My kids are too old for World Book Day now but this memory popped up for me today of the time I completely forgot about it until about half an hour before the school run and had to make something up using his pyjama onesie!

10 years ago we spent half term in Wales and my husband thought it would be fun to take the kids to the Big Pit museum. And that is how I spent Valentines day stuck in a mine with kids and inlaws for several hours whilst they fixed a broken lift. I am always relieved now when he has nothing planned.

I am not a great believer in my kids using ChatGPT or similar to help with their homework. I try to help or share articles, etc. But my daughter just asked it "Please explain the Krebs cycle again, but this time like I'm a six year old" and honestly, fair enough.

Why did my brain at 4am wish to solve all the problems and my brain at 9am would quite like a nap? It might be a long day!

What should the Department of Health and Social Care be doing to improve the nation’s brain health? @hdemnitzking.bsky.social and I brought UK experts together to produce a consensus roadmap for dementia risk reduction on behalf of @denpru-qm.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

My teenagers are wonderful but parenting this age group is hard. They want to be picked up from friends' houses at times when I am exhausted and should be in bed, like 9.30pm.

Woke my daughter for school this morning- turned on the lights, opened the curtains- only for her to take one look outside and duck back under her covers with a rather disgusted "Ugh, January is just a whole month of Mondays." She's not wrong (but I still made her get up for school).

Apparently this is how you sleep when you can't read the news

Well that was a surprise to wake up to.

2026 off to a good start! (I have a good book and the last of the chocolates too) 😊

Happy Christmas!

My GP's diagnosis of "Chronic urticaria. Seems like you might reacting to the cold or to the heat when you come in from the cold" is a little troubling. I mean, I've never liked winter, but I feel developing an allergy to it is taking the dislike a bit far! Have I got an excuse to hibernate yet?

The world has felt very dark in many ways of late. But we keep sending what light we have out into the world.

Anyone looking for a nice Christmas donation to make, the Kevin Jenkins Newham Toy Appeal is now in its 46th year and is still trying to collect enough toys for children in Newham this Christmas. There’s an amazon wish list here (or search justgiving for the appeal to give cash):

Struggling with a bit of syntax for part of a trial analysis and I'm still not sure I've gotten it right...but I've gotten it equally wrong across both arms and that is what matters, right?

When the training comes with 2 answers- the correct answer and the answer you really want to give...

I needed to look at something in a paper I wrote some years ago and due to a slight spacing error it looks like we have written about 'a cute respiratory tract infection'. Which sounds like a nicer thing to research (and indeed have...this latest one is not cute but tiresome).

One of my children's friends had her first ever job interview (waitressing in a local restaurant). When asked "and what do you think is your biggest weakness?", apparently she panicked and responded "bees". I have no idea how the interviewer kept a straight face!

Join the QResearch Scientific Committee QResearch is recruiting new members for its Scientific Committee to support high-quality, ethical, population-health research using one of the UK’s largest anonymised health datasets. www.qresearch.org/about/scient... closing date: deadline 8 January 2026

Today I attended a meeting so unpleasant that at the end I hung up Teams and cried. I've been trying to figure out how I might have handled things better to diffuse the situation but, after 2 chocolate bars and a cup of tea, I have decided that some days are just awful and to try again tomorrow.

Short and chilly walk along the sea before lunch.

Salem has buried his head under a blanket and opted to hide from today. He's not wrong. #caturday

Oh joy! One of those automatic updates that you cannot override, where the computer randomly reboots itself and installs things in the middle of a meeting. And we're currently at 27% and waiting... Is it too early to just decide today is a write off?

That rainy Monday feeling. And he doesn't even have to make sense of a budget reconciliation.

I have had a lovely break but it is nice to be home and I think I'm ready to tackle my inbox. However, it is going to have to wait because someone else is glad we are home and he is really hard to see through!

Enjoying some time with my sister and her family in Korea!

📢 As one of the next round of TRMP PhD students (below) you could join me, Clare Robinson, @averoniki.bsky.social and @marionkcampbell.bsky.social to work on developing a typology of research outputs in trials methodology, based at @wiphcem.bsky.social. Details here: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Nurse doing my blood test: "And have you had anything to drink today"? Me: "Yes. Had my usual coffees" Nurse: "Anything else? Some water?" Me: ....."Coffee has water in it, right?"

