Oh thank goodness, I can finally sleep ⛳️

13 months - the entirety of my time in this job - we’ve been working towards a singular goal. Now we’ve launched our new system and are moving into live support mode, I’m trying to reset some healthy/resilient habits. Lunchtime park walks are back on my priority list 😌🌳☀️

Mega Monday! Spent the day in Exeter 👩🏻‍🎓 and this evening back in Gloucester preparing for Nationals finals 🥁 Such an energising start to the week 🤩

What a glorious day in Exeter! ☀️ I’m here for one day only to meet some peers on the senior leader apprenticeship 👩🏻‍🎓

Well jel of friends off to SDinGov today. Alas a system launch and university induction is enough for one week 🥲😂

Five weeks post-covid and I finally have enough physical energy back to go for a lunchtime walk. I’ve missed this 😌🌳☀️

Massive day for our team. Couldn’t be prouder 💛💙

Tomorrow is a momentous day for our team! Tired and wired 🤩🤣

First home game of the season last night. Delighted to see the rugby lads have (mostly) abandoned the mullet

It’s the most wonderful time of the year 😁 No, not Christmas. The day when it’s cold enough to wear jumpers again! 🧶

Most used GIF of the week:

Running on caffeine, sugar and adrenaline rn. Final push 🚀

Today we attempt to win the biggest prize in banding. Bring it on!

The most important news from today's reshuffle:

The price of wanting to make significant change is that you have to be patient. The lofty goals take a long time to achieve, they need persistence and resilience and a few tears shed along the way.

Thursday Murder Club = so bad it’s good

Love this post on working in the open from Tash Willcocks - tash-willcocks.medium.com/so-wait-what... ...and the drawing are 😍

“If you are going to make any decisions, take any leadership actions at all, live a fulfilling life, then you are going to be wrong. The goal then is the ability to admit that you have done so and use that information to move forward”. Really enjoying Stacey Abrams’s take on boldness 📖

If covid recovery is good for anything, it’s needlework productivity. Too tired to move so I’m cracking on with projects… Charles le Clarc helmet recently finished for a special birthday ❤️ Klimt ‘The Kiss’ nearly ¼ done.

Alright friends, what are your favourite tomato recipes? I’ve got more cherry tomatoes now than I can eat fresh! 😍🍅

On a 5 hour coach across the country 🚌 There are still tickets available for our concert at Snape Maltings tonight, if any of my followers happen to live close by 😄 www.brittenpearsarts.org/events/brill...

Cheese and tomato focaccia, with tomatoes from the garden (a yellow variety) 😋

Covid take 2 ⭐️⭐️ Not as bad as the first time; still worse than a standard cold. Would not recommend.

Really leaning into the 2020 nostalgia this weekend… Taken 2x lateral flow tests Had a socially distanced conversation with my Dad at the doorstep Made bread Currently baking a banana bread Not the weekend I expected, and I’m still v tired, but trying to find some enjoyment in the enforced rest 🙂

Self-isolating in 2025 is not the vibe.

Positive covid test. Fuuuuudge 😭

Is it possible to absorb vitamin C from a book? I’m trying every trick in the book to get rid of this bug quickly 😅🍊

Cons: sick and stuck in bed Pros: staying at home means I can’t accidentally run into JD

I’ve been busy working on a few opportunities for work...but it’s all taking longer than expected. Frustrating for me, but an opportunity for you to bring me in for a few months instead! I’m available 3 days a week (asap!), hybrid to do 3 things: con't

*This* is how you get my attention on Vinted:

What do you mean the weekend is already over? I was just getting started.

I’ve had another little flurry of new followers this week ☺️ hello, nice to meet you! A bit about me… In the daytime I work for the civil service, leading a supremely talented and hard working team of digital peeps: mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk/2024/12/16/h...

After a week off for summer school teaching, I’m back with my second apprenticeship diary: crmzchan.medium.com/apprenticesh... #weeknotes @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

Does anyone I know currently work for placecube? I’d like to pick your brains about knowledge hub, please 😊

Not every day you witness your Dad performing on stage in the curtain call of a show in which he is one of the characters 😅 The Wilko rock and roll play is in Cheltenham for one week only 🤘🏻

I’m trying out Memrise to practice my French 🇫🇷 So far I like it better than the owl app! Why? * greater emphasis on listening over reading * audio from multiple real people, to get used to different accents/cadence * ability to select word packs/situations, to learn phrases I’ll actually use

Had a little confidence-bruising argument this afternoon (music, not work). Sorry universe, I was getting a bit obnoxiously happy with my life and needed taking down a peg 😂💛

Booked myself a solo trip to Paris in October 😌 What should I see while I’m there? I’ve done the ‘big’ sites before, so I’m after recommendations of attractions that are perhaps a little less known, please 🙏🏻

Already sixtupled my harvest from last year 🍅

Just landed home from a fantastic week tutoring at the Elgar International Brass Band Summer School. After the 12 hour days this week, I’ll be heading back to the day job on Monday more tired than I started 🤣 but with a tremendous sense of satisfaction of seeing the progress our delegates made 🌟

Apprenticeship diary - week 1 🚀 #weeknotes @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social crmzchan.medium.com/apprenticesh...

I’m putting together some events and conferences info for our team. Does anyone know if Govcamp North and/or OneTeamGov breakfasts are still going, please? 👀

Came to the pub in hope we’d learn something about football from actual football fans. Urrr… 😅

TIL Bristol holds an annual cardboard boat race, and it’s as brilliantly bonkers as you’d expect: youtu.be/3mRu-kYtNmU?...

New stationery acquired ✅ Slack and other work messages off ✅ Uni induction underway 🤩

Fabulous list of open-working pieces pulled together by @jukes.ie : digitalbydefault.com/2025/07/14/m...

Turns out I’d missed my hay fever tablets for a couple of days. Back on loratadine and the brain fog has lifted 😌

Having a majorly low energy/low motivation week. It happens 🤷🏻‍♀️ You can be committed to your job, working on an important cause, generally motivated by your work, surrounded by a good team… and still have weeks when you feel a bit down/lethargic.

You’d think being a Masterchef presenter would be easy. You just need to eat something and say ‘mmm, that’s nice’ or ‘ew, I don’t like that’ without taking your trousers off or saying something racist.

‘Move fast and bake things’, my colleague said, which is a way better line, of course.