Fast forward two years, and my Wordle addiction is alive and well. The daily challenge remains as compelling as ever, but it’s the family WhatsApp group – where scores are shared, victories boasted, and failures commiserated – that adds an extra layer of fun.

As 2024 winds down, I decided to dust off my coding skills and whip up a quick C# console application. The goal? To parse an export of our WhatsApp chat, gather all the shared Wordle scores, and find out if my strategies have paid off this year. Spoiler alert: they haven’t.

If you’ve got a similar Wordle-centric group chat with family or friends and fancy crowning your own Wordle Champion of the Year, the source code is available on GitHub: WordleParser.

How It Works

The application takes a single argument: the path to an exported chat text file. It parses the file using a regular expression to extract anything resembling a Wordle score. Duplicate scores are weeded out, and the average family score for each calendar day is logged. For those unfortunate days when a puzzle remains unsolved, the application assigns a ‘seven’ to reflect the failure.

The app then aggregates scores into calendar months and years, calculating each family member’s stats for the chosen date range. Participants are ranked based on their mean difference from the average family score per day.

For example, if three family members scored a 4, but one managed a dazzling 2, the day’s average would be 3.5. The three “fours” would each have a daily difference of +0.5, while the lucky “two” would boast a difference of -1.5.

The Results

So, who triumphed in the Nelson family Wordle-off this year? Did my painstaking analysis from 2022 finally give me the edge?

Reader, it did not.

Despite my best efforts, I only just managed to sneak into second place. Predictably, my mother reigned supreme, crushing us all with an average score of 4.055 and a mean difference from the family average of -0.128. This consistency made her our undisputed Wordle Family Champion of 2024.

As 2024 draws to a close, I’ve taken some time to reflect on the books that made the greatest impact on me this year. From deep dives into technology and politics to introspective reads on life and risk, these are the titles that enriched my year – and might just enrich yours too.

If you pressed me on the subject, I would say that my very favourite book of 2024 was Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher.

2024 marks thirty years since I first “got on the internet” when I was studying at university. I started out sending emails and browsing Usenet using PINE, then had my world turned upside down when NCSA Mosaic and the first versions of Netscape Navigator allowed me to start surfing the web. Since then I’ve been lucky enough to follow an enjoyable career building distributed software systems that rely on the internet.

During this same period, Kara Swisher has covered that ever-changing technology sector for outlets including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Burn Book is a sharp, irreverent critique of the technology industry, blending memoir, satire and journalism. It delivers a candid account of tech’s rise to dominance and its often-problematic relationship with power, ethics, and accountability. Swisher doesn’t shy away from naming names, offering unfiltered takes on figures such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and many others. There is a wealth of great anecdotes here, and no small amount of disdain for many of the man-child Silicon Valley tech bros who have changed our world so completely over the last thirty years.

My favourite technical book of the year was the second edition of Building Microservices: Designing Fine-Grained Systems by Sam Newman, who I had the pleasure of learning from when I attended his two-day Microservices workshop at NDC Porto 2024 in October. Although ostensibly focused on Microservices, this 600-page tome offers plenty of good advice that applies more broadly to the design, implementation, and operation of any modern software system. Newman writes engagingly, backing up his candid opinions with case studies and offering concrete advice wherever possible. Highly recommended.

Away from the code face, I’ve appreciated the insights into effective technical leadership that I have gained from two complementary books Staff Engineer: Leadership Beyond the Management Track by Will Larson and The Staff Engineer’s Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change by Tanya Reilly. Both offer plenty of practical advice and insights for anyone in (or aspiring to enter) a “Staff Plus” role.

Politics

I spent some of my early summer weekends accumulating blisters as I walked the local streets delivering campaign material to help re-elect our excellent local MP Keir Mather. For background encouragement I did this while listening to the audiobook of This Time No Mistakes: How to Remake Britain by Will Hutton. It is a wide-ranging treatise covering over a century of political history on both sides of the Atlantic and attributes the UK’s current political and economic challenges to persistent adherence to free-market ideologies and minimal state intervention over the past 45 years. Drawing inspiration from early 20th-century New Liberalism and the post-1945 Labour government, Hutton advocates for a blend of ethical socialism and progressive liberalism, which he refers to as the “We Society”, balancing individual aspirations with collective welfare. Occasionally I found this a little too dry and worthy for my liking, with the recounted historical events seeming far removed from current day politics. But generally it kept me inspired and motivated, particularly in the more forward-looking sections that offered a manifesto for change.

My favourite book by a politician this year was only tangentially about politics. One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry-Up: A Memoir of Growing Up and Getting On is an engaging memoir by current Health Secretary Wes Streeting, recounting his experiences growing up in poverty with teenage parents who struggled to make ends meet. Despite the hardships faced, Streeting highlights the love and support from his family, and also the opportunities afforded to him by impactful teachers, ultimately leading to attending Cambridge University and embarking on a career in politics. Streeting wears his heart on his sleeve, making for a very personal memoir that offers human-centric vignettes into the factors that shaped his ideology.

Money and Risk

I read a second autobiography this summer by another boy from a modest upbringing in East London who made a better life for himself, though this one followed a very different path from that of the Health Secretary. The Trading Game: A Confession by Gary Stevenson details the author’s ascent to become a leading trader at Citibank, working on the Short-Term Interest Rate Trading desks in London and later Tokyo. The memoir delves into the opulent yet morally ambiguous lifestyle of high finance, exposing systemic flaws and the widening wealth gap in the years that followed the 2007-8 global financial crisis. Despite his success, Stevenson grappled with the ethical implications of profiting from the economic downturns that adversely affected the less affluent, and he has since become an advocate for economic equality, using his platform to educate the public on financial disparities. I didn’t particularly relish the chapters describing bankers’ hedonism, but I was fascinated by later sections detailing the corporate games played by Citibank as Stevenson sought to leave the organisation.

Most of us will never have the levels of money that bring the kind of ethical dilemmas faced by Gary Stevenson. For the rest of us, advice on how to manage our own more modest finances can be found in The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness by Morgan Housel. Housel argues that financial success and security is not necessarily linked to intelligence or mathematical skill but to understanding human nature and managing emotions like greed, fear, and envy. The book is written in a conversational and approachable style, combining research with 19 short stories emphasising that managing money well requires understanding yourself and your relationship with money.

In a similar vein, On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything by Nate Silver digs into the psyche and strategies of individuals who thrive in high-stakes environments, from poker players to venture capitalists. He introduces the concept of “The River”, representing a community of analytical, independent-minded and risk tolerant individuals, and contrasts it with “The Village,” symbolising risk-averse, conventional thinkers. There is a huge amount of information in this book about gambling, particularly poker, which rekindled some of my interest in the game theory branch of mathematics. There are also some fascinating chapters recounting Silver’s meetings with Sam Bankman-Fried during the tumultuous period following cryptocurrency exchange FTX’s collapse and preceding his incarceration. It’s clear that Bankman-Fried had a very different relationship with risk than most of us, and this serves as a cautionary tale, illustrating the perils of risk-taking without understanding the potential consequences.

Game-playing and risk-taking without the potential for such life-changing consequences is the subject of Around the World in 80 Games by British mathematician Marcus du Sautoy. The Jules Verne-inspired narrative circumnavigates the globe and explores a diverse array of games, from ancient board games like the Royal Game of Ur to contemporary favourite such as Settlers of Catan. It considers the cultural significance of games, and the roles they play in different societies, in addition to investigating the mathematical concepts underpinning these games, including probability, game theory and combinatorics. Du Sautoy also explores what makes games fun and interesting, captivating players into wishing for just one more turn (e.g. Wingspan, Ticket To Ride) compared to those that can drag on interminably and lead to boredom and resentment (Monopoly). In 2024 I have very much appreciated the fact that my children are of an age where they are able and willing to play decent games like 7 Wonders, Darwin’s Journey and Everdell with me, and found Du Sautoy’s book to offer pleasing insights into why we find these games so enjoyable.

Fiction

As is usually the case, I read more non-fiction than fiction during the year. On the few occasions that I did pick up a novel, it seems I have been drawn to those featuring rather flawed protagonists, to say the least. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis was, in retrospect, perhaps not the most relaxing choice of audiobook to accompany my January commutes on the congested roads of Leeds City Centre. The novel is infamous for its explicit and shocking depictions of ultra-violence, but I was more intrigued by its lengthy and monotonous monologues on 1980s bands, stereo systems, and skincare routines.

In the summer months (now commuting by train) I listened to the short but harrowing psychological novel We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Told through a series of letters written by Eva Katchadourian to her estranged husband Franklin, the story explores Eva’s attempt to make sense of their teenage son Kevin’s horrifying act of violence – a school massacre he commits shortly before his 16th birthday. The novel is a chilling and fascinating exploration of parental responsibility, societal violence, and complexities of love and blame.

Finally, wrapping up a triptych of novels featuring notable and troubled anti-heroes, I read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov later in the year. The unreliable narrator Humbert Humbert is charming and eloquent, seducing the reader with his wit and intellect, even as he recounts his abhorrent exploitation of a young girl. I did not realise before I began reading this book that it was originally written in English, despite Nabokov’s Russian heritage. The intricate wordplay, subtleties, and cultural references are beguiling, and I frequently felt compelled to highlight words or phrases on my Kindle for later recall. It was also a delight to recognise many turns of phrase and imagery from the lyrics of one of my favourite songs, Lolita Elle by ’90s band Jack. American imagery from Humbert and Lolita’s road trip across the United States also evoked my memories of our summer holiday driving in Utah and Nevada.

