France hosted a large musical flash mob featuring 100 musicians who came together to perform a new orchestral version of Carol of the Bells to mark the ceremonial switching-on of the Christmas lights in the streets of Paris.

I should say he has no idea but did lust after one earlier in the year so I hope it’ll be a very pleasant surprise.

Reposting for no reason …

Got my OH a l’usine bleue jacket for Christmas despite the crippling import taxes. It’s very beautiful.

One of the downsides of not doing Paris in January this time round just occurred to me. Anyone local to Newcastle selling galette des rois in the New Year? Ideally small size.

Reminds me to get Rush Hour down from the attic … Not just for kids, the packs can get fiendishly difficult! boardgamereview.co.uk/game-reviews...

For anyone interested. It's in Norwegian though. Someone saw the solution from his apartment and went outside to solve it.

So this happened in Oslo yesterday. Four articulated buses got stuck in a roundabout.

Alt text for video: A night vision camera view beneath a garden shed. There's a shallow bowl to the left A hedgehog, its eyes glowing in the infrared, wanders into view, and checks the camera out. It's impressive whiskers and little wet nose are clearly visible.

BlueSky, meet Monch. We met Monch just over a fortnight ago when OpGeek spotted them sitting on the lawn when he was doing the bins. When they didn't move I gloved up and picked them up to check. They rolled up nicely, so we put some cat food out, and we've been feeding them every night since.

West African peanut and squash stew made, ready for a bowl of Friday night pissing-it-down comfort food.

Son (Brit) and long-term partner (non-Brit) can’t come back to the UK because of draconian restrictions on incoming migration, but frankly why would they?

Britain: a lot of history that citizens can get in trouble for describing in critical terms, and not much of a future.

Seems to me like actively hounding the young and immigrants would be intensely counterproductive, if one of our core problems was an aging population.

Why would young people hang around to slave for people who very openly hate them and have deliberately created a malicious system that exploits, harasses and demeans them as much as it can

Great illustration of the austerity ratchet in Britain - restoring the pre-Osborne welfare state treated like wild-eyed radicalism

Can't really finish a basho without this, can we?

Can see the downward trajectory of Nature subscriptions from Space.

Just threw ginger & lemon cheesecake all over myself in the process of getting it out of the tin, much to the amusement of the OH.

6th anniversary of this tweet!

Snow yummy 雪、美味しいですっ☆

Honestly, it is possible to think 'I work hard to earn money; I deserve that money' and *also* 'it would be good if we created a more equal society: I'll help'. Exhausting to see everything presented as a fight to the death between those two ideas, seemingly forever.

I'm old enough to remember (I'm over one year old) when we were all told to shut up about labour's left wing credentials because the renters rights and employment rights bills were on the way. how are those going lxds? how are my rights looking?

My bells have been jingled.

Will this be the year I make devilled eggs? Jury is out.

Can confirm they do.

On the radio within the last hour “my daughter has no kids and is furious, why should she supplement people who have them?!” Maybe you brought your daughter up with questionable morals, pal.

Update: happened again. Today it invented someone called Brian. There is no Brian.

Your boyfriend tells Susie Dent that she absolutely nailed her word of the day

*"Mission Accomplished" banner falls from the ceiling, the fixtures break and the speaker pops and whines. Confetti blocks the vents*

Keep your receipt guys, you’ve been had. That polar bear is, in fact, what’s known as a “cow”.

Being bitten by a radioactive spider is always a bit of a gamble tbh.

Heartbreaking for those affected by the fires. May Hong Kong have swift reparations and justice for the victims where Grenfell still has none.

Why do I work harder in a glow stick workout?

Cherry swirl ice cream means I have leftover condensed milk. To stop the OH eating the whole lot direct from the tin I made a no-bake ginger & lemon cheesecake. That’s better, right?

This 🧵

Falling on one’s sword in the event of a genuine mistake seems to be becoming the fashion.

I tell you something, when it’s considered “ok” from a green perspective to freeze tax on fossil fuels whilst taxing EVs, we’re in a very bad way. Expectations levels for this government’s policies are shockingly low.

Managed to get a cheap (by London standards) hotel by booking one that only opened last weekend. Let’s hope it’s not plagued by a slew of terrible reviews by next summer eh.

Labour killing the planet xx

How are all those Labour politicians cheering for it? They were literally whipped to vote for it and then the Prime Minister suspended those who didn't. They really are totally devoid of any moral principle. They respond to one thing - and that's political pressure.

Chancellor says their Universal Credit reforms will put 15,000 into work. She conveniently fails to mention that these cuts will put 100,000 into poverty #Budget2026 Source👇 www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/governm...

Reeves having a dig at Polanski, saying the only thing that would go up if he was in charge would be debt and inflation. Inflation is a whole percentage point higher since Labour have been in power.

These posters for the South Korean stage production of Macbeth are the greatest thing ever? #art

Holy shit, not even close of business on my first day and I just got an alert "OBR" is trending. #CrushingIt.

Actually ahead of schedule on one major project, can't wait to see my bosses' face.

Sorry I haven't been active on social media today, I've been flat out making sure everything goes smoothly on my first day as website manager for the OBR.

The very first thing the Prime Minister does is use the household budget metaphor. A metaphor - this report into BBC coverage - said could be "easily misleading." Why is the government trying to mislead the country?

Curious how this was reported as being a potential terror attack, until exactly the moment that rumours that he was black, were disproved.

Completely useless