I’ve lived in London for thirty years¹. Somehow.

I’m not entirely sure how it happened. It was never the plan. Not that I had a plan. If you’d asked me where I wanted to live, I probably wouldn’t have picked London.

I applied to a handful of jobs at the tail-end of my stint at university². The one job offer I received³ was in London. That’s how it started.

To give you an idea of how arbitrary it all was: my first employer had offices in central London and in Surrey. I looked at the train lines and found that Wimbledon was about half way between the two. That’s where I ended up.

I just can’t figure how to follow all those “improve your productivity” guides. I’m sure you know the ones I mean: they suggest exercising at 6am; or switching off your email and Slack during the day to avoid distractions; or to schedule all your meetings in the mornings; or…

Can anyone make those things work?

The problem I have is that I work and live with other people. So, sure, I can try to schedule my meetings in the morning but I don’t think my American colleagues will appreciate having to get up at 4am to make my 9am daily standup; if I don’t have Slack running I’ll miss the notification that the database server is going down; without email I won’t learn that the client meeting I’m preparing for has been cancelled; and going to the gym at 6am would be great except who is going to look after the kids while I’m out?

This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Sunrise” (the second time this subject has been used!). This is one of an increasing number of decent pictures taken on my iPhone rather than my SLR.

I missed last weeks challenge, so no need to vote for me!

This weeks PhotoFriday them is “Blue” and these are bluebells (I think), which should count, even though there aren’t technically blue.

I didn’t enter last weeks challenge, so I’m not going to insist that you vote for me. (In fact, the last time I forgot to even vote for myself!)

My entry to this weeks PhotoFriday challenge, “Translucent,” was taken much closer to home than many of my previous ones. It was from Tooting Library which is just a few minutes walk away from home.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Autumn Colours.” I’m entry number 86.

I’ve taken pictures of things that are more “Curvy” — this weeks PhotoFriday theme — than Tower Bridge, but I’ve used most of them in previous PhotoFriday challenges.

I’ve been pretty quiet here for a couple of of weeks and that’s because… well, a picture speaks a thousand words.

Junior took his sweet time popping out — we were in the hospital over a day before he made his grand appearance — but for Juniorette we weren’t sure we’d make it there in time! In the end we checked into the delivery suite just after ten in the evening and the birth was recorded just before eleven.

I’ve not had an entry for the last few weeks of PhotoFriday, but an image jumped straight to mind when I thought of this weeks challenge, “My Obsession.” This was inspired by a day working from home on a cold, wintry day followed by some relaxation afterwards and my realisation that they looked pretty much the same from the outside…

What a difference two years makes. Just a little over twenty-four months ago we were awaiting the arrival of our son. To commemorate the occasion we went to the park and took a few pictures. The bump, after all, would be short lived.

Since then we’ve spent a lot of time in the playground where these pictures were taken.

I’m afraid that I didn’t have any pictures of vampires for this weeks PhotoFriday theme, “Twilight.” I had to make do with this image, taken on my iPhone from my back garden. (In fact I do have a couple of other pictures that might match the theme better, but I’ve already used them for PhotoFriday before. I decided to use a new picture instead.)