I went to a 5 year old's birthday yesterday, held in the gym and canteen of a local secondary school. I guess it's rented by a soft play company for the weekend and they try and cram in as many parties as possible. Maybe schools need to do this now. Perhaps a solution for our struggling NHS? 😐

Said 3 year old also made this awesome monster cars this evening. Don't worry, it's an expired membership card.

The 3 year old got a sticker at nursery today. I asked her why and she said it was for eating all of her pizza. What a life!

The 3 year old has a toy cow that she's named Caws (sounds like Klaus), which is Cymraeg for cheese.

About 3 weeks ago I quit Twitter. In that time, I've managed to put together a photography zine about my new-ish home town and the hidden river that runs under it. The zine itself was supposed to arrive today, but didn't. But here is the full collection of images: joepbenge.myportfolio.com/afon-adda

Can't imagine what today was like in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Éire. We had some strong winds here - strong enough that they closed the Britannia bridge for a few hours - but nothing like what was predicted. It ended up being a lovely day on the North Wales coast by mid-afternoon.

The kid has laid a very delicate and sneaky trap in the kitchen.

I'm a big fan of the Brambell building, but I think it also says a lot about the divide between the university and the rest of Bangor. Bangor’s Brutalist ‘Eyesore of the Year’ listed search.app/sWDdssDazjbs...

This is a lovely book. We read it for bed time tonight. Maybe my 3 year old is a bit young for the language and style it's written in, but it would be really valuable for slightly older children.

My partner is wearing a pair of Lucy and Yak trousers today and I told her she looks like a hot nurse in scrubs. Our 3 year old heard this and is now running around the garden shouting "HOT NURSE" over and over.

I couldn't really care less about the US government banning TikTok, to be honest. Although I do find it amusing that Americans of a certain age are up in arms about young people being influenced by it, when a huge chunk of their own generation has been radicalised on Facebook.

I'm doing an NVQ for work this year and, because I don't have a GCSE in IT, I need to take a Digital Literacy class for the next few weeks. One of the other students in the class is literally a school boy in his uniform.

I got to see inside the old walled garden at work today. This was built in the 1860s for John Platt MP, who lived here on the estate. The original greenhouses here were used to grow pineapples. A lot of work has been done by staff and patients to restore and make this a usable space again.

My partner and I are thinking of getting bikes. Our local independent bike shop is named Evolution Bikes, and I couldn't resist making an "Evolution, not revolution" joke to her. She was not impressed. #Partridge

Bit late, really. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

I might have the opportunity to take a solo trip in March (my wife is going to the US in April, so she suggested I go somewhere too). I want to take either a train journey or a ferry trip somewhere in Europe, and somewhere cheapish. I was thinking about the Belgrade to Bar train. Any suggestions?

Thinking about buying this human pasta maker to use at home. Would've been quite useful when I was teaching.

My child brought this book home from Nursery. I have to say, I think Jillian is taking a few liberties with her claims of authorship here.

My 3 year old is telling me all about Gekko from PJ Masks. She insists his real name is Gravy. It's actually Greg, but ok.

This was the present I got my 3 year old for Christmas. Not sure she's quite ready to build it herself, but she really enjoys running the marbles down it. I'm loving it too.

One of my favourite things this year was finally getting around to investigating what happened to my Dad's cross. He showed me this photo a couple of years ago, taken in the early 1960s when he was a welder in East London. He told me he made this cross for the cathedral in Liverpool.

Finally caught up with my partner and our child at the in-laws, after a long train journey. My wife's taken the air bed, so it looks like I'm sharing a small double bed with a three year old who is currently sprawled sideways across the middle of it. #DuvetKnowItsChristmas

There is a takeaway called Lebanese Grill on New Kent Road in South London and every time I've gone past in the past year or more there's been a massive queue outside. Even tonight, at 10pm on Christmas Eve, there's maybe 40 people waiting outside for their half chicken.

Just made my connecting train in Chester, despite being half an hour early. Somehow ended up waiting on the wrong platform and had to dash across from platform 6 to platform 1.

I got an Employee of the Month award yesterday, which is probably one of the saddest things to brag about, but I am also quite proud of it.

What I love most about the Earthrise photo, taken on this day in 1968, is that it was completely unanticipated. No-one at NASA had imagined that the Apollo 8 crew would have this view. As the mission transcript shows, they got rather agitated in the rush to capture the moment.

I had to work today, so now I have the pleasure of taking the last train from Bangor back to London. 2 changes. Approximately 4 and a half hours

We were picking up the 3 year old from nursery this evening and I spotted this tiny mouse hopping across the road. We went to look for it and it came right up to us. I thought it was going to jump at me.

Raymond Depardon's photos of Glasgow in the early 1980s are amazing, and many of them feature children at play. They were unpublished for more than 30 years.

Timed this perfectly. Couldn't think of a better way to spend the hours between 10pm and midnight.

I'm really enjoying the new Tinariwen album, Idrache (Traces of the Past). It's mostly demos and unreleased tracks from studio sessions in the mid-2000s. youtu.be/rBFABc8DaD0?...

My partner's got an open day at uni today, so I'm solo parenting. The wind and rain from Storm Bert are crazy outside, so we're stuck at home all day. Just had the first "When is Mama coming home?" at 9.30am. Feels like it's gonna be a long day.

A tale of 2 afternoons in 1. 2pm at the pier, and 4.30pm at home. If you look closely at the first pic, you can (or can't, more accurately) see the Great Orme completely blanketed in the fog that's just caught up with us in Bangor.

Had my first driving lesson this evening. I've barely even sat behind the wheel of a car, so it was all new learning for me. Some very hard stops! But I felt like I made some massive progress by the end of the lesson.

I'm committed to moving over here from Twitter, but it might take a while. Also do a bit of photography, over on Threads, if anyone is interested in that. I'll probably bring a bit of it here too. www.threads.net/@jpbng?invit...

Spent the afternoon at Trearddur Bay today. Every time we're here, I have to check out the Bronze Age waterlogged trees on the beach. The spongey feel of walking on the compacted surface of 6000 year old trees is such a thrill.

My 3 year old has been off nursery with a chest infection for most of this week. We've been watching a lot of Maddie & Triggs, a new show about a visually impaired girl and her dog. It's about sounds and listening closely, and also about making up songs. www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/sho... We love it.