While visiting the States this summer, I spent the hot Nevadan evenings sitting in the shade in my mother-in-law’s courtyard reading London Fields by Martin Amis. I had previously tried reading Amis in my early twenties, encouraged to do so by my intellectual and more literary-minded housemate Hugh. But at the time I found Amis’s prose to be dense and challenging, and it said little to me about my life at the time (back then I preferred the lighter fin de siècle ennui of Douglas Coupland). But on returning to Amis’ “London Trilogy” in my forties, I find myself relishing these dark satires of modern life, the deeply flawed characters, and the way that the cities of London and New York symbolise both opportunity and corruption. Most of all I love the gloriously esoteric words and the lovingly-crafted sentences, many of which I again highlighted on my Kindle. Having re-read Money in 2018 and London Fields this year, I plan to revisit The Information in 2025.

Music

My favourite music book of the year was Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska by Warren Zanes. In contrast to the rock autobiographies by Bono, Jarvis Cocker, and Dave Grohl that have graced my year-end blog post in recent years and which contain a wide-range of anecdotes, Zanes’ book focuses on one specific recording. The Nebraska LP, recorded solo on a four-track cassette recorder in a New Jersey bedroom, was a stark departure from Springsteen’s earlier, more grandiose works. It showcased a raw, introspective side, and featured narratives of violence, despair, and existential contemplation. Zanes is a true fan and diligent researcher, who through interviews with Springsteen and others explores how Nebraska challenged industry norms and left a lasting impact on music, paving the way for future generations of lo-fi and indie rock artists to produce music in their bedrooms. For a broader read, I also enjoyed R.E.M. Album by Album by Max Pilley, a comprehensive retrospective of the thirty-year recording career of one of my favourite bands. This featured many facts and insights into the band and music that I wasn’t previously aware of, and led to me streaming their LPs with fresh ears, not unlike the impact that Revolution In The Head by Ian McDonald once had upon my appreciation of The Beatles’ recordings.

Life and How to Live It

Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters by Dr. Brian Klaas explores the influence of randomness and chaos on human lives and decision-making. Klaas examines how small, seemingly insignificant events – flukes – can cascade into pivotal moments, shaping the course of history, politics, and personal trajectories.

The book examines topics like the butterfly effect, exploring how initial conditions can lead to wildly unpredictable outcomes, and the role of luck versus skill in success and failure. Klaas uses vivid anecdotes from history, science, and contemporary life to demonstrate how randomness interacts with human agency, often creating illusions of control where none exists.

Despite acknowledging the pervasive role of chance, this book ultimately offers a hopeful perspective: while randomness is unavoidable, our actions still matter. By understanding the mechanics of chaos and probability, we can better navigate uncertainty, make informed decisions, and cultivate resilience. There was a lot to take in here; much food for thought, and it’s one of the books from 2024 that I would definitely consider reading again in an attempt to digest the salient and actionable points.

One of the books mentioned in my 2021 post was Four Thousand Weeks: Time And How to Use It by Oliver Burkeman. He has returned with the follow-up Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts, and I’ve found it to be even more inspirational and actionable than the previous book. It is structured as a four-week “mental retreat” of daily meditations, centred around the topics of “Being Finite”, “Taking Action”, “Letting Go” and “Showing Up”. As someone who often struggles to decide what to do with my free time, and has been trying to find more efficient “algorithms to live by” for many years, I took great comfort from some of the poignant and reflective advice in the short chapters in this book, which is excellently researched and includes plenty of source citations to further reading. The “index of afflictions” at the back of the book is also a helpful resource.

I have thoroughly enjoyed all of Professor Cal Newport’s books, but his latest work, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment without Burnout is my favourite to date, and is unsurprisingly focused, as you would expect from a book that exhorts us to do fewer things and obsess over quality. Newport highlights the unfortunate rise of performative busywork in modern corporate culture, and the negative impact that this has had on the creation of quality outputs. It goes on to suggest strategies and tactics that knowledge workers and others with a reasonable degree of autonomy in their jobs can use to live more fulfilling lives and produce higher-quality work. Alas, it does come with the caveat that many people who work in an office environment under close supervision might have a hard time fully instituting the strategies suggested: there will always be employers and clients who prioritise bureaucracy and infantilising processes over genuine productivity. But it offers the prospect of better ways of working to those who can do so, and I am hopeful that these ideas will spread across the corporate world as the benefits of their adoption are seen.

In 2024 I read more books than usual by reducing the amount of mainstream news media and social media that I consumed. I found this to be a more rewarding balance and it had a positive effect of my mental health. Yet even reading just one quality national newspaper per week left me with the impression that the world was going to hell in a hand cart, and by October I deliberately sought out a book to read that would offer some optimism. I found it in Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman, a thought-provoking exploration of human nature that challenges the assumption that humans are fundamentally selfish and driven by greed.

Bregman’s central thesis is that humans are, by nature, “Homo puppy” – inherently friendly, cooperative, and capable of incredible kindness. He invites readers to adopt a more optimistic lens on humanity, rejecting cynicism and building systems that empower our better angels. I particularly enjoyed the sections of the book where Bregman’s fresh research debunked iconic studies like the Stanford Prison Experiment and Milgram Experiment, revealing flaws in their methodology and reporting. The book is a mixture of rigorous research and engaging anecdotes that offers a call to action to reimagine our social structures and advocates for policies such as Universal Basic Income, which assume the best in people and trust individuals to act responsibly.

Our World

Similarly optimistic was the excellent Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Dr Hannah Ritchie. This data-driven exploration of the environmental challenges facing the planet was very reminiscent of Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About The World – And Why Things Are Better Than You Think by the late Swedish academic Hans Rosling. It challenges common misconceptions, scrutinising the actual impact of actions like eating locally and the true environmental costs of materials such as plastic. Ritchie emphasises that, contrary to pervasive doomsday narratives, we have the potential to achieve true sustainability for the first time in history.

If Ritchie’s work relies on accurate data to draw conclusions, what are the impacts on public policy when data is non-existent, inaccurate or misleading? That is the subject of Bad Data: How Governments, Politicians and the Rest of Us Get Misled by Numbers by Georgina Sturge, a statistician at the House of Commons Library. The book dives into the murky waters of official statistics, revealing how data – often assumed to be the bedrock of informed policy-making – is riddled with inconsistencies, guesswork, and uncertainties. It offers insightful analysis and engaging storytelling through a series of compelling narratives, which often served to provoke and anger me in a manner not dissimilar to that of Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez, which featured in my blog post of 2019.

Another book on public policy that got me angry and worked up in 2024 was The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilises our Governments and Warps our Economies by Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington. Through a series of case studies it critiques how large consulting firms have entrenched themselves as indispensable advisors while simultaneously undermining the very organisations they serve. Exhaustively highlighting the dependency culture, short-termism and lack of accountability that inevitably arises, the book calls for a reevaluation of the consulting industry’s role in modern organisations and governments. It advocates for rebuilding in-house expertise and fostering a culture of long-term value creation, rather than outsourcing core functions to external advisors.

My favourite science book of the year was Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future by Ed Conway, the economics editor for Sky News. He focuses on six fundamental materials – sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium – that have been instrumental in shaping human civilisation, and continue to be important for all our futures. The book highlights the many ways that these materials underpin modern life: sand is essential for silicon chips, iron and copper are foundational to construction and electrical infrastructure, and lithium is vital for contemporary battery technologies. The context of the transition to renewable energy sources and the demand that it will place on our consumption of these materials weighs heavily on the narrative.

We have come full circle. My books round-up blog post for 2024 ends on the same topic that it began – the impact of new technologies. If the technological changes that we have seen over the last 30 years have been remarkable, they are nothing compared to those that we are about to witness over the coming decades. The Coming Wave: Technology, Power and the Twenty-First Century’s Greatest Dilemma by DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman covers the transformative impact of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), synthetic biology and quantum computing on society. It explores how those technological advancements could lead to immense prosperity while simultaneously posing enormous threats to global order and individual freedoms. Notably, Suleyman highlights the “containment problem”, arguing for proactive measures by nation states to strike a balance between innovation and potential catastrophe. At a time when the full potential of technologies such as ChatGPT and synthetic biology have not yet been grasped by the majority, The Coming Wave offers an urgent wake-up call. An important read.

Thank you for reading this far! Wishing you a peaceful Christmas, and here’s to much more reading in 2025.

It’s been a long time since I attended a multi-day conference – perhaps even as long ago as Software Architect 2007 (where I first learned about Dependency Injection and IOC Containers) which makes me feel quite ancient. Having been a freelancer since 2008, it’s often difficult to justify taking time out to attend conferences, no matter how valuable they might be to one’s career in the longer term. The face cost of the conference ticket is usually dwarfed by the loss of contract income (real or perceived) whilst being unable to bill a client.

But circumstances conspired to make my attendance at NDC Porto possible this year. Firstly, I’m currently doing some exclusive and inside IR35 work for a client, which effectively results in me having some mandatory days off to play with for the first time in over 15 years. And secondly, I was lucky enough to win an all-access pass to any NDC Conference at a raffle held at the last DDD North event this March – so many thanks to the good folk at Black Marble for organising that event, and to NDC for offering the prize.

