Weeknote 33/2025

We’re about to enter into Fructidor, the twelfth month of the French Republican Calendar, which is based on the weather in Paris throughout the year. Although where I live is around six degrees latitude north of the French capital, possibly due to climate change I find that it maps quite well on to the weather in Morpeth in 2025.

So I’m not particularly surprised that the blackberries are ripe, even though when I was young my mother used to pick them in October while waiting for me to come out of school. The seasons are shifting.

The seasons are also shifting in my own life, with my son, Ben, receiving his ‘A’ Level results this week. It draws to a close one chapter of his life, and so begins another. Having initially applied to study Geography he’s decided, based on his results, to pivot to studying Sports and Exercise Science, and will begin at Northumbria University in a couple of months’ time.

My daughter, Grace, won her first tournament with her new team today. It was just a local tournament, but it’s still good to spend time getting to know new team mates, for her to score a couple of goals, and to get used to that winning feeling. There’s a tournament in Bradford (2.5 hour drive each way!) next Saturday which will be a much stiffer challenge.

I didn’t do lots of work last week. As I mentioned in my last weeknote, everyone in my immediate family came down with what I can only guess was norovirus. I ended up taking Monday off. And then Thursday was full of life-getting-in-the-way distractions, with my son’s results, the return of one lease car, and the arrival of our next (another Polestar 2). The remaining time was split between working on the AIUK community platform project and preparing for a workshop with SEBI-L by attending a planning meeting and putting out a survey.

We’ve got a couple of other potential projects, but I probably need to some more business development in September. This year has not been optimal on many fronts, not least in terms of the pattern of time I’ve taken away from sitting at the desk of my home office. Next year, I’m sorely tempted to take the full six weeks of the school summer holidays off. But that, of course, requires… 💰

Next week, I’ll ensure things are ticking over for our existing projects, while savouring having the whole family around. So it might be another fairly light week, work-wise. I’m hoping that I’ll receive the results of my most recent test related to my health condition. Fingers crossed.