Upside- I have no conflicts for today's funding panel meeting so I get to discuss lots of interesting proposals with colleagues Downside - I have no conflicts so by about 4pm my brain will have turned to mush just in time for parent-teacher consultations for my daughter. Answer- all the coffee!

Had news that we had a grant funded so decided to celebrate a little and spoil my dinner.

I have received a reminder to complete a survey on workplace stress and burnout...which I haven't managed to get round to because I have been snowed under with things. I feel like there is a methodology point I could make here but mostly I'm just a bit tired. So here is a sleeping cat instead.

Crumble season 😊

UK DCTN Fellowships - Last chance to apply! Do you want to learn more about applied dermatology research? Our Fellowship opportunities are available to: Dermatology Trainees Portfolio pathway staff GPs Dermatology/ Research Nurses Pharmacists Deadline: 5pm Monday 6 October

My daughter mentioned this morning that she is going to a talk about clinical trials at school. I asked who was speaking- ours isn't a huge community so I thought it might be someone I knew. Her response "Sorry, I didn't catch the name over my brain shouting 'thank god it's not my mother'".

I'm doing a webinar in two weeks (15 Oct 1-2pm BST), part of NIHR Research Support Service's Methods Academy series, on the age-old question: should I do a stepped wedge trial? Free registration, details here: tinyurl.com/z6cjvce3 @nihr-rss.bsky.social @wiphcem.bsky.social @qmul-wiph.bsky.social

Autumn is rolling into the valley here and I'm managing to walk further and further without anything hurting, which is nice.

One of the key things to address when undertaking a feasibility study ahead of a trial is the acceptability of different aspects of the proposed trial (intervention, trial processes, proposed outcomes etc) to all relevant parties 1/7 #MethodologyMonday #125

Today I was part of an international funding panel with colleagues in Australia. Great discussion and really interesting day but having logged in at 7.15am, by lunchtime my brain seems to have decided that a full day of thinking has been done.

On the one hand, good database validation rules make everything much easier. On the other hand, I just removed from one question the following delightful freetext response that should have been on a 1 to 5 scale: "No answer. Patient only wanted to talk about her cat".

The world may be on fire but today I met my neighbour's new kitten so there is that!

Thank you to our four amazing undergrad interns, Maryam, Anoushri, Sandhiya & Sky for joining us in @wiphcem.bsky.social this summer to experience health research in action. Thanks also to @nihr.bsky.social for funding through their UIP and the RSS Hub at Imperial & Partners. @qmul-wiph.bsky.social

Okay, found uniform, shoes and bags, got children out of the house to school, cleaned shoe polish out of the carpet...now let's tackle all the things I somehow thought I would complete over the summer!

Having a tidy up and found this book on top of the bookshelf. No idea where it came from...I can't recall ever buying it. If I start reading it, does some exciting adventure begin for me? I feel like I might be a bit old to be the heroine of this story. Perhaps I should leave it for one my kids...

We survived the stress of GCSE results day and cat surgery day, with good results on both counts. If anyone needs me, I'll be slumped on the sofa in relieved exhaustion.

I still sometimes read a book at bedtime with the 14 year old. Only now we read it at my bedtime rather than his as I tend to toddle off to sleep first!

This is Stevie. He lives next door. Or he did until he and Salem became friends. Now, if I open a window, Stevie pops in to visit. This morning I woke up to Stevie in my bed. Apparently, we now have 1.5 cats in this house.

Very happy to see a big paper from my PhD *OUT TODAY* We explored if there were inequalities in the attendance & effectiveness of behavioural weight management interventions in an individual participant data meta-analysis. See the thread for findings 👇 bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/3/2/...

I have a chest infection and am a bit grumpy with it. So I've decided to put off doing the grant applications I was going to review and score today. You're welcome. 😊

Improving the design of staggered implementation cluster randomised trials qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/earl...

We have been to the vet. Time for us both to have a lie down.