Life

Things that have happened in my life

Unblogged September

by
A depiction of the Cheshire cat on the roof of Trinity Leeds

Considering that I still haven’t written about everything we did in July and August (there’s one more blog post to follow on Thursday), then surely there’s lots more to come from what we did in September. Right?

Well, we did do quite a few things this month, but not all of them merited blogging about on their own. Diamond Geezer normally writes a summary of unblogged things each month (here’s his from August) and whilst I won’t be writing a day-by-day summary, here are some of the things we did:

Trips to Manchester

I went to Manchester twice this month. The first was for a birthday meal for Christine, and also a shopping trip. We naturally went to Afflecks, which is an indoor market focussed on alternative lifestyles and has many small businesses selling clothes, jewellery and music. It’s in an old department store which closed in the 1970s after being taken over by Debenhams (who already had a larger store nearby). It’s operated in its current format since 1982, and is a very quirky place.

My second trip was for work, attending a training session about international qualifications delivered by UK ENIC. That was held at the University of Manchester.

Trip to Leeds

We also had a shopping trip to Leeds, which also doubled up as a second birthday meal for Christine, this time with my parents. This was at Bibi’s Italianissimo, which is a huge art deco restaurant near the station. Bibi’s has been in Leeds for years and retains a reasonably good reputation for food and hospitality – especially for families.

We also went into the Corn Exchange, which is similar in some respects to Afflecks in Manchester as it’s also home to many smaller shops – a couple of which are also in Afflecks. Architecturally, the Corn Exchange is far more interesting, being as it is circular with a huge glass domed roof over the central atrium inside. It’s unsurprisingly Grade I listed.

Back to school

Our nine-year-old is back at school, and started year five – their penultimate year at primary school. Next year, we’ll need to start looking at secondary schools.

Getting cold

This time of year is when we see how long we can hold out before turning the heating on. Which turned out to be Tuesday 16th September, after a run of cold days. It warmed up again afterwards, and so the thermostat didn’t come on until it turned cold again last weekend. Normally, the heating stays on until early May.

Speaking of heating, I’ve had major issues with my Nest thermostat recently with it refusing to work with either the Google Home app or Home Assistant. Ultimately, I had to completely remove it from both, and then re-add it, to get it working again. Which is a faff because the Nest integration in Home Assistant is one of the most difficult to set up, and it’s actually gotten worse since last time as you now have to create a Pub/Sub topic too. I’m pleased that it’s working again, but you can tell Google are phasing out their Nest thermostats in Europe. It will certainly get replaced with a different system, as and when we’re ready to replace our gas boiler with a heat pump.

Just the one child, thanks

by

When you start a serious relationship with someone, friends and family often start to ask when you’re planning to move in together. November 2010, in our case.

Then they want to know when you’re going to get engaged. October 2011, in our case.

Then they want to know when you’re going to get married. May 2013, in our case.

Then they want to know when you’re going to have a baby. December 2015, in our case.

Then they want to know when you’re going to have a second child. This is where Christine and I have been for almost 10 years now. And we’ve decided that this is where we’re going to stay, thank you very much, with just the one child.

The Three Milestones

When it came to deciding when to have another child, we agreed three milestones that must be passed:

  1. We must be eligible for funded childcare for our first child.
  2. We must have a tumble dryer, to handle the increased washing.
  3. Both Christine and I needed to be able to drive.

We achieved milestone one when our (now) nine-year-old turned 3, and became eligible for 30 hours of funded childcare per week, during school term time. Nowadays, much younger children qualify for this, but this was the minimum age at the time. Milestone two came at the end of 2022, after we’d had our kitchen refitted. And milestone three came at the end of last year, when Christine passed her driving test. So, without wanting to go into lots of salacious details about our sex lives, we stopped not trying for a baby. My choice of words there was deliberate – we haven’t been actively trying for another baby. But we stopped using means by which to a prevent a pregnancy from happening. Suffice to say, no pregnancy happened.

Why stop now

So why are we now stopping, and accepting that we’ll only ever have one child? Well, there’s a few reasons:

  1. We’re getting on a bit. We’re both older now than my parents were when I was born. And even if we somehow conceived this week, we would both be in our 60s by the time the resultant baby turned 18.
  2. Related to this, as we’re older, there’s a greater risk of complications. A pregnancy is more likely to be unviable, and there’s a greater risk that the child could be born with disabilities.
  3. Our nine-year-old already has additional needs. They’re not profoundly disabled – they attend a mainstream school and we don’t require significant social care for them. But they are likely to experience some challenges, especially when it comes to exams, and they probably won’t appreciate having a little brother or sister disrupting their exam revision. But also, as we already have one child with additional needs, I don’t think it would be fair on any of us to bring another child into the world who may have more profound additional needs.
  4. We have boxes and bags full of old baby and toddler clothes and toys, and we really want to get rid of them. If we’re no longer holding onto them for a hypothetical second child, that’s a lot of space we can reclaim in our house.
  5. Once our nine-year-old has ‘fled the nest’ and our mortgage is paid off (probably in 2037), we’ll be more free to move house if we don’t have a second child to tie us down.