I had never been to Porto before, so took the opportunity to spend the weekend prior to the conference doing the tourist thing. The October weather was fantastic for walking around the historic city centre, taking in the cathedral, Torre dos Clérigos, and views of the Duoro river. My goodness, but it’s hilly though!

From my journal that Sunday:

“I realised that Porto doesn’t just appeal to my sense of sight. Of course the views are fantastic, but on a sunny Sunday like today there is also excellent music that carries far and wide from a range of talented buskers. Electric acoustic guitars and electric violins seemed to be the order of the day, with a mixture of classic and popular tunes. Porto also smells nice – people seem to have a variety of different fragrances that differ from those that I usually smell in Leeds. Of course there are great tastes in the form of the wines and seafood. And finally there are even things to touch – ceramic tiles, cork panels etc. Truly, this city is a feast for the senses.”

Workshop – Designing Microservices

Before the conference proper began on Wednesday, there were nine two-day workshops to choose from. I opted to attend Designing Microservices by Sam Newman. I had previously read Sam’s book Building Microservices, and have been using microservices of some variety or other on projects since 2018. While these have sometimes been successful, I have often had the niggling doubt that some implementations on which I have worked could more accurately be described as being Distributed Monoliths, and I was eager to spend some focused time understanding when the lure of microservices should be resisted, and to dig into implementation patterns, along with examining related topics such as whether to use multirepo or monorepo approaches for source control.

As with Sam’s book, while ostensibly about microservices, the workshop also covered a wide range of more general architectural and software development topics that could be equally applied to traditional monoliths. It also struck a good balance between technical topics and organisational ones – how to structure teams for success when delivering a microservice-based solution. I appreciated this holistic coverage, as well as the tacit admission that microservice architectures may often not be the correct solution for a given project.

The workshop was delivered at a good pace, neither labouring points unnecessarily, nor glossing over more thorny topics that were worthy of due consideration. There was a good mixture of slides, dialogue, and some collaborative activity in small groups.

My only minor disappointment with the two-day workshop was a sense that a small minority of the other attendees were insufficiently engaged – returning late to the workshop room from our plentiful breaks, and checking their phones frequently. I assume they were attending at the behest of their employer rather than of their own volition, but this behaviour seemed disrespectful to Sam and the other attendees. I tried to ignore it.

My 10 Favourite Sessions

After the initial two days of workshops, the remaining three days were filled with over a hundred traditional one-hour sessions, with up to six sessions running concurrently. This led to sometimes difficult decisions about which sessions to attend. My strategy was generally to attend sessions covering higher-level broad-brush type topics, rather than those covering niche technologies which I could learn through reading online documentation. But even within these self-imposed guidelines, there was a wealth of material to choose from. I attended around twenty sessions – here are some thoughts on my favourite ten:

Keynote: Tidy First? A Daily Exercise in Empirical Design by Kent Beck

The conference proper opened on Wednesday morning with a Keynote by Kent Beck, the creator of extreme programming, early proponent of Test-Driven Development, and one of the 17 original signatories to the Agile Manifesto. Like all the keynotes, this took place in the huge main expo hall of the conference. I can see the logistical logic behind this decision – notably that it is large enough to house all of the delegates, and ensures that the conference can kick off at 9am sharp, even if latecomers are still arriving. But on the downside there were no seats close to the stage area (I am 48 years old, the prospect of standing up for an hour didn’t appeal), whereas from the area with seats it was a struggle to hear Kent over the background chatter and espresso machines. I would learn from my mistakes and prop myself up on a table near the front for the following days’ keynotes.

My geriatric grumblings notwithstanding, from the portions I heard properly, this was a great talk, and I look forward to rewatching this on YouTube to fill in the gaps. Unlike every other session that I saw during the week, Kent did not have a traditional slide deck, but instead projected some freeform sketches to illustrate the concepts he discussed.

There was much talk about the perennial topics (and personal bugbears) of estimation, and the cost of software development, and how software designers can influence when money is spent and earned. The concept of optionality was introduced – if software can be changed, then the design does not matter. Features are easy to see, but options are difficult to see, yet this is why we invest in software. The cost of software is the cost of changing it, not the cost of building it. Some changes are surprisingly expensive, yet others are surprisingly cheap.

Some of my favourites quotes from the session (of which there were many, some of which would appear in the slides of other speakers later in the week):

• “Why can’t you estimate how long it will take to walk across a minefield?”
• “Software should grow like a tree grows.”
• “You can ignore the constraints, but the constraints are not going to ignore you.”
• “I am delighted when the next generation surpasses me.”

Kent wrapped up with a few words on this year’s hot topic of AI. He drew parallels with the development of highly efficient steam engines during the Industrial Revolution, and explained how this had actually led to an increase in the use of coal (the Jevon’s Paradox). He offered that the AIs are not coming for our jobs any time soon and that we are, in fact entering a new golden age for programming. This topic would crop up again throughout the conference.

Being Staff Plus by Ian Cooper

Having now notched up 27 years at the code face, I have recently been giving some considerations as to where to take my career in the coming years, without having to sell my soul to the devil and venture over to the dark side of management. This session from Ian Cooper on “Staff Plus” roles offered some great advice on the nature of senior technical leadership roles, and how to “move beyond code” while staying resolutely technical.

Ian offered a good balance of high-level strategic career advice married with a bunch of helpful tactical hints and tips for how to succeed (and demonstrate that success) in such roles, and I urge any other greybeards feeling frustrated with their careers to watch this presentation (the version from NDC Oslo is online here).

This was the first session that sent me scurrying to Amazon to buy some recommended books (it would not be the last!). By the time I got home to England on Saturday both The Staff Engineer’s Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change by Tanya Reilly and Staff Engineer: Leadership Beyond the Management Track by Will Larson would be waiting for me.

Definition Of Insanity – Timeouts, retries, and idempotency by Sam Newman

This session by Sam Newman focused on some of key techniques for developing resilient distributed systems: Timing out remote calls that do not complete in a timely fashion, Retrying unsuccessful calls, and how to achieve idempotency to ensure that calls can be retried safely without undesirable side-effects.

This topic is highly relevant to a distributed system that I am developing for my current client, so I listened intently and appreciated the detailed low-level advice. I was particularly interested in the observation that if a retry of an idempotent request succeeds, we should send back the same semantic response that we would have sent had the original request succeeded. Also new to me was the concept of a Bloom Filter.

Improving the resilience of distributed systems has been an interest of mine since reading the first edition of Release It! by Michael Nygard in 2009. I’m delighted to see that Sam is currently authoring a new book on this topic, due for publication in 2025.

Open Source, Open Mind: The Cost of Free Software by Dylan Beattie

A light-hearted talk to end the first day of the conference, this session by Dylan Beattie was a whistle-stop tour of the history of open source software, covering notable successes, failures and lawsuits, followed by some thoughts on where “free software” goes from here.

A recording of an earlier version of this talk from NDC Oslo 2024 is available online, but Dylan had added extra material to the talk since then to cover the recent disputes between WordPress.com owners Automattic and WP Engine.

Keynote: Can you trust your (large language) model? by Jodie Burchell

Thursday’s keynote by data scientist Jodie Burchell talked about how the quality of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT has been measured, and highlighted structural deficiencies with both the benchmarks as well as the AI tooling themselves. I confess to not having devoted much time over the past year to understanding the “AI revolution”, so did not know what to expect from this talk, but I found it a fascinating and highly approachable explanation that has piqued my interest. My contemporary notes from this session read “Such a good talk. Chase down the slides, and sessions from earlier NDCs“.

Orchestration vs. Choreography: The good, the bad, and the trade-offs by Laïla Bougriâ

Designing distributed systems regularly involves trying to decide between synchronous or asynchronous communication, and orchestration or choreography (and the combinations thereof). There are, of course, tradeoffs to make, but the design decisions are often made when considering only the happy path scenarios.

This excellent talk by Laïla Bougriâ took this complex nuanced subject, with all of its “it depends” messiness, and offered concrete guidance for when and how to implement each approach. One of my favourite sessions of the whole conference, and Laïla coped excellently with audio problems for the first third of the presentation.

A Developer Goes to the Movies by Simon Painter

Thursday, the middle day of the conference proper, was a long one, but fortunately there were some great light-hearted talks later in the day to balance those that required more intense thinking.

I had previously enjoyed seeing Simon Painter give his talk “From Ancient Greeks to Modern Geeks: Basic Machine Learning Algorithms” at DDD North in Hull in March 2024. For this new talk, he brings together his twin passions of movies and coding by presenting a visual history of computing and software developers as seen by Hollywood.

I don’t seem to have made as many notes on this talk, preferring to relax and enjoy the show (though sadly without popcorn), but I do recall enjoying the segments on WarGames, The Net and Hackers (which I really must watch again soon). It was also intriguing to learn that the distinction for the first person to have portrayed a computer hacker in a movie goes to none other than Benny Hill!

How Simple Is “As Simple As Possible”? by Rendle

Rendle has been doing this programming lark for even longer than me. But unlike me (who merely grumbles about our industry through the medium of Instagram memes shared with equally bitter colleagues), Rendle is an ex-professional standup comic who takes the grumbling to a whole new level by holding up a (black) mirror to our industry in conference presentations such as this one.

The thing is, as the saying goes, it’s funny because it’s true. Rendle is on a mission to highlight how unnecessarily complex we have made most aspects of software design, development and deployment during his career, and proselytise for an easier, simpler and more productive life. Amen to that.

