Very glad past me remembered our wedding anniversary was coming up and booked us into somewhere for dinner, because today me completely forgot to buy a card. 😳 And he remembered. 😳😳

I made a minor factual error in some info I gave my boss last week. I would never deliberately mislead, so I made time in a 1:1 today to fess up. He waved me away - no problem - before I was halfway through my apology. Yet these shitlarks lie about big stuff. And lie, and lie, and lie, and lie.

Life in the shoe: In honour of finishing Malcolm Lowry's "Under the Volcano", a Tierra del Fuego. 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️🌋 Absolutamente necessario!

Gently steering myself away from screens and back to books and longer attention spans. ⭐⭐⭐

Back from seeing the NT Live Hamlet, which is well worth your time. It’s the play I’ve seen more than any other and it’s not a favourite adaptation, but I do think they’ve made some interesting choices which some may really enjoy.

Oh no! This gun might shoot someone by accident. Let's fix that by shooting someone to death on purpose. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think teams should boycott games played in US. Apart from the power of hitting them in the wallet, it’s not at all clear that players or supporters would be safe.

It's a good job my tax return is due. How else would I find the time and focus to defrost the freezer, clean out the big fridge, and finish this brilliant book!?

Another guy who needs to know where his thingys are.

Back in the ‘70s Richard Stilgoe (remember him?) gave his name to a Rudimentary DIY for Over Educated Dads pamphlet, with the first two sections titled: I know where my thingys are and I can find my thingys in the dark This was my Dad’s DIY primer, (and why my Mum did all the fixing stuff).

🧶❤️ via @jmcefalas.bsky.social Thank you!

There’s a team of labourers doing some work on the house next door and their hotspot labels now come up when I’m trying to connect to the WiFi. They’re a pretty comical lot, but one of them should probably see a doctor. 😬

This is a very good piece and rings true in the professional world I’m in, where there are some really big, intractable problems which keep getting this treatment, and an array of popular ‘solutions’ implemented where they’re not really needed and turmoil is the result.

On the brink? C’mon guys. We live in truth now. 🇨🇦

“Board of Peace” inaugural meeting.

Davos, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum.

Well, damn!

Europe accidentally deterred Trump - it should learn from that experience to do so deliberately My latest pascallth.substack.com/p/we-dont-kn...

Deutsche Bank here with the good stuff. Game on.

Seems pretty obvious that even if Europe caved on Greenland today, the rancid madman at the helm in the US would tariff us all anyway the next time something/someone frustrated his giant toddler ego. Appeasement is futile.

Feels like something cracked today in the transatlantic alliance. Europeans have been swallowing their pride, bitting their tongues, and bending the knee. That strategy may have bought them time but it has now clearly failed. It also had a major cost - it has made the WH think Europe will cave. 1/

I think Denmark lost more troops (relative to their total little population) than any other nation in the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, so I’d argue any debt runs all the other way.

The basic problem with the Trump administration isn't an ideological difference between "right" and "left". That's what they would like you to think. The problem is that this is an administration where there are criminals in charge. All else flows from that, and nothing will patch the mayhem.

He has always been a mob boss. The only surprise is the number of people who act surprised.

This map exposes the Greenland lie. The US used to have a massive military footprint here. Today, they operate just ONE base. If Trump were actually worried about Russian vessels, he would simply open more bases, which Denmark allows

Pleased the UK has enough backbone to be on Trump’s Tariffs hitlist. I hope the European nations continue to flick Vs at him. Since he tariffed us anyway as part of his ongoing protection racket, there’s no real menace in his threat. And no protection for any of us in compliance.

Wow, sure would be pretty crazy if a ton of experts in the artificial intelligence field relentlessly warned everyone about this state of affairs being inevitable over and over for years.

Opportunity for a fourth horseman here, surely?

High scoring Blind Date for one that’s not really going to go anywhere, and contains this most Londony thing; crossing the river is practically pole to pole!

Entertained by the discovery that the potato variety in my veg box this week is ‘Acoustic’, apparently. So I’m looking forward to an Unplugged dinner.

There’s not a lot to enjoy in these highly political times, but the Jenrick Defection coming at a time when there’s a fresh bundle of Traitors memes gives me a little boost.

🔴A Year of Living Dangerously in Trump’s America I no longer feel safe to speak or act freely in a country where people are being arbitrarily detained and killed and where the truth is becoming whatever Donald Trump says it is, reports @alexhh.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2026/01/15/a...

Lillebror reports today’s swimming conditions in the family WhatsApp chat. Yikes! 🥶

A routine surprise goodwill visit.

You’d think a requirement to move to the second phase of a peace plan would be a successful first phase of the peace plan, i.e. an actual ceasefire. 🤷🏻‍♀️

More of this please.

World Order may be collapsing, but at least it’s still possible to wake up the morning after the Golden Globes and eat my breakfast while being judgy about the outfits from the comfort of my suburban kitchen.

Down a reading rabbit hole to land in Erasmus Darwin’s The Temple of Nature. Oh! Daddy Darwin’s Big Bang Theory! I didn’t know this was a thing.

Kemi Badenoch calling Greenland a "second order issue" while Labour leaders hide from it is another datapoint for how UK political elites are intellectually and psychologically able to cope with an imploding global order that no longer matches the world they grew up in during the 90s and 00s

Tributes pour in for Sir James Munby, the former head of the family division of the High Court, who died suddenly on new year's days -- in the @lawsocgazette. www.lawgazette.co.uk/practice/mor...

Been quietly but snottily weeping my way through Hamnet this evening. How about you?

Life in the shoe: A project. Something in the utility room smells really bad. It may or may not be related to the New Year’s Day prosecco explosion, tho’ I thought I’d cleared that up well. The smell is not coming from the fridge or anywhere obvious. I’m taking the room apart, piece by piece.

Terrific public service here.

Most bonkers take.

😲

Surely the key question right now is whether the non-sentient Trump era of angry, idiot-led, escalating geopolitical hostilities will wipe us all out long before AI becomes sentient and goes full Terminator on us?

Taurus: You will live like a king this year. Isolated, paranoid, never sure if anyone’s affections are genuine.

It's wild that the PM of a NATO member feels compelled to put out a statement like this vis-à-vis the US government.

It’s the start of #NationalYearofReading2026 so here are some poems about books and reading brianmoses.blogspot.com

Life in the shoe: Back to work tomorrow and very gloomy about it, so - to cheer us all up - a gorgeous slow-roasted lamb shoulder with some easy-to-cook trimmings, and a bottle of 2009 Priorat. I am reconciled.