My kids are too old for World Book Day now but this memory popped up for me today of the time I completely forgot about it until about half an hour before the school run and had to make something up using his pyjama onesie!

10 years ago we spent half term in Wales and my husband thought it would be fun to take the kids to the Big Pit museum. And that is how I spent Valentines day stuck in a mine with kids and inlaws for several hours whilst they fixed a broken lift. I am always relieved now when he has nothing planned.

I am not a great believer in my kids using ChatGPT or similar to help with their homework. I try to help or share articles, etc. But my daughter just asked it "Please explain the Krebs cycle again, but this time like I'm a six year old" and honestly, fair enough.

Why did my brain at 4am wish to solve all the problems and my brain at 9am would quite like a nap? It might be a long day!

What should the Department of Health and Social Care be doing to improve the nation’s brain health? @hdemnitzking.bsky.social and I brought UK experts together to produce a consensus roadmap for dementia risk reduction on behalf of @denpru-qm.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Nottingham consensus on dementia risk reduction policy: recommendations from a modified Delphi process - Nature Reviews Neurology

Translation of evidence about dementia risk into effective public health policy is a challenge. In this Consensus Statement, Demnitz-King and colleagues present 56 policy recommendations for dementia ...

nature.com

My teenagers are wonderful but parenting this age group is hard. They want to be picked up from friends' houses at times when I am exhausted and should be in bed, like 9.30pm.

Woke my daughter for school this morning- turned on the lights, opened the curtains- only for her to take one look outside and duck back under her covers with a rather disgusted "Ugh, January is just a whole month of Mondays." She's not wrong (but I still made her get up for school).

Apparently this is how you sleep when you can't read the news

Well that was a surprise to wake up to.

2026 off to a good start! (I have a good book and the last of the chocolates too) 😊

Happy Christmas!

My GP's diagnosis of "Chronic urticaria. Seems like you might reacting to the cold or to the heat when you come in from the cold" is a little troubling. I mean, I've never liked winter, but I feel developing an allergy to it is taking the dislike a bit far! Have I got an excuse to hibernate yet?

The world has felt very dark in many ways of late. But we keep sending what light we have out into the world.

Anyone looking for a nice Christmas donation to make, the Kevin Jenkins Newham Toy Appeal is now in its 46th year and is still trying to collect enough toys for children in Newham this Christmas. There’s an amazon wish list here (or search justgiving for the appeal to give cash):

Check out my list on Amazon

amazon.co.uk

Struggling with a bit of syntax for part of a trial analysis and I'm still not sure I've gotten it right...but I've gotten it equally wrong across both arms and that is what matters, right?

When the training comes with 2 answers- the correct answer and the answer you really want to give...

I needed to look at something in a paper I wrote some years ago and due to a slight spacing error it looks like we have written about 'a cute respiratory tract infection'. Which sounds like a nicer thing to research (and indeed have...this latest one is not cute but tiresome).

One of my children's friends had her first ever job interview (waitressing in a local restaurant). When asked "and what do you think is your biggest weakness?", apparently she panicked and responded "bees". I have no idea how the interviewer kept a straight face!

Join the QResearch Scientific Committee QResearch is recruiting new members for its Scientific Committee to support high-quality, ethical, population-health research using one of the UK’s largest anonymised health datasets. www.qresearch.org/about/scient... closing date: deadline 8 January 2026

Today I attended a meeting so unpleasant that at the end I hung up Teams and cried. I've been trying to figure out how I might have handled things better to diffuse the situation but, after 2 chocolate bars and a cup of tea, I have decided that some days are just awful and to try again tomorrow.

Short and chilly walk along the sea before lunch.

Salem has buried his head under a blanket and opted to hide from today. He's not wrong. #caturday

Oh joy! One of those automatic updates that you cannot override, where the computer randomly reboots itself and installs things in the middle of a meeting. And we're currently at 27% and waiting... Is it too early to just decide today is a write off?

That rainy Monday feeling. And he doesn't even have to make sense of a budget reconciliation.

I have had a lovely break but it is nice to be home and I think I'm ready to tackle my inbox. However, it is going to have to wait because someone else is glad we are home and he is really hard to see through!

Enjoying some time with my sister and her family in Korea!

📢 As one of the next round of TRMP PhD students (below) you could join me, Clare Robinson, @averoniki.bsky.social and @marionkcampbell.bsky.social to work on developing a typology of research outputs in trials methodology, based at @wiphcem.bsky.social. Details here: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Developing a typology of research outputs in trials methodology at Queen Mary University of London on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Developing a typology of research outputs in trials methodology at Queen Mary University of London, listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

Richard Hooper@richardhooper.bsky.social · 12mo ago

📢 Interested in a PhD in clinical trials methodology? The Trials Methodology Research Partnership are advertising projects for PhDs starting Oct 2026, in statistics, health economics, epidemiology, social science, and more, hosted at one of 12 UK partner institutions. mrctmrpdtp.com/current-oppo...

Nurse doing my blood test: "And have you had anything to drink today"? Me: "Yes. Had my usual coffees" Nurse: "Anything else? Some water?" Me: ....."Coffee has water in it, right?"

Upside- I have no conflicts for today's funding panel meeting so I get to discuss lots of interesting proposals with colleagues Downside - I have no conflicts so by about 4pm my brain will have turned to mush just in time for parent-teacher consultations for my daughter. Answer- all the coffee!

Had news that we had a grant funded so decided to celebrate a little and spoil my dinner.