Keynote: Start Here: Mindset Shifts and Tools for Building Career Confidence in a Post-Pandemic Era by Denise Jacobs

For Friday’s final keynote of the conference, I took my now-customary standing spot up front near the stage… and then immediately regretted it as I noticed the pens and paper dotted around the tables. I realised with horror that this was going to be an interactive session, and considered retreating to the back of the room. I do not generally enjoy audience participation, have no “fun facts” on hand to share about myself, and abhor “icebreakers” at the start of meetings and workshops.

But, I told myself that I had come all this way to Porto with the intention of adopting a growth mindset and learning as much as possible, so ought to give it a go. I’m glad I did, as Denise’s talk became one of my favourite of the conference, and the audience participation exercises (which were not as scary as I had feared) helped to boost my confidence and further renew my interest in my career.

I ordered yet another book recommendation on the back of this talk – Chatter: The Voice in Our Head and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross, but opted for Audible this time to reduce the number of Amazon packages that would be arriving at home in my absence.

The Next Decade of Software Development by Richard Campbell

Richard Campbell is best known to me as the co-host of the .NET Rocks! podcast, but his interest and expertise in science, computing, and technology is far broader than that niche (he gave another talk at this conference on the topic of Nuclear Power).

This talk on the Next Decade of Software Development has been presented many times over the years and been regularly updated as new trends such as the Cloud emerge and gradually become mainstream. It reviews where we’ve been, examines the trend lines, and looks forward to which trends and technologies we will need to learn to remain relevant in our roles in the upcoming years. As with many of the other talks, this naturally touched on AI, and joined that consensus that we are entering a period where the LLMs will aid our software development work rather than directly threatening it. At a more prosaic level, Richard was also positive that .NET and Blazor are not going anywhere any time soon.

Final Thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at NDC Porto. The conference is expertly organised by a team who have clearly been doing this for quite some time. The venue – a former customshouse on the banks of the Duoro – was airy and inspirational. The complementary food and drink was delicious and plentiful. The speakers were knowledgeable and friendly, making themselves available for questions outside of the sessions themselves. Generally I found my fellow attendees to be amiable and approachable, and appreciated mingling amongst the wide variety of nationalities present from across the European continent and further afield. I remain disheartened by the male skew in the gender balance of attendees at tech conferences, but it was pleasing to note how many (excellent) female speakers gave talks – I suspect and hope that NDC are doing all they reasonably can to improve diversity.

I return home to Yorkshire, and back to the code face, with a renewed enthusiasm for my chosen career and a rekindled excitement for technologies (both new and old – some of the talks by Anders Norås have made me nostalgic for my Amiga 500 and 1200!). Oh, and with an ever-growing pile of books to read!

My very favourite book of 2023 was this autobiography by former Minister and one-time candidate for Conservative Party leader Rory Stewart. I almost didn’t read it at all, as I was feeling a little jaded with politics at the time and considering a more light-hearted Audible purchase. I’m glad I plumped for this though, and it did offer some light relief in the form of Stewart’s dodgy accents when recounting conversations with fellow politicians of all parties and nationalities.

There is no flab in this book, it ploughs on at quite a fast pace through Stewart’s political career, from becoming MP for Penrith and the Border in 2010 through to his run for leader of the Conservative Party (and Prime Minister) less than a decade later. In between he is thrust with no notice into a variety of ministerial positions for which he has varying degrees of suitability and aptitude. In my 2019 books blog post I recommended the drier Why We Get the Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman, in which she outlined why the failings of our ministerial system lead to roles being filled by individuals who are unsuited to them. Stewart’s book brings colourful examples of that theory, but to his credit he makes efforts to master the briefs he is given and make a practical difference to the country. Others from his party, particularly our recent Prime Ministers, are not always painted in a positive light, and he gives many interesting insights into their personalities.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

In 2023 I rediscovered the pleasure of playing computer games, eighteen years after writing a fairly grumpy blog post in which I declared that “The whole concept seemed utterly pointless, a real waste of time“. A spring break between contracts coincided with the release of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which I bought on a whim after stumbling across Keza MacDonald’s effusive five-star review in The Guardian. Since then I’ve spent 167 hours playing that wonderful game, and have also relaxed by playing Creaks on Apple Arcade and Return to Monkey Island (32 years after playing the original on the Amiga).

It was with this background that I that I read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow towards the end of the year. It’s a novel set over several decades about two friends who collaborate to develop and publish increasingly epic computer games whilst navigating romances, friendship, fallouts, family, health challenges, and other life-changing events. It’s very touching and heartfelt, and caused me to think about the value of play in our lives, and of maintaining friendships over extended periods.

Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono

Faced with a “to-read” list that now numbers into the seventies, I made a point of actively abandoning some books that I was not enjoying during 2023, rather than struggling through them to the bitter end. As my wife Jocelyn is fond of reminding me, life is too short to read books that you’re not enjoying. Cognisant of my maturing years and the theories of Optimal Stopping, I’ve also tended to stick to favourite genres this year rather than trying something new.

So, given that I enjoy biographies, and also enjoy books on rock music, Bono’s autobiography was always destined to be high on my list of favourite reads for the year. It covers U2’s lengthy career from their early schooldays in Dublin through to being the biggest band in the world, releasing classic zeitgeist-defining records including The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. There is an impressive cast of supporting characters mentioned in the many anecdotes in this book, including Pope John Paul II, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Frank Sinatra, and countless others. At one point Mikhail Gorbachev pops in for tea on a Sunday afternoon.

A Visit from the Goon Squad and The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

These two books were released in 2010 and 2022 respectively, and feature interrelated stories with a large set of characters, set over multiple decades. Many of the central characters work in the rock music industry, and there are themes here of friendship, aging, and loss of innocence. The first book (which won a Pulitzer Prize) is probably the better one, but the audiobook of the second has better production qualities, with each POV character being narrated by a different professional voice artist. The second book also bursts with inspired ideas about where the ubiquity of social media might take us as a society.

One Two Three Four: The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown

A huge book comprised of many short and easily-digestible chapters that occupied much of my summer vacation. Craig Brown somehow takes a subject, The Beatles, about whom so very much has been written over the last sixty years and offers fresh perspectives and anecdotes. I laughed a lot and found myself sharing passages with family and friends. Definitely one of the most enjoyable biographies I’ve ever read and, along with Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald, one of the best books about The Beatles.

The Nanny State Made Me: A Story of Britain and How to Save It and The Full English: A Journey in Search of a Country and its People by Stuart Maconie

Two books by DJ Stuart Maconie make my list of favourites this year. The Nanny State Made Me iterates through stages in Maconie’s life, highlighting how at each point the welfare state in the UK provided him with the necessary support to become a useful and productive member of society. As with most Maconie books the politics is interspersed with an abundance of cultural references, and this helped to boost my “to watch”/”to listen” lists.

In The Full English, Maconie retraces a journey through England originally taken by J.B.Priestley in his travelogue English Journey in 1934, comparing and contrasting how the nation has changed in the intervening decades. Despite acknowledging that there is much that needs improving in England, there is also a love and sentimentality for the nation in evidence here. I was surprised to learn that Maconie’s father used to work for the same now-defunct manufacturer that employed my own Dad, so felt quite connected to those passages. I was also amused to hear him, as a proud Lancastrian, extol the virtues of Ilkley and admit that he could conceive of living there.

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

In this series of essays adapted from his podcast, novelist John Green reviews and rates things as diverse as sunsets, Diet Dr Pepper, the song New Partner by Palace Music, the Indianapolis 500, Halley’s Comet and the QWERTY keyboard. Many of these pieces were written with the backdrop of the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic, but the inevitable ensuing introspection does not result in morbidity, instead conveying hope and wonder at how miraculous the universe is. I give The Anthropocene Reviewed four stars.

White Noise by Don DeLillo

The oldest book on my list this year, White Noise was written in 1985. Some of the characters and events depicted seemed oddly familiar – maybe it’s deja vu, but I can’t preclude having read this book previously and forgotten having done so!

I enjoyed this more than Great Jones Street, also by DeLillo, which I read in 2019 but which didn’t make my annual blog post that year. It is written in the first person from the POV of the protagonist, a male middle-aged college professor in a sleepy American town who has developed the field of “Hitler Studies”. Despite being almost forty years old, it covers themes of consumer culture, academia and mortality which remain relevant.

The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl

Another rock autobiography, and a brilliant collection of stories. Dave Grohl comes across as a very humble and lucky individual who can’t quite believe his good fortune at being a driving force behind some of the most successful bands in the world. There is an ordinariness to Grohl’s tales that is quite striking when compared to Bono’s book. Extended passages and chapters are given over to (surprisingly entertaining) anecdotes about losing a wallet at a gas station, or shopping for toys with his daughters. Yes, there’s a cast of famous names – Paul McCartney pops round to play the piano – but it’s all so natural and down to earth that you can’t begrudge Grohl his good fortune.

Atonement by Ian McEwan

I knew nothing about the plot of this novel before I started reading it; I certainly hadn’t seen the 2007 movie adaptation. I don’t consider myself to generally be a fan of historical novels, preferring those set within my own lifetime. But I found this to have terrific pace and well-drawn characters, and devoured it over the course of a weekend in May.

A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout

Most of the tech books that I read in 2023 were focused on specific technologies, as I moved on from a much-loved five-year contract at NHS Digital and had to grok an unfamiliar tech stack. This delightful and relatively short book was one of the only tech-agnostic software books that I read, and I wish that it had been available to me much earlier in my career.