So, we’re going to remain a family of three. And we’re happy about that.

Septembaargh

by

Good grief, is it September already?

Work-wise, September isn’t quite as busy as August for me, but still very busy – it’s when the majority of our new university students start their courses. Christine’s birthday is also this month, although it’s not a round number this year. Still, we both have the day off work. Meanwhile, our nine-year-old goes back to school after the long summer break.

25 years ago

This September marks 25 years since I started my A-levels at college. My secondary school didn’t have a sixth form, so instead most of us went to our local college. Indeed, the college was much more local than my secondary school, so I no longer needed a lift to school or to get a bus home.

That summer, I’d been bought my first MP3 player, when such things were still very new – it was a Samsung Yepp YPE-64, which we picked up at the Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone. The ’64’ referred to the 64 megabytes (yes, megabytes) of flash storage on board, although there was a slot to insert a SmartMedia card to add up to 128 MB additional storage. Data transfer was via a IEEE 1284 Parallel cable – no USB. Still, it was smaller than a MiniDisc player, which at the time was the smallest type of portable music player available, and I remember some classmates marvelling at how small it was.

Other anniversaries

In terms of other anniversaries, it’s 23 years since I started university, and also 23 years since I switched to Movable Type. Incidentally, TypePad, which was essentially a paid-for hosted version of Movable Type, announced it was closing for good last week. Those who are still using it have until later this month to export their data and move elsewhere. It’s a bit of a sad end to that chapter of blogging, but I guess most people just use WordPress now.

It’s also ten years ago since we bought our first car.

Aaaaaaah, August again

by

Happy Yorkshire Day! Like last year, I will be starting the day at home in Yorkshire, however, we’re off down to the Midlands later today. We’ve only just come back from our holiday in Wales, but this time it’s for a family event. We’re celebrating a big number birthday for one of my cousins. And yes, we had a nice time in Wales.

August is also my busiest period at work. Results Day for A-level students is on the 14th this year, and as I work in university admissions, I’ll be exceptionally busy either side of that date. This includes some later finishes on weekdays, and Saturday working.

As such, there will be lots of blog posts written in advance that’ll be going live over the course of the month. Many of these will be what we did on our holiday in Wales, and I’m sure there’ll be more posts about our electric car as we get used to it.

Into the latter half of 2025

by
A view of the Afon Dwyryd from Portmeiron Village in Wales

Good news, we’re already halfway through 2025. Time for another month ahead post, although I am writing this more than two weeks ago during a period of hyper-focus. Here’s the one from last month.

Christine is once again away for work, this time in the West Midlands. She tends to get to travel more for work than I do, but then last month’s trip to Athens does rather trump her short trips for conferences and things.

I suppose the big thing about July will be our annual summer holiday. We’re off to North Wales for a week; seeing as we can get there in around two hours of driving, I’m hoping it’ll be a less stressful holiday. We have some ideas of what we want to do, but at this stage we don’t have any firm plans. I will, of course, blog more about it nearer the time. I also plan to write about our 2018 summer holiday, which I haven’t really blogged about before – last year, I covered 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

There’ll be more about our electric car journey to come, although as I write this we still haven’t bought one yet. We’re likely to buy one this month or the next, as our current car’s MOT expires in September.

Jooooooooooooon

by

I haven’t done one of these ‘looking at the month ahead’ posts in a while (March being the last one). It’s usually a sign that I feel the need to write something and I’m running out of ideas. And that’s sort of the case here; I normally write blog posts in bulk at the weekend, and next weekend I’m unlikely to have time.

This month will see both Christine and I travel away for work. Christine’s off to London for a conference; meanwhile, I get to go somewhat further afield. It’ll be the first time I’ve travelled for work where I’ve needed to stay overnight since a trip to Canterbury in 2019, and the first time I’ve travelled abroad for work since my Middle East trip in 2015. Indeed, it’ll also be the first time in a decade that I’ve been on an aeroplane. I’ll write more about it nearer the time.

The weather seems to have become more unsettled than it has been of late, although I’m hoping we’ll get the chance to have some nice days out as a family as well. We’ll see what happens.

There’ll also be one or two more posts in our journey towards an electric car to come this month. I don’t think we’ll end up actually buying an electric car this month, but I’m planning a couple of posts about it pre-purchase.

Birthday blogging

by

Today is my 41st birthday. After turning 40 last year, it’ll be a long time before I have another big birthday to celebrate.

I’m once again lucky that my birthday has fallen over a bank holiday weekend. We’re off to Beamish again; as we went there last July, we have annual passes with a couple of months left to run. It also gives us an opportunity to visit the areas that we missed last time – namely the 1940s and 1950s farms, and the funfair. Our visit also coincides with the Festival of Transport, so we’ll be able to travel on the short steam railway which wasn’t open last year.

We’ll be staying overnight nearby, as it’s a two hour drive each way.

Happy Easter!

by
A brightly-coloured foil-wrapped Easter Egg sat in a garden border.

