A list of things I might dump in 2026: ‘social’ media snickers duo changing blog platforms the second cup of coffee the news carbs the Apple Watch I never use some old shirts I never wear work backpack pretending to journal podcasts that just interview people with a new book to sell eating whilst walking desk lunch What is on your list?
We have been having some work done to the house, requiring a lot of decisions. Colours of things, types of things, position of things, order of doing things, do we want to do this whilst I'm here things? Couple this with the early decision making on Christmas, what presents would you like, when should we organise stuff, what do your parents/kids/siblings think they want, when are people coming over? I'm done.
Think this is my third visit Royal West of England Academy Annual Open Exhibition and the first I have managed to capture my favourites and cobble them together in a post. I know very little about art, I couldn't comment on the motivation behind each piece of work. I have no idea how brilliant, stimulating or challenging they are. I just took pictures of the ones I liked best. The art I enjoyed the most is at the very bottom.
I did start my dry September experiment slightly early and that might justify an early finish, but to be honest that wouldn't be telling all of the story. The real story is that after three weeks I just wanted to sit down with my wife, watch a film and have some wine. Not much thought, or angst about failing to hit complete the whole month of September - just something I wanted to do.
January has always seemed to be the worst month to stop drinking alcohol. Cold weather, short days and the excitement of Christmas a distant memory. I have tried to do it a few times, the longest I lasted was 4 days, we do dry September instead. why september? Post holiday exuberance and getting back into the routine with the family seems to be a good point in the year to target a bit of healthy living.
I'm about 2 months into my apple watch experiment, and to be honest, I'm not wearing it now. I haven't worn it on a daily basis for a few weeks. It is upstairs, on my bedside cabinet happily charging away. To start with I really enjoyed wearing it, the technology seemed great, notifications were handy and even though I had to squint slightly, I could use it without glasses. The first issue was notifications, they annoyed me so they all got turned off.
Went to Watershed in Bristol today to watch the ballad of Wallis island. Excellent film, a bit of British awkwardness, some fabulous comedy, a bit of sadness and some amazing views of west Wales. Would recommend, some would say it is a bit of a romcom, but don’t let that put you off - this reminded me more of the film Brian and Charles than something like Love Actually. Would give it 4/5.
One of the apple products I have never owned is an Apple Watch, I was recently offered a spare watch by my parents so I thought I would give it a go. I have always wondered if it would be useful or a bit of another kit that makes more demands on my time and attention - another thing to charge! There are a few things that I could see being really useful:
As I continue to wonder aimlessly around the world of blogging tools I have returned to Wordpress. Something seems to be different this time, I'm not sure whether it is the Wordpress software or a change at my web hosting but the lagginess seems to have disappeared, even Pagespeed agrees. the sort of numbers I like Although somewhat clunky for a simple blog, Wordpress is the only tool that I can run how I would like.
Now that I am a gardener I need to sort out the compost bins. I have three of them, I have geeked out on how to do it and made a start. My suspicion is that I will become a compost bore. I also suspect my other half is going to point this out to me.
We have lived, up until now, in houses with lawns and simple borders. My main gardening tasks were to keep the lawns mown and to keep the worst of the weeds at bay (weeds are just plants that are really easy to grow, right?) That changed recently when we moved house with a rather different gardening proposition. This one has mature trees, a terrace, a small orchard, some large veg patches and a cage for growing soft fruit.
Something has been bugging me about podcasts for quite a while. I was getting a bit daunted by my ever increasing backlog of episodes, they were another visual cue of more things to-do. I have also noted an increase in the level of adverts, and worst, those 5 minute ‘advertorials’ that appear to have been cropping up in some of the more popular podcasts. Yuck. I have also been thinking about the amount of stuff I let enter my brain every day, too much for it to wander off and do its creative problem solving type thing?
I use a shortcut to add to my daily note in apple notes all the time. Lets me capture my thoughts, lists and things my brain is bound to forget. The shortcut asks for input and then adds this to the bottom of a daily note in the notes folder. I have set the title to be the date in ‘241005 Sat 05 Oct’ format – the first half helps with sorting in date order, the second helps me work out which day without it being too brain intensive (especially on a weekend)!
update: I am going to use only mastodon for a while. I can't manage three social networks. In the old days there was twitter. I had a twitter account, found some funny people to follow and would get the best customer service from companies twitter accounts. Roll on a few years and I have twitter, mastodon and bluesky accounts. I like to keep things simple, so how the heck has this even happened?
We have always tended to visit the Lake District at Easter or during the summer. This was our first visit in October and the autumn colors did not disappoint. Being lucky with the weather helps, and having access to well maintained paths means walking isn't the mud-fest that can sometimes occur. Based ourselves in Grasmere, so most of the walks can be done without using our car. Would definitely recommend an autumn visit.
I discussed in an previous post that I would be trying to stick with obsidian for a whole year. I will admit that there has been some swapping between obsidian and apple notes, but I seem to be finally happy with the way obsidian is working. This appears to be down to a new theme that I love and sorting out zotero as my read-it-later tool of choice. Paired with going back to hugo obsidian has become my central hub, I can write blog posts and publish them directly from obsidian using hugo mounts .
It has finally happened. I didn't quite get to 50 years old and I'm having to wear glasses for reading and screen work as my eyes have finally given in to the onslaught of endless hours of email and teams meetings. To be honest, I've known it was coming for a long time. I've actually owned the glasses I'm now wearing for 18 months. They have followed me around, reminding me whenever I've opened my bag that the inevitable descent into old age will come soon enough.
I have been using Microsoft Onenote for all notes for about 6 months, ditching the notebook and pen. I have really liked the ability to take notes and quickly turn into other things, an email for example. The ability to tag it as an outlook task is really handy and is a timesaver. I thought I would use search and tagging much more than I have done but on the whole was pleased with it.
Went on a sunny trip into central Bristol to have a look at Upfest, the annual street art and graffiti festival. Bristol has many festivals throughout the year, but this one we have always seemed to miss so really nice to go - especially as the sun decided to shine. Bedminster is a really nice place to wander around in - the shop, food and market at the Tobacco factory is well worth a look.
The Lake District National Park has been one of my happy places for a good number of years, here are some highlights from my recent visit. pencil museum The pencil museum is a must do. I've been telling the family this for many years, but until this week we haven't managed to visit. a pencil is your ticket The general consensus is that it was more interesting than predicted. When you arrive you receive a pencil as your ticket to the museum and a quiz sheet with promises of prizes for correct answers.