Highlights from this morning’s walk.

New wetland wellbeing walk by the canal.

A small creek with stepping stones winds through a grassy landscape under a sky with streaks of clouds.A serene landscape features a small bridge over a reflective pond set against a vibrant sunrise sky.A small wooden bridge crosses over a tranquil creek, with a brilliant sunrise in the background.A reflection of a person taking a photo is visible on the surface of a calm, rocky pond.A tranquil outdoor scene features a row of wooden pillars next to large stones, surrounded by bare trees and a vivid sky at sunrise.A wooden pergola stands at the top of a set of stairs surrounded by trees and a blue sky with clouds.

Been drinking this stuff the last two nights.

It’s very light, tastes nice enough, but unsure about it’s claims for calming and focus.

It’s supposed to make you feel more sociable, like you’ve had a couple of pints.

All it made me feel was like I needed to pee every half an hour.

At least it upped my step count and gave my kidneys a work out.

A glass with a pale yellow beverage sits on a coaster next to a can of non-alcoholic beer on a wooden table.

Last night I had “ideal sleep” according to my sleep app. This is the first time I’ve managed this feat, and that’s another one ticked off my bucket list for 2025.

Eating leftover mince pies now that I’m drinking sugar-free tea.

Back to work

The last time I worked full-time, in 2015, I got fired for taking too much time off sick.

The last time I worked full time before that, in 2011, I got fried for taking too much time off sick.

So I was quite happy to work part-time since 2016, fifteen hours a week to begin with, increasing to twenty two and a half hours in 2017. It felt like something I could cope with.

And it allowed me to spend a lot of time with big kid when he was little, and then little kid, too. Although that was often tiring ‘work’ I feel very fortunate to have had that much time with them when they were so young and fun.

Working two or three days a week and really being in charge of my own hours and schedule also allowed me lots of flexibility. I could almost work when I liked and didn’t worry about how many hours I’d done. If I needed to I could easily make up time or catch up on another day.

Going back full-time today, I was very conscious of how much time I spent working, and not working. I’ve got much less flexibility now to make up my hours.

Then again, I know that at work, it’s possible to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, the bathroom, the hallway, and the office not actually doing much work. I won’t be too hard on myself for making a cup of tea, powdering my nose, connecting the wife to the internet or checking my online socials every now and then.

All in all it wasn’t a bad day. Nothing urgent to do and I ended up going down a fundraising rabbit-hole. Found a couple of new-to-me funders and shared them with the relevant people, one of whom has already said they will apply.

Job done.

New hat achievement unlocked.

Auto-generated description: A person wearing glasses and a cap is looking at the camera in a room with various pieces of art on the wall behind them.

Despite it being xmas holidays and eating to excess I lost a pound in weight.

If I can get to bed earlier tonight I’ll have cracked half of my aims for this year and we’re only four days in.

This year

This year I’m returning to full-time work for the first time in almost a decade. I’m looking forward to it, though, and my main focus is going to be on researching and writing grant funding applications for local community youth work.

Last term I joined my sons’ school’s parent teacher association specifically to help find grant funding they can apply for. I need to get on with that.

I also hope to be able to get more involved (again) in local democracy and activism in person. I’d like to see if we can get some kind of organised mutual aid and self-help community going.

I want to get fitter and lose some weight, so I’m intend to walk every morning (flat feet permitting) and I’m no longer taking sugar in tea and coffee.

I want to sleep better (which is partly dependent on little kid staying in his own bed all night), breathe better, and get my psoriasis under control.

And I want a new hat.

Last year I feel like I tried out some new ways of doing things that make my life better.

  • journaling
  • reading more
  • listening to music more
  • being more sociable online, less time on X
  • writing (and publishing/sharing) more
  • eating less red meat and more beans/pulses instead
  • walking more regularly

Developers: if you really want to help the community

This was survey feedback given to developers proposing to build a massive data centre on the site of the industrial estate down the road from me, but it applies more broadly to all big developers, especially those with annual profits of half a billion pounds.

I’m concerned about noise from the site causing a nuisance and health problems in an area that is already susceptible to multiple environmental health stressors, and exacerbated by deep-rooted poverty, deprivation, low pay and systemic racism and power imbalances embedded in the local authority planning system.

I’m also concerned about the local power grid. Only a couple of years ago it was reported that Ealing doesn’t have enough capacity to power more new homes that are so badly needed, particularly in Southall which suffers from chronic overcrowding. A data centre requires a lot of power. How will this work?

If you really want to do something for the local community how about you plant thousands of trees to compensate for the fact that Southall has the lowest tree canopy cover in the whole of Ealing?

How about building homes for the street homeless and providing ongoing support they will need to live in them sustainably?

How about building a drug and alcohol rehab unit to treat the ever growing numbers of addicts roaming our streets and parks?

How about using all that information processing power to work out how to provide more frequent, more reliable, free public transport in Southall and to reduce the congestion caused by all the traffic?

How about building a secular community centre, a library, a youth club, a health centre, a school? Southall is so overdeveloped now, and Ealing Labour Council sold off all our community assets to developers.

Little kid sleeps in his own bed for about three or four hours before waking up crying and climbing into ours.

At least he now just goes straight back to sleep instead of wanting to be awake and playing for two hours.

The last three nights I’ve gone to bed very late and missed all the drama. I’ve slept so much better as a result.

Unfortunately, getting up at 8:30 in the morning isn’t sustainable when the kids go back to school.