I hope you’re having a good Easter Sunday, now that it’s finally here. As discussed earlier this week, Easter is comparatively late this year – a full three weeks later than last year. It certainly feels like a long time since Christmas, especially with the recent nice weather.

As usual, we’re spending Easter with my parents in York. Christine was working yesterday, and so we travelled over last night. We’ll be heading back home tomorrow on the bank holiday. Whilst we have no specific plans, should the weather be nice, we’ll hopefully get out and see places. It’s either that, or spend a quiet weekend gently stuffing our faces with chocolate.

Well this weather is rather lovely

by
A photo of some trees with plenty of blossom

It’s been a particularly good Spring, hasn’t it? Lots and lots of sunshine, warm daytime temperatures, and almost no rain. It’s almost like the lovely Spring that we had in 2020, but without the lockdown restrictions. As such, we’ve been able to enjoy it a bit more.

As solar panel owners, it’s been particularly welcome. In March, our solar panel system saved us £50 by not needing to import energy from the grid, and we exported another £25 of excess electricity. And this month, despite us not being halfway through yet, we’ve already exported £25 of electricity. Overall, we’ve certainly exported far more than we’ve used from the grid. However, we’re having some issues with our smart electric meter not reporting usage, and so I’m not able to properly quantify this yet.

Although it’s been cold at nights, we’re still using less gas and electric than we would typically use at this time of year thanks to the nice weather. It’s been warmer during the day, and we’ve been able to dry more laundry outside too. We haven’t used our heated drying rack for a few weeks now.

Energy prices

Speaking of energy prices, I’m hoping that this will mean that Ofgem’s Energy Price Cap will go down when it changes again in July. The warmer weather should have reduced the use of gas central heating, and the increased contribution of solar energy will have reduced the amount of gas that’s burned to generate electricity. Seeing as it’s mainly wholesale gas prices that drive the price cap calculations, reduced demand for gas will hopefully see the price cap fall.

Hosepipe bans

It’s been that long since it rained that I can’t remember the last wet day that we had. Which has been good for getting out and about, but not so good for keeping the reservoirs topped up. Rain is forecast for next week, but if the general trend is for lots of hot dry days, then I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up with a hosepipe ban in the summer.

If you want to plan now for a hosepipe ban and don’t already have a water butt to store excess rainwater, consider getting one from Save Water Save Money. Pop your postcode in to find out if you can get one subsidised by your water company. They’re at least £10 cheaper than elsewhere, as long as you’re prepared to wait around six weeks for delivery. We haven’t invested in one yet (we need additional work doing on our guttering) but it’s something to consider.

One thing we have bought in response to the warm weather has been a portable air conditioning unit. British homes are not typically built with air conditioning systems (and our house is around 100 years old in any case). Whilst the nights have been cold, I’m fully expecting that, if this good weather continues, there will be some hot nights on the way. A standard pedestal fan can help keep you cool by blowing away sweat, but it can’t cool the air in a room. Once it’s arrived and I’ve had time to evaluate it, I’ll do a blog post.

Shapewear: is it worth it?

by

Recently, my Facebook feed has been full of adverts for male shapewear – essentially vests which push your tummy in. The idea being that you can hide a beer belly and look more confident. Of course, the adverts have lots of before and after videos of men who have squeezed themselves into one of these vests.

Of course, when it came to writing this, none of the adverts showed up for me to take a screenshot.

Whilst I rarely drink beer nowadays, it’s fair to say I’m more portly than I used to be. Between the start of the Covid lockdown five years ago, and the summer of 2021 when things started re-opening again, my waist size increased by a couple of inches. It used to be that I did around 30 minutes of brisk walking every weekday, but despite my efforts to get out during lockdown, I don’t do as much exercise now as I used to.

Therefore, on the face of it, shapewear offers an easy solution – squish your belly into a tight-fitting vest to look better. But besides the price of these vests, I’ve been hesitant to try them, for a couple of reasons.

Shapewear health risks

A quick search with a well-known search engine brought up this article from BBC Science Focus about the ‘hidden health risks of shapewear’. Feel free to read it, but the summary is that shapewear may not be suitable for people who experience issues with breathing, digestion, skin irritation or who have nerve or circulatory issues. And I tick two of those boxes: I’m asthmatic, and, without wanting to go into TMI, I have some digestive issues. Wearing shapewear regularly could exacerbate both of those.

Health risks aside, forcing your body to look a certain way, or only feeling confident if you’re wearing shapewear, isn’t a healthy relationship with your body. I’m reading (well, listening to the audiobook of) You Are Not A Before Picture by Alex Light (sponsored link), which is a really good book about the history of the diet industry, and how to have a good relationship with your body regardless of its size. It also dispels the myth that fat = unhealthy and thin = healthy. For more, see HAES – Health At Every Size, which offers advice for healthcare professionals who work with differently-sized people in a way that is affirming and supportive.

So, no – as much as I’m not a big fan of my sticky-out-tummy, I won’t be trying to force it into a restrictive vest.