Towards the end of her life (she died in 1967), my grandmother told my dad, "I went to school in a pony and trap, and now they're sending men into space. I've lived quite long enough." Nearly 60 yrs later, her great grandson is still waiting for step-free access at our local railway station.

This is comical. I think we’re giving them both exactly what they deserve. No Kings Anywhere. Thanks.

Life in the shoe: Erstwhile 20yo is 21 today. 🎉 I have set the smoke alarm off browning a leg of lamb ahead of slow-roasting it for his requested birthday tea. Alexa says: the indoor air quality recently turned to poor. I disagree. Roasting lamb is one of the best smells there is.

It’s a good job leaders of some individual European nations seem to have backbone, because this, on behalf of the bloc, is embarrassing.

Saving myself a fortune by throwing the catalogues straight in the recycling without looking at them. 🫣

The Only William's $5 Julep. (would be almost $200 today!) "The perfection of moist joy" 😆 New York World, June 28, 1896, truncated text in alt-text

Life in the shoe: Ending the weekend with The Scott. 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️

Life in the shoe: Bamboo! (One of many variants). 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️

Life in the shoe: DH is away. 18yo (AKA The Small Orange) catches me baking. 18yo: Watcha making? Me: Parsnip cake. I’ve got too many parsnips, so I’m using up. 18yo: So, Dad’s away and you’ve gone Fully Mad? Me: According to the recipe I need the zest and juice of a small orange. 18yo: 🫨

The top-performing secondary schools have proportionally fewer students receiving both free school meals and SEN support than live in their catchment areas, @suttontrust.bsky.social report warns

Well, that’s a cautionary tale on multiple levels about “surveillance systems can have very unexpected and unwanted consequences.”

Rabbit hole KLAXON!!!

Life in the shoe: Bringing the Birthday Weekend to an end with a Barney Barnato Cocktail. 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️ This is an exquisitely well-balanced cocktail and merits making twice and more. Luckily I have a new bottle of Lillet Blanc (pictured).

Thompson's hematologist at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Robert A. Brodsky, published a study revealing that the research now has an overall 94% disease-free survival rate. "[A cure is now] available to the majority, almost the entirety, of sickle cell patients.” #GoodNews #BlackSky 🌱

This should be a bigger story. There are few safer spaces for young people to get their heads round difficult stuff than a school library and a thoughtful librarian is a huge asset to any school.

Life in the shoe: No London Dry Gin in The Shoe (😱) so basing my Negroni-a-like on Arrack. 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️

Life in the shoe: DH just caught me making traffic light stripy jelly for 26yo's birthday tea and said: Seriously!!?? And yes! seriously! because some birthday traditions just carry on carrying on.

The whole of this piece is bonkers: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Life in the shoe: Hey! It's a Birthday Weekend at The Shoe. Starting off with a Baltimore Bang! 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️ (Used up all my Bourbon).

Of all Osborne/Cameron's cynical and divisive policies, this act of pointless cruelty was probably the worst. The Government's decision to abolish it should be welcomed by everybody who cares about children in this country. www.gov.uk/government/n...

Such an important principle. If NATO isn’t a defensive alliance, but instead becomes an ‘All For One, One For All’ wars-of-aggression alliance, then e.g. Putin would be right to jump to a hostile conclusion about any NATO expansion.

Life in the shoe: End of the weekend. Balalaika. 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️

Life in the shoe: Went to see Project Hail Mary with DH, 25yo and 20yo. DH didn’t think I’d like it but I thought it was very tender. Ryan Gosling is terrific and James Ortiz manages to get a lot of emotion out of a rock. I don’t know the book, so nothing to spoil. Would recommend.

Life in the shoe: Just completely misread the start of a recipe and now have a pan of fruit sludge that I need to work out how to rescue. 😬

This has been a phenomenal #6Nations. So many great individual tries, so many great team efforts, so much hope rewarded, so many expectations overturned, so many matches that could have gone either way right until the last few minutes; last few seconds, even. Moments to ❤️ for fans of every team.

What a game. Fucking hell! #FRAvENG

I don't think I've ever spent so much of my time on the edge of my seat. #6Nations

Bonkers Game indeed. #FRAvENG

First time I’ve seen Dupont look like he’s losing his cool. #FRAvENG

Pollock needs to grow up. Fast. #FRAvENG

The trouble with Genge at this point is he wants to make amends. And he’s not always the right man for the job in hand. #FRAvENG

That - that fucking try! Awesome. #FRAvENG

The something of my something is my something.

Have we not yet learned that other sides will beat us soundly when we only have 14 men on the pitch? A bit of discipline so we don’t gather yellow cards like twats wouldn’t be too much to ask for. #FRAvENG

Spotted some #BALDvHAIRY comments in this tournament, so cocktailing for this game with a Bald Head. 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️ #FRAvENG

Life in the shoe: Trying to get dinner on the table between 🏉 matches. Fuelled by a Bakewell Tart Sour. 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️ #confinedcocktails

Feel a bit sad for Italy at this point. They’ve had a great six nations and deserve more from this match. #WALvITA

Blimey Wales, why would you save all this play for the one game…? #WALvITA

And that was a delicious try too! #IREvSCO What a game this is. Likely match of the day.

Am cheering for Ireland but that was a fabulous Scottish try! #IREvSCO

Well, come on you boys in green. #IREvSCO 🏉

Life in the shoe: Absinthe Colada!! 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️

Buying flowers online for Mum and I’ve withdrawn from a purchase because it doesn’t accept an apostrophe as a character in the message I want to add.

Still cannot understand why any nation would be willing to take the risk of participating. There’s no telling who President Shit-for-Brains will take against next. 🤷🏻‍♀️

For those who’ve followed the end of the Hereditary peer show, the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill has tonight passed its final stages in the @houseoflords.parliament.uk. As a result, the remaining 92 Hereditary peers will cease to be members of the Lords at the end of this current session.

Life in the shoe: This is one of my most cherished Mothers Day gifts of all time (just popped up in FB memories). It was from 18yo, back in 2013 when she was just five.

The builders must be back next door. They haven’t made a sound yet, but their crazy WiFi hotspot addresses have just popped up in my router search. I guess the banging will start at 8.

My unpopular opinion: Although the youth secure estate is appalling, and - like all custodial facilities - in dire need of reform, we definitely need ‘prisons’ (of some type) for children. Numbers of children in custody have gone down, but the risk held in the community is extremely worrying.

"The government has announced that it is embarking on the most significant overhaul of youth justice in a generation but it has failed to commit to closing prisons holding children." https://www.cypnow.co.uk/content/news/yois-still-failing-on-out-of-cell-time-and-education-analysis-finds