After 9 amazing years in Nottingham, it’s time for a change - I’m moving to York in a few weeks time! New job, new flat, new chapter… same office buddies on my WFH days.

8 days, 3 gigs, 2.5 cities and I’m still thinking about those pretzels. From visiting the Cavern Club and seeing a Beatle perform at Anfield, to exploring the culture, art and history of Berlin, with excellent company old(er) and new, that was a great week and a much needed chance to rest and reset!

Brilliant night at Anfield. First Bruce gig and a fucking Beatle shows up!

Found a great little duck food vending machine by the lake in my hometown. Solar powered, takes £1 contactless payments and dispenses (many) handfuls of (loose) duck* food. *Mostly eaten by the geese. Gits.

Went for a lovely, relaxing wander around Knaresborough, in anticipation of a stressful week ahead. Bonus picture of the very good boy I met at the gym!

NEW on Wonkhe: Are there secret government bailouts? bit.ly/3Yvf2C1

Job hunting in the HE sector in 2025:

Doncaster. Gorgeous sky, rubbish station.

1 Whether university governing bodies take votes is really about the culture of each individual institution I've been secretary to 3 university councils (including 2012-14, Cardiff) and none routinely took votes I've seen several others in action and voting is a minority habit

Brief trip north to enjoy some art and culture. Fab to see free exhibitions around the city and, in particular, spotlighting of student artwork.

Toughie of a week, so my sister came to campus between the hospital visits and redundancy meetings and we fed the ducks. And then she grilled me about boys. Nice to have some moments of peace and normality, however brief.

Today's purple was a strong contender for most vile connections category of the month!

Trying to find dementia friendly gifts suitable for a clinical environment but most of the things I can see are plushie/textiles which are a bit of an infection risk. Has anyone found anything that’s been well received & enjoyed without adding to the noise, mess & microbiology of a hospital ward?

Brief visit to Sheffield. Gorgeous Korean food at Pocha. Think we may have over-ordered!

Perfect 34th birthday weekend, summed up with excellent food and even better company.

We're hiring...! Could you be our Communications Coordinator? This is a part-time role (two days per week) to cover a staff colleague on maternity leave for 12 months from April 2025. howardleague.org/about-us/vac...

Much needed lazy weekend. Video games, beautiful buildings and the best French toast I’ve ever eaten.

Feb. A theme emerges.

The existential threat facing UK universities

Genuinely quite emotional watching the Eagles post-game interviews. Best weekend in a while. 🦅💚

Those of you in UK HE sector right now: a reminder that no matter how passionate you are - a job is a job. It might feel like you could never land anywhere else. You can, and will, should you need to. And wherever you end up, your new workplace will be lucky to have you.

So, nearly 400 people have done our Ofsted Grade Confusion quiz The average score is 3 out of 5 - meaning people are on average getting TWO wrong! Question 3 (below) is causing particular problems - just 37% got it right!! I only know one person so far who has got full marks …

@it-se.bsky.social makes an irrefutable case that LLE should extend to postgrads, but as govts have found, launching even a basic LLE is difficult. Perhaps we need to start planning phase 2 of LLE (including extending to L7) while phase 1 is still in development? www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/02/05/e...

Everything about Will Shipley's career-first TD last night was an absolute delight. The way the team rallied to get him over the line, Saquon's reaction on the field, Saquon's shoutout in the post-game. Shipley's face on the slo-mo replay. All of it. 💚

Must read @dkernohan.bsky.social on @wonkhe.bsky.social this morning on the state of HEI finances in 23-24. 72% of providers in deficit budget, with many operating on less than 3 months cash in bank and all 117 on here have been signed off by auditors as "going concern" wonkhe.com/blogs/an-ear...

I just realized I haven’t introduced my miniature donkey to Blue Sky. He’s about 36 inches high and he guards the pasture from coyotes. True story. This is Gus❤️

Sorry but anyone who says that in-person working is more productive than WFH has clearly never spent 45 mins trying to connect to Eduroam in an office colder than a refrigerator. 🥶

Reminded today that whatever you do you are going to annoy someone so you might as well annoy the right people

Crisis (temporarily) averted!

Think my brain is hardwired to wake up at exactly 5.30am any time I’m in a travelodge. Very much need coffee!

Best opening 7 seconds of game time I’ve ever seen. Gonna be a stressful night! 💚🦅

How on earth are LAC playing this poorly and still 6 points up?!

Contract signed so I can tell! I will be writing a new biography of Gráinne O Malley aka Granuaile/the Pirate Queen for Yale @yalebooks.bsky.social @yalepress.bsky.social Looking forward to working on it with the fab @jogodfrey.bsky.social Gráinne image @ciaraioch.bsky.social

Omfg Kenny Pickett 💚

I know it’s a really small thing, but I got a copy of Ticket to Ride Europe, sat down to play and all the rules are ‘Each player places his scoring marker’, ‘he will place a card’. Sorry, but girls can like games about trains too, thanks!

24 hours til family arrive for Xmas. The house is untidy, I’m not prepared and Asda just suggested I spend £7 on a vegan trifle. Is it too late to book them into a hotel instead?

A word of caution: it might feel like that grant/paper/review cannot possibly wait over the Christmas period, but you can't get time with friends and family back. You likely won't be like "really wish I'd submitted that" in 5 years time but you might regret not spending time with those you love.

Getting my ‘2024 highlights’ out of the way early. 11 yrs 2wks ago, I decided to end my life, and every December I kick myself a little harder that I’m not doing ‘enough’ to ‘earn’ my extra time. But every day in 2024 I’ve chosen to be here and maybe this year, just being here is good enough.

Political nerd? ✅️ Puzzle fan? ✅️ Just broken up for recess? ✅️ Check out the MP Christmas Quiz! 100 questions, 100 MPs as answers. Can you solve them all? www.edrith.co.uk/p/christmas-...

Watched Carry-on this weekend. An enjoyable movie, but it is basically a revamped Die Hard 2.

Hats off to the casting team on Dexter: Original Sin, they have made some excellent choices.

In Iceland, on Christmas Eve, people give each other books so they can spend the evening drinking cocoa & reading. It’s called, Jolabokaflod, the Christmas book flood. I’ve never been more in love with Iceland than I am right now ♥️♥️

Supporting with graduations today. It’s a lovely end to a tough week and a gentle reminder to revisit purpose a little more often.

If there's one thing I wish I'd learned earlier is that some people will never be happy with your life choices and it's a heck of a lot easier to just not try meet their expectations early on, than break yourself trying.

I may be time poor, but I’m rich in Vue cinema free ticket codes (6 so far!). Do I hold out for Sonic 3, or do I go see Muppet Christmas Carol on the big screen?

🦅💚

Eagles game day. They're 10-2 on an 8 game winning streak. There are 10 different ways that they can clinch playoffs this week. Panthers have lost 75% of their games this season. This should be a breeze... right?

Today’s poem is called ‘Needles’.

Christmas tree day! Farm to (next to) table in under 30 minutes 🎄