My new writing desk is IN! Thank you for this generous gift, @hyacsho.bsky.social ! 🤗💪🙏

HOW is it possible that what should be a glorious confluence of creamy, spicy sweetness has no taste or flavour whatsoever? Ooh-La-La Creperie’s Spiced cinnamon apple, stewed black raisins, waffle syrup, vanilla crepe dough, and Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice-cream has me wondering if I have COVID again…

Mostly just looking forward to having more space so that Tigger doesn’t do THIS every time I sit down to work!

This is the space @hyacsho.bsky.social’s gorgeous wooden desk will go in my writing space. I’m proper hashtag blessed that he gifted me this desk as he and Demon get ready to move to Cape Town.

They do say that moving is in the top 3 most stressful things in life, the other two being death and divorce. #FunFact: the 4th most stressful thing in life is driving in Dubai.

There's no lead in your pencil and it used to be called plumbago, which sounds like a divine dessert, to me.

This week and year started with a win. I started a blog with my friend @bloggsymalone.bsky.social . It's like making your bed first thing in the morning right, started this year with a win. I also attempted solitude at the beach.

I started a blog! 😜 Started it same time as my dear friend @bloggsymalone.bsky.social I will be speaking about gaming, publishing, art, design, marketing-ish It's my small way of rebelling against corpo internet. Bloggsy here: bloggsymalone.bearblog.dev Mine here: brettmagill.bearblog.dev

I love this idea! I used an analogue version of this concept in my early days of recovery to help me reach my first significant sobriety milestones - so this app is genius and I can see so many great uses for it!

I AM WRITING AGAIN! Last year @brettmagill.bsky.social / @hyacsho.bsky.social challenged me to start writing again after canning my blog in 2020. We both launched today and we’d love your eyes on our words. Read mine here: bloggsymalone.bearblog.dev Read Brett’s here: brettmagill.bearblog.dev

Hello @news.sky.com - I don’t know who is doing your banner ads, but goodness, this is less than ideal!

My baby and bloggsy

Best way to see out 2025? With the legend that is @hyacsho.bsky.social, and Demon, who is neither in this photo nor on BlueSky. Happy New Year, you gorgeous lot!

Watson’s side-eye is terrifying…

One is Tex Kelly. The other is Ryan Kelly. For the longest time, I thought that they were either the same person, or brothers. They are neither.

When the streetlights inadvertently complete the orange/blue gradient for a perfect dusk palette…

Here you go - proof I don’t *always* smoke my pipe in every photo.

Gotta love the #StreisandEffect - most effective way to go viral. Also, I hate that I just typed “to go viral”.

Met this cuddly stray at Kite Beach and risked the wrath of my own two cats by cuddling her. A real purr machine, this one.

#TeamTrifle, me! And I want you to hate it, so I can have your share!

Quick scan of the few posts I’ve made here this year - I DO need to post something other than me smoking a pipe. It’s not *that* kind of account this. Though maybe when I move to Utrecht, it will be. 😬😇

Winter’s finally here, which means our Saturday walks can venture outside Dubai Mall, which in turn means we run into sights like this roaming podcaster. And yes, mysterious man + intriguing van, and I lost all sense of self-preservation. If he offered me cheese, I’d have gone anywhere with him…

MY GUY! One of my first random buddies on this site! Mr. "Bridges" Malone! I love his freaking selfies and I'm sharing cause I'm obsessed with this pic and the angle and that building AND JUST THE WHOLE PICTURE!

Good morning, you beautiful lot. May your day be sunny and your pipes sublime!

Morning you beautiful people. May your coffee sustain you, your work load be lighter than a fairy kiss, and your pipes sublime. 🫶

Good morning, you beautiful lot! May your pipes be lovely!

Cool cat and cool cat.

Who called it diarrhoea and not dire rear? (Someone with a propensity for vowel movements, that's who!)

Am writing. I think that's what the writers say when they are quiet but productive, yes?

*changes name to Muriel*

Sharing this again, because hell, just caught myself typing an angry response to a serially ignorant repeat offender of sweeping generalisations. Breathed in. Deleted my paragraph, realising it’s not my duty to educate the ignorant and waste my energy defiling my mood. Scroll past.

There is fruit in it which means it’s practically a salad…

Did this estate agent just this property with a key selling point being the Burj Khalifa view? What - you mean that tiny sliver barely visible between the other buildings, several kilometres away? Yes. Yes, he did.

I think a big energy shift is needed. Too much weight in the current trajectory. I need a big change in so much. At that point where the pain of staying still outweighs the pain of change.

Gosh, Dubai PR agencies - you get so much wrong about Chef’s Tables. Like spectacularly so - and the poor unsuspecting restaurants are paying you exorbitant rates for these failures of promotion. I think I should write about it and educate you all.

Well, THAT was an interesting few hours. I don’t want to leave the UAE but to have our airspace suddenly closed, and not being able to leave even if I wanted to was … an interesting feeling. Anyway, not going anywhere without my cats.

I love being in my 50s, I just want the flexibility and stamina of my 20s.

Let me repost my lunch pic just for you, @jongard.bsky.social - so that wild, wild mind of yours can rest. 🤣

There should be a German word to describe the mixture of disappointment and relief when someone lives down to your expectations. Disappointment that once again I have to deal with this BS, relief it’s happened and I don’t have to have anxiety on when or if it will happen. Disengage. Move on.

Me: might die living in the Middle East Also me: …at least my fuel will still be cheaper than back home…

My friend’s cat had kittens and now I’m trying to work out if my cats will welcome new cats or not. This gorgeous ginger still has a few weeks of growing up to go before it can be rehomed, but we’re going to do a couple of days of tests with my two.

Hi everyone! I have news! 😁 I set up a Patreon for my journalism + activism work! I'm still working on the page and narrowing down the direction I want to take with it, but you're all welcome to join as free members in the meantime. 💜 www.patreon.com/c/mishadvent...

It's not even 9am. It's nearly 33C and feels like 50C and humidity is nearly 80% This shit sucks man.

Word nerds and grammarians: as much as you may love the em-dash and a how to use it properly, best to just remove it entirely from your future body of work. Right now, the overuse of em-dashes is the single biggest tell that a piece of copy was generated by ChatGPT.

Powerful thread, and one of the many reasons I left Twitter, because of a callout gang. It was sickening. And so easy to get caught up in - I was a proponent of an earlier callout swarm only to find out so many names on that list were innocent. Hard lesson well-learned.

“Wear your pets” sounds a little psychotic, no…?

Awkward…