Back at work today while recovering from a big mental health wobble last week. Didn’t cry, so that’s a win 🌟

@jenitennison.com thanks so much for coming to Cheltenham Science Festival! Really enjoyed your nuanced views on AI (as a massive sceptic 😅)

YES to women’s health on major stages 👏🏻 Thank you #CheltSciFest for programming such an informative session!

Thoroughly enjoyed our first evening at Cheltenham Science Festival 👩‍🔬 Delighted to see both live captioning and BSL sign language interpreters on stage. Well done organisers, this is how to do it 👏🏻 #AccessibleEvents

Last day of May, and what a ridiculous month it’s been. Celebrating becoming European champions. Meeting the Queen. Our work featured on BBC News. As much as it’s been fun, I’d quite like a peaceful June, and a rebalancing of my adrenaline and cortisol levels ☺️🙏🏻

Long weekend time, hoorah! 💤

Are any of my followers local to Newbury? We will be performing at the Corn Exchange tomorrow evening, in our first concert as European champions 😎 Tickets still available cornexchangenew.com/events/flowe...

There are days when I miss being an editor. I loved writing headlines. Whoever did this, I hope they took the rest of the day off.

The adrenaline crash from the last month of my life is hitting hard today 😴

why do all the apps now have to act like the creepy guy who interrupts you at the library to ask you what you’re reading, who wants this

This remains my favourite song to come out of Eurovision. Romantic *and* an absolute banger youtu.be/YSMhu-PrLME?...

ICYMI last week our work was featured in the BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Petition to send Bob Mortimer to Eurovision next year with ‘Slender People’ ✍🏻

My boyfriend is out of town today, but his friends have still invited me to join their Eurovision watch party 🥹 How lucky am I to have found my person, and to be so accepted my their family and friends ❤️

New fiction I’ve read recently for fun, that is definitely not on that Guardian list: Queering Him by Katherine Bogen Before the coffee gets cold series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi The Castle Knoll series by Kristen Perrin The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Treated myself to a new book and a pizza, because today has been a *big* day ☺️

I’m back on the MHCLG blog today, talking about how we in-sourced our system for Homes for Ukraine and what we learned along the way 💙💛 mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk/2026/04/09/f...

Well, urm, what an unusual morning 😅

Where have I been? I’ve been up to London to visit the Queen! Yes, really. Shook her hand. And saw the King walk by. A surreal day, and an honour to be there to celebrate everything our team has achieved over 4 years, to support the people of Ukraine 💛💙

Didn’t sleep well. Too excited.

Back to reality with a bump today… Those three weeks of leave went by so quickly 🥲

Saturday activity: hemming my dress for a rather special occasion 🥰

Number 1 in the world 🤩 whaaaaatttt brassstats.com

Just landed home from an exhilarating long weekend in Linz. I plan on staying on cloud nine for a while 🥹❤️ Our little band from Gloucester are European Champions - somebody pinch me!!

It’s going to take a long time to take in what we achieved last night. The first ever representative from the West of England. Only the 3rd band ever to win on debut. Winners of both days. World no 1 band from next month. And an invitation to defend our title (!!!) next year in Switzerland. 🤯

We only went and won the Europeans #ItsComingHome

Day 2 🤘🏻

That’s how you make a European debut 💪🏻

My house is clean. My suitcase is packed. I’ve printed everything we need for band. I have exhausted my procrastination options. 1000 words to write, and 5 hours left. #OnlySlightlyPanicking

Very exciting post day! 👀

I have a 2500 word essay to write in the two days. 10 hours sleep, a good breakfast consumed, and a pomodoro timer at the ready. Let’s do this ✍🏻

Finally, time for the break I’ve been looking forward to for months! It’s been a productive final pre-hol week: 💡 Kicked off our Share reusability discovery 💡 Spoke with Welsh LAs about onboarding to Share and how we’ll support them through transition 💡 Qtrly development chats with my reports

1 day until I take the longest break I’ve had in 10 years (three entire weeks)! So naturally my calendar is filling up with lots of last minute meetings before I go 🤣

Eek, we got in! Time to start writing the talk…

I’m back on the MHCLG blog today, talking about how we in-sourced our system for Homes for Ukraine and what we learned along the way 💙💛 mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk/2026/04/09/f...

Thank you for all the responses! Lots of Kobo fans here, and I’m particularly excited to have a device that I can sync library books to 😍 I’m going to finish all the books I already had downloaded on my kindle, and then go shopping!

My 2012 Kindle is going out of support 😭 Any recommendations for a (preferably non-Amazon) replacement?

The perfect bank holiday weekend with my guy 💚 📌 Rococo Gardens, Painswick

Best in the West ❤️🥇

Annual visit to Torquay. This afternoon we compete for the West of England title 🤞🏻

Just a few hours before I get to take my first week off for 5 months. Nobody but myself to blame; I messed up my admin and ran out of holiday. Doing such a long stint in a high pressure role has taught me a lot about leading without losing myself. I’m tired, I need a break, but I’m not burnt out 😌

Cheltenham races are a nuisance if you’re a local, but they’re excellent for people watching/spot who’s been to the races games.

SDinGov pitch submitted 🤞🏻

Ah yes, the two sexes:

Ah yes, the two sexes:

Thrilled to have made the shortlist for the National Technology Awards Best Public Sector Project, with our friends at MadeTech 😍 nationaltechnologyawards.co.uk/shortlist26....

Felt a bit down this week, so I decided to look at the 6 month goals we set ourselves in October. We’ve achieved nearly all of them 😍 Sometimes progress can only be seen over a sustained period of time 🐢

More sports anthems with full live bands, please 👏🏻#ITAvSCO

Seeking ideas - what should I do with my tunnocks tea cake fancy dress now? Cushion? Something else? (Boyfriend cropped out to protect his privacy, but you can just see a peep of his excellent irn bru costume 😄)