2026 Week 2

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This week marked the transition back into a routine. The Christmas decorations came down, Ethan started back at nursery and Oscar returned to school. I even had the house to myself for a couple of mornings.

Despite the return to routine, I managed to enjoy spending time with the boys individually this week. Ethan is now an expert at lighting the fire and I got to witness his sheer delight as he managed to trace the numbers 1-10. He has started to express himself a lot more recently, wrapping up the week by declaring he wants to go to school not nursery. With Oscar I’ve been enjoying playing Monopoly Deal (think Monopoly but as a card game). It’s surprisingly fun. We’ve also made progress on that 1000 piece Oscar Piastri jigsaw.

Work has been a motivational struggle so far this year. Someone reminded me just how small our team has now become, so small that they (incorrectly) assumed that I might be the only one left. In an effort to recover some motivation and momentum, I’ve been leaning heavily on my task list to get me through the first full week back in the office. Some wins; Spring Office Hours is back in the diary and I have two solid drafts for a couple of talks I’ve got coming up.

Health has suffered and I’m not sure I can pin all the blame on the fact that it is cold. I’ve been snacking more than I should, sleeping later than I’d like and, despite the return to the morning commute, not managed to fit exercise back in to my daily routine. One positive though, I’ve been powering down the laptop each evening. This means closing everything and starting afresh in the morning. I’m no longer greeted with a screen full of tabs, documents, and terminal windows each morning. The fresh start has helped.

I’ve been thinking about:

A boy kneels on the floor next to a grid of paper slips. He is writing something on one of the slips.

return to school - planning in progress

Two people remove the lights from a Christmas tree. In the foreground a cardboard box of decorations sits on a glass table.

back to normal - the Christmas decorations came down

A child's bedroom. Many of the things stuck to the wall glow when lit with UV light.

science in the bedroom - we swapped a child safe UV pen for a 100W UV lamp

A close-up of a record player. The stylus rests on the record.

music - we’ve been algorithm free this Christmas

A black and white selfie of someone smiling.

selfie - first week back at work

A black and white photo looking out over a river. A rowing boat and safety boat occupy the middle of the river. On the far bank an industrial building and chimney stack mark the skyline.

london - a walk along the river

A kitchen work surface shows evidence of cooking. In the forground a plate of filled buns.

homemade - large batch of 包子