Ousterhout writes engagingly about complex software design topics, offering opinions and philosophies for an approach to development that can sometimes be at odds with that espoused in the better-known Clean Code by Robert Martin. I know that I won’t follow all of the advice given in this philosophy (I’ve never been a fan of code comments, for instance), but have taken to heart chapters on writing general purpose modules, and “different layer, different abstraction”.

As I write this I note that it is flagged on Amazon as being one of the “Most Gifted” books in the Software Design genre, and that doesn’t surprise me – it’s a book that I would like those who I collaborate with to have read and absorbed.

Why Is This Lying Bastard Lying To Me? Searching for the Truth on Political TV by Rob Burley

Rob Burley is a TV producer who has worked on and edited many of the top political shows on the BBC and ITV. In this entertaining and irreverent book he dissects what makes for a great political interview, and relives many memorable moments from Sunday morning political programmes, particularly covering recent years since the Brexit referendum.

After an unprecedented five years working the same gig, I will be available for shiny new contract roles from February 2023 (edit: now April 2023, thanks to a short extension).

Download my CV here. Email me at ian@iannelson.systems

What I’ve Been Doing Recently

Since March 2018 I’ve been a Technical Lead for the NHS App, an England-wide way to access a range of NHS services via smartphone, tablet, and desktop web browser. It has been an amazing project to be a part of, and I’ve loved working in an open, collaborative, and agile delivery environment alongside a bunch of clever people from NHS Digital, Kainos, and BJSS.

I’ve led an ever-changing, multi-disciplinary team through over 120 fortnightly sprints — a period that saw the App’s user base grow from nothing to over thirty million users, and become the most downloaded app in the App Store during the COVID-19 pandemic years.

I’ve led the design and development of the App’s notification and messaging capability, which allows the secure and sub second delivery of health-related communications from NHS organisations to patient’s mobile devices, replacing more costly communication methods such as SMS or mail.

In case it’s not obvious, I’m pretty proud of what we’ve achieved on the NHS App over the past five years, and could write much more. But I’ll save that for a future blog post and return to the sales pitch…

What I Do Generally

I am a hands-on Technical Architect / Technical Lead. I draw boxes and arrows on (real and virtual) whiteboards, and talk about those designs with teams, allowing us to collaboratively bring maintainable, performant and scalable solutions into existence.

I am detail-oriented and still a developer at heart. I like to stay close to the codebase. I am not an Architecture Astronaut. I prefer developing backend code to frontend. I am comfortable taking ownership of systems and communicating with people at all levels of an organisation.

The Technology I Use

I have over 20 years’ experience of C# and .NET development, from the betas through to C#10 and .NET Core 6.0 (but I still have to occasionally Google how to properly implement the IDisposable pattern).

I have been working with Azure products for, gosh, it must be over a decade now. I have spent significant time wrangling with App Services, Function Apps, Cosmos DB (Mongo and (No)SQL), Event Hubs, SQL Database, Kubernetes Service and Service Bus. I have found and reported a bug to the Notification Hub product team, and been mailed a t-shirt by the Cognitive Search team in response to my feedback.

I favour distributed architectures that are loosely-connected by messaging patterns and RESTful APIs. I am vaguely suspicious of the rush towards Microservices. I am a bit disappointed that the end of the relational database hegemony means that I no longer get to use my SQL skills on a daily basis, but have replaced this with a new-found admiration for Splunk queries.

How I Work

I prefer to code in the open and work in the open. I favour public Slack channels over DMs. I appreciate the DevOps culture where all members of the team are empowered to make changes to a collective codebase. I think infrastructure as code is one of the game-changing trends of the last decade.

I still quite like Test-Driven Development, but am learning to be more pragmatic about when it is applied, and when to use chunkier integration tests.

I am a Microsoft Registered Partner, but do all my work on a MacBook.

I care very much about the quality of the solutions that I help to create, but I try to inject levity and humour into the working day, and do not take myself too seriously.

I like to break up lengthy blog posts with photos of my dog.

More Randomness

My favourite software books of all time include Working Effectively with Legacy Code, Domain-Driven Design, and Release It!

My favourite GoF design patterns are Visitor and Chain of Responsibility.

Some people that I’ve worked with have written nice things about me, and I didn’t even have to pay them. You can read a collection of these endorsements on my testimonials page.

Sound Good?

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these insights into my psyche and skills. If you’d like to know more, or think that I might be able to help you, then let’s talk. You can download my CV here, and email me at ian@iannelson.systems.

Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention by Johann Hari

My favourite book of the year partially covers the same ground as previous favourites A World Without Email, Four Thousand Weeks, and Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. But the scope of Hari’s work is much broader than these. Rather than merely telling us to stop doomscrolling Twitter and get on with life, he covers a multiplicity of factors and forces that are combining to steal the ability of many of us to focus. Social media, pollution, lack of sleep, poor diet, overwork and more are all discussed, with many pointers to third-party research.

Despite the breadth and serious nature of the subject matter, I should note that some aspects of this book are also laugh-out-loud funny. I particularly enjoyed an early anecdote about Hari witnessing visitors to the Graceland museum experiencing Elvis Presley’s home by fixating on a VR iPad tour, rather than looking around the actual room in which they were standing.

Good Pop Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker

When I was in my twenties I couldn’t fathom the appeal of biographies. Why, I reasoned, would I want to waste my time reading about one individual out of the billions who had lived or would ever live? Surely it would be more efficient to read distilled human knowledge on a much broader subject?

Well, I’m not sure exactly when I changed my opinion on this, but I must have done so because I now find myself reading several biographies each year, and they frequently appear atop my end-of-year blog posts. Other celebrity autobiographies that I enjoyed in 2022 were The Gift of a Radio: My Childhood and Other Train Wrecks by broadcaster Justin Webb, and Coal Black Mornings by Suede frontman Brett Anderson.

The concept behind Cocker’s autobiography (or “inventory”) is that he cleaned out an attic space during the Covid lockdowns, deciding whether to “keep or cob” accumulated treasures/junk. This provides a conceit for many entertaining anecdotes about his life growing up in Sheffield and becoming lead singer of Pulp, all written in a most idiosyncratic style. Highlights for me included a detailed explanation of how he came to be hospitalised after fall out of a window while trying to impress a girl, and a wonderful piece on interviewing the late Leonard Cohen during his time as a BBC Radio 6 Music DJ.

I was sorely tempted to get the audiobook of this to hear Jarvis’s own narration, but plumped for the hardback instead which is wonderfully typeset and illustrated with many photographs of the items saved from the loft.

Skyfaring: A Journey With a Pilot by Mark Vanhoenacker

This was a present from my wife Jocelyn for Christmas 2021. I had not been previously aware of it, so was pleasantly surprised when it became one of my favourite books of the year.

Vanhoenacker is a commercial airline pilot who has flown short-haul and long-haul routes for British Airways from a base in London to cities all over the world. He writes engagingly and romantically about all aspects of flying – the machines, the processes and procedures, the navigation systems, but mostly how it feels to transport and be transported so rapidly across space and time.

The prose is ethereal and dreamlike, in a manner not dissimilar to the jet lag and “place lag” that it describes. Vanhoenacker captures well the magic of aviation and inspires a desire to travel once again, following years of Covid lockdowns.

The Outrun by Amy Liptrot

This is a fascinating memoir by Amy Liptrot who, at the age of thirty, left behind the life she lived as an alcoholic in London to return to her childhood home of Orkney. Her sublime writings about the path to recovery amongst the peaceful nature of the islands are quite hypnotic, and spoke to me, particularly the sections about gradually building new and better habits over time.

Nourishing and inspiring, this book is the reason that I have spent less of my free time watching TV and drinking wine this year, preferring instead to spend my time on more productive activities (like reading!)

The Very Nice Box by Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman

My favourite work of fiction this year was this sparkling debut novel that captured the zeitgeist in a manner that reminded me of Douglas Coupland novels in the early 1990s. Obsessive engineer Ada designs storage boxes for STÄDA, a furniture manufacturer that comes across as a cross between Ikea and a Silicon Valley big tech company.

This is a darkly humorous and suspenseful novel that is an easy read. Having bought and enjoyed it in the States around New Year prior to its UK release, I mailed my copy to my friend and erstwhile colleague Steph, as I knew she’d love it too. She soon messaged “I devoured it. I’m reeling. Thank you”.

The Best of the Rest

A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins

I bought this book after it was recommended by Bill Gates in one of his periodic Gates Notes emails. It is brimming with fascinating theories on how the human brain works – I was particularly taken by the explanation of “frames of reference” as a model for the way in which we comprehend the world.

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

I don’t read many books which could be considered to fall within the category of science fiction. But Bewilderment doesn’t feel like traditional science fiction, rather it gently and sensitively covers broader themes of man’s impact on the earth, autism, our political systems, the loss of loved ones, and the workings of brain. This one will linger with me for a while.

Learn How to Solve Cryptic Crosswords: A Course for Beginners by Henry Howarth

When not reading books, I also enjoy reading newspapers and magazines. I usually skip straight past the cryptic crosswords in these, finding them to be baffling and impenetrable. B
ut one evening this year I lingered for a little while over a crossword in New Statesman and was pleasantly surprised to realise that I could work out the answer to one of the easier anagram clues.

This epiphany caused a curious tingle in my brain which I wanted to experience again. So I sought assistance via this excellent textbook-like work, which takes the reader on a step-by-step course explaining the different types of clues to be found in cryptic crosswords and techniques for solving these.

