In late 2025 I put together a list of things I would dump in 2026. Three months of the year are done, so how have I been getting on? A mixed bag:

• ‘social’ media - down to one social media platform, using mastodon via federate.social. I like the feel of it, and enjoy the eclectic mix of people on there. X is now beyond saving in my opinion. Bluesky seems to be similar, I have this feeling it is being built for an exit.
• snickers duo - trickier, mainly kept this one under control, but those moments when you just have to reach for something then a snickers duo it is - only happened twice so going to cut myself some slack on this one.
• changing blog platforms - was on Wordpress, but currently back to Pagecord. I liked playing with the ActivityPub plugin in Wordpress, but ultimately it wasn't giving the whole mastodon experience. Enjoying Pagecord, especially the different types of posts, titleless, image only and full posts. To be honest I am still updating my Wordpress blog in the background (just in case).
• the second cup of coffee - going to take the win here. I have quit the second cup of coffee, and the first one too. Feeling much calmer, although did have to tolerate a week's worth of nagging headaches. Cold turkey IS NOT the way to quit caffeine!
• the news - apart from grabbing a look at the headlines in the morning I'm managing to avoid getting caught up in the news. Not missing it one bit.
• carbs - a lifelong challenge, I think I'll be quitting carbs forever.
• the Apple Watch I never use - not used it, might try it for the gym but if that doesn't really work it will be sold.
• some old shirts I never wear - these are ready for the next run to the charity shops. I must buy some new shirts (am I doing minimalism right)?
• work backpack - cancelling this one. I have tried both my backpack and briefcase on a few commutes into London. The backpack just wins, more comfortable, easier at train and underground gates, can carry a wet umbrella outside the pack which is a useful function when you like on the UK.
• pretending to journal - hmmm, trying to get to grips with mixing an electronic and analogue world together. Concerted effort required to choose the tool that will be my 'main' journal and use my iPhone for capturing whilst out and about. Admitting that I won't carry a pen and paper everywhere seemed to help resolve how I could work in a hybrid way.
• podcasts that just interview people with a new book to sell - done, not missing anything.
• eating whilst walking - mainly done. When thinking about this one I started noticing others eating whilst walking, it is never a good look.
• desk lunch - I think the spring will be a good incentive to get outside, will see how this is going on the next update.

Given how long it takes me to update my now page I might just rename it my then page. Must try harder.

In the UK we are used to the rain, we get a lot of it. We put up with it because it makes us such a green country, makes stuff grow and we like to potter about with our trousers rolled up in a cool river on a hot sunny day.

But even us hardy brits have had enough now, it seems to have been raining continuously since before Christmas. The news is even picking up on it, here are a few facts from Sky News:

• Several sites across the UK haven’t had an entirely dry day since 30 December, which would mean rain on Sunday would be the 40th consecutive day.
• Aberdeen has had zero hours of sunshine since 21 January. It’s the longest sunless period there since 1957.

It rained today, so that is 40 days straight. Noah was spotted at a timber merchants buying up wood for an Ark it has been so wet.

I suppose this is climate change, wetter winters and drier summers for us. We’ll have to come up with new strategies for holding the water to prevent flooding and release it when we need it when warm.

So when will we see the sun?

Next blimming Saturday!

Typical brit, always talking about the weather.

As disappointingly forecast in my previous post, the missing AirPod has reappeared.

It reappeared from the back of my bedside table on the 15th Jan, nine days after my £76 replacement had arrived, very efficiently, from Apple.

I now have a spare left hand AirPod, I am not sure what to do with it - creative ideas welcome.

By the way, the title is a homage to one of my childhood favourite TV programmes Mr Benn - the 80s were great weren't they.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyS5cHO6JN0

I wrote some time ago about the benefits of wired headphones, including the fairly obvious fact that they are harder to lose.

Well, I bought some AirPods 4 NC and had been getting along fine until I was on holiday over the Christmas period, opened the case and found the left AirPod missing.

Find my stuff says it is at home, but hasn't been seen for about a week. I have resorted to walking around the house like some sort of dullard with my phone waving it about like I'm in Star Trek assessing a new planet with my Tricorder.

So do I replace it for £69, or wait out and see if it turns up? We all know what is going to happen - replace it and magically it will reappear. Perhaps I could trick it into thinking it has been replaced, then it will show itself?

Moral of the story, listen to your own advice - or at least your own blog posts.

