Life Events
In January, Rina moved in with me. I thought I would never live with a partner, and had organised my life around that fact, but within 3 months of living with her, I was feeling very lost whenever she would be away for a few days, so that’s that then.
In March we drove to Croydon to pick up two kittens, who we called Ginger and Juniper.
In July I proposed to Rina and she said yes.
We are planning on moving to Bristol and getting married in 2026.
Work
I started the year working with FF Studio, doing my favourite work hobby of trying to make arguments via the medium of code. It was lovely being back in a scrappy startup office environment, making tea and prototypes. Unfortunately it could not last.
In early summer I became the Head of Technology for Digital Screening at NHS England. This is the opposite of small and scrappy: hundreds of people are building software to support the thousands of people who are doing millions of screening events in England every year. I’ve never worked in the NHS before, and the scale is mind-blowing - both in terms of the budgets but also the impact. It’s not a naturally easy place to deliver software, but as well explained by colleague Liz, there’s some fantastic missions, and great people to mission with. I hope to be doing this for a while, if they’ll have me.
Adventures
Cape Verde
Rina and I were keen to go on a sunny winter holiday to a place that neither of us had been before. We found some cheap flights to Cape Verde, thinking we’d avoid the resorts and make our own beach holiday. Once we arrived, and not helped with us both having chest infections, it turned out that on most islands, there’s not much else apart from the resorts.
After a couple of inter-island flights and an hour’s cab ride, we found and settled in Tarrafal, which gave us what we wanted: a nice public beach where we could rotate between drinking coconuts and playing in the massive ocean waves.
Bodmin camping
Our first car-camping trip of the year was in Bodmin. We expanded the ford with an awning tent so we had a kitchen, which was great because obviously it was raining in Bodmin. We had some lovely walks through the hawthorn marshes, which was the most witchy place I’ve ever been, and over the moors.
Lisbon
I loved my first trip to Lisbon: a perfect vibe for eating and drinking. We stayed at The Verse, the first time I’ve stayed at an “aparthotel”. Bank balance willing - I’d do it again.
Burning Nest
This year was the 4th year of Hot Mess being at Burning Nest, the first year that I stepped back from running the camp, and the first Burner event that Rina had been to.
Rina and I contributed by building a photo booth that used propane as the camera flash. It stretched our minimal woodwork, electronics and plumbing skills to the max, but amazingly it all came together and it worked almost flawlessly.
Cairngorms
For the summer solstice we spent a few days in a large house in the Cairngorms with about 20 friends, where we played a multi day version of The Traitors. I was 100% faithful.
As we were so far north during the solstice, it almost never went dark, and we got to trundle around the beautiful scenery all day. Also: living in a house with 20 people is just so nice. You make one round of teas, and then you get 19 teas brought to you.
Epping Bikepacking
I took Rina on her first bikepacking trip, loosely following this route, but popping into our favourite Oyster Shack. It was a great route, and the campsite was really nice - I’d really recommend it for a group of 6-8 friends. Oh, I also proposed to Rina there.
We Out Here
I took Murmuration to We Out Here in 2024 to get some free tickets to join Rina and her friends. It was such a lovely festival to work at that, when they asked me if I wanted to come back in 2025, we put together a little crew of 8 specifically. It hits exactly the right balance of fun and party, but also friendly and bougie.
Suffolk bikepacking
As has been tradition since the pandemic, I’ve done a weekend bikepacking trip with Frank and Louis. This year we went up the Suffolk coast. Suffolk was perfect for cycling along: lots of car free areas, lots of public facilities, and quirky ferries.
Brecon Beacons camping
We took the car-camping setup up to the Brecon Beacons for a long weekend of camping and hiking. Continue to love Wales, looking forward to living closer to it.
Wye Valley
Another big friend house trip, this time in the Wye Valley, which provided a beautiful horizontal wall of autumnal trees, and another quirky ferry between pubs.
Paris
Finally, a trip to Paris for Rina’s birthday. I had never been before, and didn’t expect to like it, but got into the groove of it quite quickly. It’s a lot more like London than I thought it would be. Their dockless ebikes are transformatively nicer to ride than London Lime bikes.
Consumption
- Best meal: Trinca in Lison
- Best album: Metalhorse - Billy Nomates
- Best gig: Mahalia Presents, Camden Jazz Cafe
- Best book: Red Plenty
- Best TV: Shrinking
- Best movie: Superman
- Best podcast: Tifo Football Podcast
- Best exhibition: V&A Storehouse
- Best (only) theatre: 54.60 Africa
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