Thanks to this book, I now find myself capable of tackling the relatively easy Everyman crossword in The Observer each week, and sometimes the cryptic crossword in New Statesman, dependent on the setter. The tingles in my brain keep coming along with those “a-ha!” moments when the penny drops on a cute parsing. I’m enjoying building my vocabulary and general knowledge, and hope to build up to tackling the tougher problems in the national dailies next year.

Exponential: How Accelerating Technology is Leaving Us Behind and What to Do About It by Azeem Azhar

This book considers the potential impact upon the world of technologies that are currently improving at an exponential rate. I found much of this far-sighted work to be reassuringly optimistic in nature, such as the potential for 3D printing to decentralise manufacturing bases, or the transition away from fossil fuels. Elsewhere however, Azhar highlights the inability of slowly-acting national governments to respond to a changing world with fast-moving social problems.

Software Architecture: The Hard Parts. Modern Trade-Off Analyses for Distributed Architectures by Neal Ford, Mark Richards, Pramod Sadalage and Zhamak Dehghani

This was my favourite technical book of the year. The weak joke about software architecture is that the answer to any question is “it depends”. As a result of this truism, most other books on the subject tend to give an overview of various nonfunctional considerations (scalability, deployability, testability, extensibility, etc) while stopping short of offering any firm guidance. After all, “it depends” on the specific system and business drivers.

“The Hard Parts” faces head-on the complexities involved in making such trade-off decisions in the world of distributed systems in general and microservices in particular. Aided by an extended case study that runs throughout the book, it offers techniques to identify appropriate levels of reuse, decomposition, data ownership, distributed workflows, transactional sagas, and more. I particularly appreciated one of the later chapters on managing analytical data, which compared traditional Data Warehouses and Data Lakes with a more contemporary Data Mesh approach.

If It’s Smart, It’s Vulnerable by Mikko Hypponen

Mikko Hypponen is a global cybersecurity expert with over thirty years’ experience working as a researcher and investigator. This short breezy book provides a fascinating array of anecdotes and insights from his career in infosec, in addition to concrete advice for how we as individuals can better protect ourselves in our increasingly interconnected world.

No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy: Memoirs of a Working-Class Reader by Mark Hodkinson

It seems that since reading Lowborn and Poverty Safari, the Audible recommendation algorithm has concluded that I want to hear more tales of working class folk achieving against the odds. That’s how I discovered this charming and drily humorous autobiography by Lancastrian author, publicist and bibliophile Mark Hodkinson. In addition to the many anecdotes about reading and the publishing industry, this also features poignant yet often wildly funny chapters on music, schools, family relationships and terrible jobs.

Seven Games: A Human History by Oliver Roeder

The seven eponymous games covered in this book are checkers, chess, Go, backgammon, poker, Scrabble and bridge. For each, Roeder dives into the history, basic strategies, the personalities involved at the highest levels of the game, and what makes each game challenging for humans (and computers) to play. His first-hand reports of his experiences entering world poker and Scrabble competitions were particularly entertaining.

I enjoyed studying Game theory at university in the mid-1990s where part of the course covered the basics of developing chess-playing software in a rather deterministic, brute-force manner. It was interesting to contrast those techniques with some of the modern AI/ML approaches described in this book that have been used to allow computers to succeed at these games.

Trillions: How a Band of Wall Street Renegades Invented the Index Fund and Changed Finance Forever by Robin Wigglesworth

My favourite financial book of the year, this history of index funds is a surprisingly mesmerising confluence of economics, history, mathematics, psychology, computer science and more. In addition to focusing on the cost savings that can be had to individuals who choose to invest via index funds rather than active managers, it also touches on the implications for corporate governance of the large proportion of companies now owned by “passive” funds.

Hope and Glory: A People’s History of Modern Britain by Stuart Maconie

In this warm-hearted look at Britain, broadcaster and author Stuart Maconie selects one key event from each decade of the twentieth century, travelling to the location where they occurred and explaining how they have shaped the country in which we live.

Maconie is an opinionated author, and in these divided times I suspect that levels of enjoyment of this book will depend upon whether your politics fall on the same side of the fence as his. Mine largely do, so I found this to be an entertaining, witty, and insightful read. Some of the scenes and interviews described from Maconie’s travels also made me consider that perhaps Britain (and England in particular) is after all a more welcoming, progressive and tolerant society than I had recently believed… but then I realised that this book was published back in 2012, just ahead of the unifying London olympics, and well before the divisive Brexit referendum.

Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working From Home by Anne Helen Petersen and Charlie Warzel

I have been fortunate enough to be able to work from home for the last 33 months, since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic made clients such as mine realise that this was a possibility.

This book explores the pros and cons of remote working, and in particular how to use the opportunity that this affords to change our lives and communities for the better. Some aspects of the discussion are rather US-centric in regard to the labour market and geography, but much of this commentary and analysis applies equally to our situation in the UK and Europe.

Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle

It is almost a quarter century since I first read a book by sociologist and clinical psychologist Sherry Turkle. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet made a big impression on me as I was leaving university and stepping out into the world of work, helping me realise that the internet offered the ability to easily connect with people and ideas from far and wide.

By contrast, Reclaiming Conversation argues that we have now taken this search for broad but shallow connections too far, and have largely lost the capacity for the deeper one-to-one conversations that have the power to help us build meaningful lives and relationships. In a world of texts, tweets, and other micro-interactions, Turkle explores the benefits to education, business and family relationships that can be achieved by reclaiming the lost art of conversation.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and A Clockwork Orange by Antony Burgess

I have been making an attempt to supplement my predominantly contemporary reading diet with the occasional classic novel, and I especially enjoyed reading these two during 2022, in addition to The Catcher In The Rye and Of Mice and Men.

Catch-22 had been recommended to me by my friend Jonathan Telfer when we were at university together in 1995, then again last year by colleague Magnus John when the character of Major Major somehow came up in conversation during a code review. I eventually succumbed to listening to the audiobook version narrated by Canadian actor Trevor White which is excellent – the dialogue in this funny and profound novel really benefits from being spoken aloud.

I had bought a paperback of A Clockwork Orange in 1998 and not yet read it until this October. I think the prospect of tackling the Nadsat slang which is used in much of the narrative had dissuaded me from starting this book for so long, but in the event this proved little barrier to understanding and enjoying this short novel. The context in which the slang words were used aided comprehension, as did familiarity with the storyline from having seen Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation.

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall

This illuminating book explains how each nation’s choices and geopolitics are shaped by coasts, rivers, mountains, deserts and plains. It concisely explains why international affairs are the way they are, and how the physical topography of the world has shaped the political world maps with which we are generally more familiar. With particular reference to recent events, it presciently explains the geographical context behind Putin’s war in Ukraine. There is a sequel, The Power of Geography, which I have bought but not yet read.

Five concurrent sessions in each timeslot means that tough decisions often have to be made about which to attend! In acknowledgement of my maturing years (I’ve been reading up on optimal stopping) and the niche that I have carved out for myself, I chose to stick to those sessions that focused on backend and distributed architecture and development.

My choice for the first session of the day was an overview of .NET Minimal APIs by Microsoft MVP Kevin Smith (@kev_bite). Restful APIs on the Microsoft .NET platform frequently form a key part of the systems that I design and develop, so it’s vital to stay abreast of the latest techniques for implementing these. Kev’s session was really useful to me as it concisely demonstrated the approaches available in .NET Core 7 Minimal APIs, freeing me of the need to discover what’s new via reading documentation or other means. I particularly appreciated seeing demonstrations of approaches for the automated testing of APIs, and some of the post-session Q&A about how best to structure real-world enterprise .NET APIs was insightful.

I’ve blogged before about the Inherent Negativity of Computer Programmers, and it’s fair to say that this pessimism hasn’t changed as my career has progressed! As an architect of distributed systems, knowledge of techniques for handling unavailable or poorly-performing dependencies are an essential part of my day-to-day toolset. Andy Clark’s (@techychap) entertaining session “When Microservices Go Bad” covered a variety of strategies such as caching, retries, timeouts, circuit breakers, bulkheads and rate limiting. For each of these, he showed how they can be achieved using the excellent open source library Polly. I’ve been using some of Polly’s features on my current project (I’ve been a long-time fan of Circuit Breaker since I first learned of it from reading Michael Nygard’s Release It! book), but this session opened my eyes to the full gamut of how Polly could help protect the systems I design. Hat-tip to Andy for the live demos in this session, and for contending with the multi-monitor weirdness.

The third session was my favourite of the day. “Don’t Put Your Messages In A Bottle: Implement Messaging Patterns” saw Azure Service Bus Senior Program Manager Eldert Grootenboer (@egrootenboer) provide a whistle-stop overview of fourteen (fourteen!) separate messaging patterns. The Circuit Breaker pattern made another appearance, as did some patterns which were new to me such as Sequential Convoy and Transactional Outbox. I’ve been getting by with simply using Azure Storage Queues for most of my queueing requirements in recent years, but this presentation reminded me of the richer techniques that are possible with Service Bus. This hour-long session flew by and left me wanting more. Time to dust off my copy of Hohpe and Woolf’s Enterprise Integration Patterns and brush up ahead of my next distributed architecture challenge.