This is the inverse of my recent post about stuff I’d like to dump in 2026. It is inspired by Jon’s blog where he added an invest list under his own to dumplist.

I suppose they are a bit like new year resolutions, but framing in terms of spending more time rather than something I could 'tick off' feels like a longer term aspiration and therefore more likely to happen (in my head anyway).

• watching more cinema
• learn how AI might be useful to me
• books, especially the classics I never read
• getting an exercise habit
• visit more new places to eat, Bristol is nearby as has some great options.
• investigate keeping some bees in the garden
• planting some vegetables and perhaps a flowering meadow

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. I can actually hear my brain scream when someone asks me to make a decision, it just wants to pop onto standby mode until the question has passed, evidently this is a real thing…

The cognitive scientists have now proven the reality of “decision fatigue” – that every decision you make, little or big, diminishes a limited amount of your brain power. David Allen

Thanks David, my brain power is already quite limited and it is good to hear that decision fatigue is only making it even worse.

I am going to sit for now, under a blanket, hoping that all decisions will go away. If you need me to make a decision just go with the first choice, it is probably the best option.

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.

Where I can find them, I have added links to the artists website so you can see more of their work.

my favourites

scribble & sketch exhibition, four seasons

Downstairs in the RWA is an exhibition themed around the four seasons, presented by the Scribbles and Sketch outreach programme.

The programme allows people of all ages to engage with the arts and this exhibition was generated by participants of Easton, Redcliffe, Hartcliffe and Southmead.

I absolutely loved this wall of art. The annual exhibition seemed a little grey and melancholy this year, this more than made up for it with the vibrancy and colour. Good work people of Bristol!

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.

I had broken the habit, proved I could decide to do something and then stick to it and in the end decided I wanted to end the dry spell when I wanted to. Dates on calendars are just dates.

A little bit of abstinence is a good thing, I definitely appreciated the taste of the wine more and breaking bad habits is good for the soul, edging out the bad ones and creating some new, better ones is probably one of life's secret skills. Should probably practice this more.

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. There is still the chance of some lovely late summer days, getting out and about before we hunker down in front of the fire. There is lots going on, so not as much to miss.

We have made an early start this year, and last night was the first Friday without a nice bottle of wine.

and….

Slept like a baby (one of those babies that sleeps well), got about 11 hours sleep, waking up past 9am. This never happens, the weekend would be the time to catch up on sleep but usually I’d wake up way before that. Perhaps no alcohol means that my body could do some catching up.

I woke up with a headache. Ironically, I think this was my lack of caffeine early in the morning making its presence felt. That might be something to tackle in a different month.

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. I really hate when people lift their wrist to look at a watch notification when I am speaking with them. I found myself doing this, so tried to stop. This created almost an internal stress – a notification was there but I needed to wait. Notifications went.

The next was charging, getting a notification that you needed to charge the thing just seemed really frustrating. I know it is an amazing bit of tech, and for the size it lasts well. I think I have a limit for the number of things I have to keep charged, the watch tipped me over the limit. I do still occasionally use the watch in the gym and to record runs, but apart from heart rate it doesn’t really add much to what I need– I’m not a health data nerd, or an athlete training for an ultra marathon so much of the cool health stuff just isn’t relevant.

Finally, I missed my traditional watches, the Apple Watch just didn’t feel as nice on my arm – bit too bulky, bit too complex, a bit too much for me.

I’ll keep using it now and again, perhaps I’ll use it more in future – I’m not too sure.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTi-e20yVNs

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:

• Reducing diversion. I am one of those that goes to reply to a message on my phone and gets diverted into a world of shiny apps vying for my attention - often forgetting what it was I originally unlocked my phone for. My hope is that using the Apple Watch will prevent me on ordering down some rabbit holes, the watch isn't big enough for that.
• Carrying less. Although the watch I am using isn't a cellular model I would, if the experiment works, buy one of this type so I could sometimes leave the phone at home. This would be particularly useful when running or in the gym. Again, less temptation to get the phone out and browse.
• Better health insight. The aim would be to have better stats so I could see improvements in my health, especially heart rate whilst running.

The slight 'fly in the ointment' so far is that I need glasses to read, but don't wear them all the time. The watch face is therefore a bit blurry, it is readable but not sure I would want to do too much on it in one go - perhaps that is a good thing?

Also, I already hate having yet another thing to charge.

Any tips? Did you get the benefits from an Apple Watch you though? Are you still wearing yours or is it resting in a drawer?

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.