrim Road direction, i think. Really depressing scenes on Sky News.

Schools now working through this legislation for next year and glad to see some sensible decisions being made on trousers for girls. Just checking the fine print on my sons' uniform policy to see if male and female pupils now have the same rules for pieces of metal in their earlobes.

On this evidence, significantly smarter than AI.

Bruce does brilliant love songs. "Well, it ain't no secret, I've been around a time or two. Well, I dont know baby, maybe you've been around too."

When you find an item you want on six different websites but they all refuse to deliver to NI....and then they start pestering your inbox with " Did you forget something? Still waiting for you!"

I sometimes think we need to remember how to do low tech so we can keep control of our future.

I have a kind of reaction to the sight of potato plants, that i can't describe. It might be primal, might be in my DNA. When my dad calls round and asks me what I'm growing this year, there's a faint but unmistakable hint of disappointment if the list doesn't include spuds. So here we are.

Another new plan. 20 years of inaction, what an absolute shambles. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A week's holiday in France has been booked! A village in Loire region with an abbey that dates from 1100, then Tours, where we've stayed before and which is the perfect sized city for teenagers who want to explore. And their ma, who wants to sit in that square with a coffee and a book.

Fence produce makes me inexplicably happy. Broccoli already underway, never grown it before. Lettuce, carrots and peashoots sown today.

I don't have any cats. Loving life there on my bench this morning (one is, at least). I wonder how i can negotiate with them to toilet elsewhere?

This was my soundtrack to cleaning the kitchen this morning, and it's just brilliant. The bits about Belfast in the 90s in particular, but so much more as well. Loved it. youtu.be/MqminV1kHpY?...

Adventures in middle age: checking with husband what time he's heading to rugby tonight, and in reply he asked me what time I'm heading out. Now both of us are trying to remember where I might be going, what time and with whom? I don't think I have plans, but now I'm wondering...

Just seen footage of Belfast's deputy lord mayor singing and playing outside Kelly's Cellars to open the Blues Festival. Wearing the chain n all. Impressive fella!

A Mouldy Sandwich Forgotten In a Child's Lunchbox The Whole Summer Holiday 51% Wes Streeting 30%

Just seen the lineup for a Dept of Education school leaders' conference this week. 77% of the teaching workforce here is female. 25% (3/12) of the speakers there are female. Not taking away from any of the speakers, some great folks. But honestly, I'm just tired of it.

Share a song from the year you turned 18. youtu.be/4iM4aDitCoc?...

Different start word every day continues to be a winner. Wordle 1,785 2/6 ⬜⬜🟨🟩🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