“Software Architecture: In Search of the Fourth Chord” by straight-speaking Paul Michaels (@paul_michaels) was a more laid-back session which covered many of the common problems and trade-offs faced by Software Architects. Paul rightly highlighted that the architect is likely the only person on a project who cares about the full range of functional and nonfunctional characteristics of a system. But I’m not sure that his throwaway comment “no-one ever says ‘can you make the system scale?'” is strictly true – I think this can depend on the project and sector. For example, a large part of my working life during the pandemic has involved ensuring that the NHS App and associated systems can scale to meet spikes in traffic, and here scalability and universal access are often of higher importance than, say, a richer feature set.

The session concluded by suggesting that, much as Status Quo have been able to have a successful musical career with a limited number of chords, so the average Software Architect can get a long way in their chosen career through judicious application of the Message Broker, Event Sourcing and CQRS patterns.

The final session I attended was “SOA Lessons Learnt (or, Microservices Done Better)“, where Sean Farmar (@farmar) gave an entertaining and often opinionated run through his  experiences developing and architecting distributed systems since the 1990s. The general premise was that while technologies and fashions may change over the years, the key thing is to avoid coupling at all costs – a theme which I remember noting from my attendance at Software Architect 2007 fifteen years ago. It was also nice to be reminded of Peter Deutsch’s Fallacies of Distributed Computing, which are even more relevant today than they were in the mid-90s.

Finally, before the dark and rainy drive home, it was time for goodbyes and the traditional prize draw. I’m delighted to report that I had the good fortune to win a GitHub-branded scarf which I shall wear with pride to protect my nesh self against the inclement Yorkshire winter that lies ahead.

Many thanks to all who presented, organised and sponsored this year’s DDDNorth. As ever, it was an enjoyable and productive way to spend a Saturday.

Ben: “Ian, Ian!”
Me: “Ben, I’m ‘Daddy’ to you.”
Ben (quizzically): “But you are ‘Ian’ as well.”
Me: “Yes, I know that, but I’d prefer it if you called me ‘Daddy’.”
Ben: “Oh. Sorry, Ian!”

August 2010

Ben: “Can I have another bedtime story Dad?”
Me: “Not tonight Ben, it’s too late and you’re too tired.”
Ben: “I’m not, I’m not, grumbled Ben!”

August 2010

Whilst sat at the dinner table this evening:

Ben: “Oh! Daddy, I can hear your brains!”
Ian: “Say that again?”
Ben: “I can hear your brains!”
Ian: “You can hear my *brains*? How?”
Ben: “Through the holes on your head!”
Jocelyn: “So, what does Daddy’s brain sound like?”
Ben: “It’s *really* loud!”
Ian: “You got that right. Eat your pasta.”

August 2010

Ben: “I’ve done a poo! It is a polar-bear-shaped poo!”

August 2010

Me: “I love you, Ben. I always wanted a son, I’m glad you came along.”
Ben: “Yes, Dad. I was just walking along the road, wasn’t I? I saw you and thought ‘He can be my Daddy’. And I came in the house and took my shoes off.”

November 2010

Benjamin just woke up after having had a bad dream “about the evil penguin on Pingu”. I must have missed that bit…

December 2010

At Newmillerdam country park:

Ben: “AAAaaargh! It’s a crocodile!!!! Oh, no… it’s just a duck.”

April 2011

At 7pm at the end of a long Bank Holiday Saturday:

Ben: “Am I going to Play School today?”

April 2011

On taking a break from reading a book:

Ben: “I’m just going to pause my book.”

May 2011

Ben: “My brain can’t let me sleep!”

June 2011

On being told that we’re going on holiday to The Netherlands:

Ben: “Where Peter Pan comes from?!”

June 2011

On overhearing us discussing the closure of the News of the World:

Ben: “Daddy, did you just say the world is closing?!”

Poor boy thought it was the apocalypse.

July 2011

Ben: “I can’t sleep! I’ve got thirty-nine bits of energy!”

July 2011

On Christmas Eve:

Ben: “How many more sleeps is it until my birthday?”

December 2011

In the bath:

Ben: “I’ve got a BOMB! With flipper-hitters!!”
Me: “Ben, that’s a duck.”

Are all four-year-old boys like this?

February 2011

Me: “Ben, please stop replying to everything I say with ‘Yeah, but…’.”
Ben: “Well, what can I say instead?”
Me: “How about ‘OK Dad’?”
Ben: “OK Dad but…”

March 2011

Ben: “DAD! Can I have some cheese?”
Me: “OK.”
Ben: “And when you’re done getting my cheese, can you put a show on TV for me, ‘cos there are commercials on.”
Me: “Oh OK, we can’t have you watching commercials, we know how susceptible you are! What are the commercials talking about?”
Ben: “Cheese.”

March 2011

Me: “Have you got Daddy a present for Christmas?”
Isla: “Yes. A newspaper. You say ‘Oh boy!'”

December 2011

Isla: “What are you doing, Mummy?”
Joce: “Just holding Daddy’s hand.”
Isla: “So that he doesn’t run away?”

January 2012

I spent a good ten minutes this evening reading Isla a Ladybird book about Vikings. Their culture, food, tools where they came from, etc. The last page posed the question “What would you do if you were a Viking?”

Isla considered this briefly, then suggested “Play ‘Angry Birds’?”

February 2012

Isla: “Where has the sunshine gone, Daddy?”

April 2012

Isla: “Shall I shriek at you?”

May 2012

Isla’s latest suggested name for her younger brother: “Yehudi Poo Tentacle”. Might veto that one…

June 2012

Ben: “Hey Dad, in about three more birthdays you’ll be nearly 40”
Me: “That’s right Ben. It’s a bit scary really.”
Ben: “Yeah, and I know why you’re
scared. ‘Cos you’ll be closer to dying.”

June 2012

Me: “Hi Isla! What is Mr Tumble up to today?” (she was watching TV)
Isla: “Pooing on your head.”
Me: “O-K… any ideas where you would like me to take you today?”
Isla: “Pooland.”

Ah, the scatalogical leanings of a three-year-old. It could be a long day.

June 2012

On buying a second car:

Ben: “There’s no stopping us now!”

September 2012

Me: “So tell me about your new swimming instructor. Is it a lady or a man?”
Ben: “Well, for the undeep bit it’s a…”
Me: “The what? The undie bit?”
Ben: “The UNDEEP bit of the pool.”
Me: “Oh, I see – we call that the ‘shallow’ end.”
Ben: “OK. For the shallow bit of the pool it’s a lady. For the unshallow bit it’s a man.”

September 2012

Isla: “I am not calling my brother Matthew Hengry. I am just calling him Matthew.”
Me: “Good, ‘cos his middle name is ‘Henry'”
Isla: “Hengry”.
Me: “Henry.”
Isla: “Hengry”.
Me: “HEN-“
Isla: “Hen”
Me: “-RY”
Isla: “-ry”
Me: “Henry”
Isla: “Hengry”.

September 2012

On being told to get out of bed on an early-Autumn morning:

Isla: “But it is still dark!”
Ben: “Can we have breakfast in bed?”

October 2012

Isla: “Daddy, what are manners?”
Me: “Manners tell us how to behave nicely, to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, how to eat our meals politely, that kind of thing.”
Isla: “Are you and mummy my manners?”

October 2012

Nannan: “That was good reading Ben – what shall I put in your reading record book?”
Ben: “Put ‘Ben is magnificent and should be moved up a level'”.

October 2012

Even at bedtime, and even when utterly misheard – if one child asks for something, their sibling demands it too. Case in point:

Ben: “Dad, can I have a kiss and cuddle?”
Isla: “I WANT A MISTER MUDDLE!”

October 2012

I told the kids they could only have one bedtime story each as it was late.

Ben chose The Odyssey.

October 2012

Me: “Ben, what is your middle name?”
Ben: “Jamin.”

November 2012

Ben: “Is that a brain in the microwave? Are we having brains for dinner?!”
Jocelyn: “No Ben, I’m defrosting mince!!”

December 2012

Isla shouted for me twice in the night, complaining that she was being plagued by “fairy bumblebees” that were trying to peel her skin off.
During the day today, I quizzed her as to why she shouted for me and not Jocelyn Nelson.
“Because you’re better at it,” she told me.
“Better at what?” I asked.
“Killing the fairy bumblebees!” she replied.

January 2013

Jocelyn: “OK kids, keep your eyes out for a parent and child parking space!”
Isla (giggling): “I know you are just joking mum! You are funny!”
Me: “What’s so funny, Isla?”
Isla: “They don’t really have parrot and child spaces!”

February 2013

Isla: “When I grow up I want to be a lizard.”
Me: “A lizard?”
Isla: “Er, oh no… a wizard!”

February 2013

Ben: “Dad, do we have any gravy granules and teabags?”

This will not end well.

March 2013

Isla: “Daddy, what does W-T-F spell?”

March 2013

On Disney Junior now transmitting in High Definition:

Isla: “They’ve cleaned out the telly, Dad!”

April 2013

Me: “Hey kids, guess when Blackpool Tower was built?”
Isla: “Thursday?”

May 2013

Ben: “Dad, please can you buy me a cherry pie?”
Me: “Sure.. do you like
cherries?”
Ben: “Oh, it’s not a food – it’s a computer.”
Me: “Do you mean a Raspberry Pi?”
Ben: “Yeah!”

May 2013

Jocelyn: “Thank you for letting me sleep in.”
Isla: “You’re welcome Mummy. It is too cold and rainy to sleep out.”

May 2013

Jocelyn: “This table is filthy! Sultana bran, Weetabix, Rice Krispies… you name it, Isla has spilled it!”
Isla (thoughtfully): “I shall name it ‘Sandra’.”

June 2013

Me: “Hey kids, did you hear the thunderstorm last night?”
Isla: “No Daddy. I heard you snoring though.”

July 2013

Ben: “If you drop a piece of food on the floor for less than five seconds, you can still eat it.”
Me: “Uh-huh. Where did you learn that?”
Ben: “At Beavers, when we were doing our ‘Healthy Eating’ badge.”

August 2013

Ben: “Do you know, if there was no gravity, and all the dinosaurs went to a football pitch, the match would only last half a second.”

September 2013

Isla: “Daddy, can I have a dot-to-dot picture of a princess?”
Me: “Sure, here you go.”

Parenting must have been tougher before Google Images.

October 2013

Benjamin took his favourite book into school today to share with his class at “Show and Tell”.

Me: “What did your class think of ‘The Odyssey’, Ben?”
Ben: “They thought it was epic!”

October 2013

Me: “Isla, what is your new dog called?”

Isla: “Leash”

November 2013

Me: “Ben, your behavior today is not good for my blood pressure. Do you want me to die young?!”
Ben: “Ah, don’t be silly Dad – you’re not young!”

November 2013

Isla: “Daddy, you have got a very shiny forehead.”

December 2013

Jocelyn: “Isla, would you like some almonds?”
Isla: “Like the thing you say at the end of prayers?”

January 2014

Me: “…and when we’re on holiday in Spain, people will talk a foreign language.”
Ben: “[friend] in my class makes the teacher feel like she’s talking a foreign language!”

January 2014

On the reason for Team GB’s impressive Snowboarding performance in the winter Olympics, despite the relative lack of snow and mountains on this sceptered isle:

Ben: “I guess they had a Wii when they were younger and played the Snow Resort bit of ‘Go Vacation’ a lot!”

February 2014

Me: “Good morning Matthew!”
Matthew: “Poo.”

Ah wonderful, we’ve taught another one to communicate.

February 2014

Ben’s homework was to write sentences containing a comparative adjective and a connective. He came up with the following:

“Mum is old but Dad is older.”

Hmmm…

March 2014

Isla: “Daddy, for my birthday, please can I have a bucket?”

March 2014

Isla: “Pluto isn’t a planet any more, is it?”
Ben: “No, it’s an elf planet”
Me: “I think you mean a dwarf planet Son…”

March 2014

Me: “Time to get up Ben! It’s Thursday!”
Ben: “Thursday is dead and I’m its bones.”

March 2014

On a day trip to Bridlington beach:

Isla: “Oh mummy, I like this rock with all the pretty colours!”
Jocelyn Nelson “Isla, that’s a lump of concrete..”

April 2014

Me: “Good morning Isla”
Isla: “Hi Daddy! I am going to have a good birthday today!”
Me: “It’s your birthday tomorrow, it’s your party today.”
Isla: “Oh. Which one do I get cake on?”

April 2014

Ben’s homework – think of ten verbs and write sentences containing them.

May 2014

I went into Ben’s room to find that 21-month old Matthew had managed to climb up into Ben’s high-sleeper cabin bed.

“Matthew Henry, how did you get up there?!” I asked with mock exasperation.

He looked at me as if I were an imbecile, pointed and slowly said
“Ladder!”

June 2014

When the broken printer that I offered on FreeCycle failed to garner any interest:

Ben: “Ah Dad, why don’t you say how good it
is for storing paper?”

Clearly a glittering future in marketing awaits.

June 2014

Matthew: “Momma – more chips, please?”

It’s amazing what polite linguistics one-year-olds are capable of given sufficient incentive.

July 2014

Isla: “¡Hola! Konichiwa! Edinburgh rock!”

One week in to our vacation, Isla’s Spanish is still somewhat lacking.
Ben, meanwhile, has mastered “patatas fritas” so he’ll survive.

August 2014

Saturday morning, 0645. It seems Matthew is slightly obsessed with the 90-second long theme tune at the end of contemporary Thomas The Tank Engine episodes.

“Dadda, more choo-choo! Song! Crew!” (Hits me with remote control)

August 2014

At home we keep a bunch of Thomas The Tank Engine track inside a large footstool. Here’s a photo of a frustrated Matthew discovering that not all footstools in the universe possess this property. “Track!!!”

August 2014

Me: “Isla, your bagel is ready!”
Matthew runs into the kitchen.
Me: “You’re not Isla. You’re Matthew.”
Isla walks into the kitchen.
Isla: “I’m Isla.”
Matthew turns, pushes his sister.
Matthew: “YOU ARE NOT ISLA! I AM ISLA!”

#twoyearolds

March 2015

Ben was uncertain as to the level of formality required when signing a Mother’s Day card.

March 2015

Matthew: “I done a poo in my sock.”
Me: “In your SOCK?!”
Matthew: “No! It a joke!! Ha ha ha!”

#twoyearoldshumour

March 2015

Isla: “I’ve made a present for you daddy. It’s a rock, and I’ve drawn a picture of you on it.”

April 2015

Dora the Explorer: “Will YOU help me get my necklace back?”
Isla: “Ah, maybe later Dora.”

May 2015

Ben: “Dad, what is this song called?”
Me: “‘I Am The Resurrection'”.
Ben: “Ah. Please can you start a ‘favourites’ playlist for me and put this on it?”

#parentingWin

June 2015

Jocelyn: “What do you think you will be when you grow up, Isla? You could be anything you want to be.”
Isla: “A chicken.”

October 2015

Me: “What are you drawing this morning?”
Isla: “What’s the other one that’s not heaven?”
Me: “Hell?”
Isla: “Yeah! I’m gonna draw that funny guy with the horns!”

November 2015

Ben: “I might be a hobo when I’m older. Or a magistrate.”

February 2016

One the artwork for the “Happy Ash Wednesday” card she gave to Jocelyn Nelson today:

Isla: “I didn’t know what ash looks like, so I’ve drawn a hedgehog instead.”

February 2016

My best birthday present came from Isla – a mostly-uneaten pack of spearmint Polos.

March 2016

Matthew: “I have matching socks! You are a good mummy!”

March 2016

Matthew: “Benny, what’s your favourite colour?”
Ben (instantly): “Light magenta.”

March 2016

Matthew: “I never knew an egg could be so much fun!”

March 2016

Isla: “Please can I smell another boiled egg?”

March 2016

Me: “You’re getting taller Matthew.”
Matthew: “Yes, and my bottom is getting bigger!”

May 2016

Ben: “Dad, can we make an Excel spreadsheet listing the football stickers I have and the ones I need?”

#proud

May 2016

Me: “Good morning Princess”
Isla: “I am not a Princess. I would much rather be a Knight. Or maybe the castle cleaner.”

June 2016

Me: “Hey kids, who is this scarecrow?”
Matthew: “Uncle Patrick!”

June 2016

Ben: “Dad, do you know another word for ‘pulmonology’?”

June 2016

Ben: “Night Dad, see you tomorrow, hopefully.”
Me: “Hopefully? Why hopefully?”
Ben: “I dunno, you might get killed in the night or something.”

June 2016

Ben: “Dad, you look like a sheet of graph paper.”

July 2016

Me: “Can you smile?”
Ben: “I’m trying.”

July 2016

Ben: “Isla, I’m not arguing; I’m just explaining why I’m right.”

August, 2016

At 0645:

Matthew: “It’s not even morning.”

He has a point.

October 2016

Isla: “Wi-Fi is the most valuable thing in the world!”

November 2016

Me: “What do you want for breakfast Matthew?”
Matt: “Er, Crunchy Nuts! And Cheerios! Oh, and blueberry wheats!”

I aim to please.

November 2016

Matthew: “Dad, can I look on the tablet for things I might want for Easter?”
Me: “You mean Christmas.”
Matthew: “No, I mean Easter. I have already written my Christmas list.”

December 2016

Ben: “It’s great having a computer geek for a Dad.”

January 2017

Matthew: “Daddy, will we have our new kitchen by the time I am a grown-up?”

My procrastination as regards home improvement projects has not gone unnoticed by the four year old.

February 2017

Things Isla has brought to lunch #1: Duct tape

Things Isla has brought to lunch #2 and #3: fingerless gloves and an invisible ink pen.

April 2017

Ben: “When we get home I’m going straight on the trampoline.”
Matthew: “When we get home I’m going straight on Amazon.”

June 2017

Me: “Do you know the word for trees that lose their leaves in the Autumn?”
Matthew: “Yes. ‘Bare’.”

November 2017

Matthew: “Cauliflower is like limited edition white broccoli.”

December 2017

A Yuletide poem by Isla:

Christmas

Crackers go snap
While Dad has a nap
Dad got socks
Don’t wear Crocs

December 2017

Decided to wear a suit and tie for a change this morning.

Matthew: “Daddy, you look like someone who isn’t in our family.”

January 2018

Isla: “Why would you want to pay 50p for extra snot?”

October 2018

Isla: “For food and friends, we give thanks. Amen. Oh, and we hope there’s ice cream.”

November 2018

Strava link

The scramble itself is part of Route 27 in Scrambles In The Dark Peak by Tom Corker and Terry Sleaford. A wander along the north-western edge of the Kinder Scout plateau afforded some impressive views across to Manchester. We joined the Pennine Way for a short while, before heading back down the Snake Path.

Strava link