These two updates from my armchair are going to retroactively become my ‘monthnote’ for April.

So what have I done since the last update? Well honestly not loads.

My blood glucose is starting to trend in the right direction a bit more obviously – there is some green in my sensor’s app dashboard for the first time in a while. There is still more red than I’d like though, thus the continuing rise in the units of insulin I am jabbing into myself.

I mainly feel okay though. I don’t have loads of energy but when do I ever?! I am also still a bit prone to getting emotional about the slightest thing on TV etc but fingers crossed that will ease off before I am back to work next week. The fact nobody knows ‘why’ any of it happened is still nagging away in the back of my mind somewhere but not much I can do about that other than do as I’m told by the professionals. 

The most stressful thing was coming very, very close to running out of my ‘fast acting insulin’ and my GP surgery and usual pharmacy conspiring to make getting a ‘re-up’ incredibly anxiety inducing due to a combination of lack of communication and supply issues. I ended up with four different prescriptions over the course of a day as the multiple phone calls and visits to various pharmacies failed to lead to any actual drugs until 17.50 (my quest started at 09.30). As I don’t drive it was a lot of steps for someone who has been pretty housebound for a while! Anyway it was resolved in the end….but bloody hell.

Back to work next week – just two days. One at home and then one in Manchester. The trip north is really because I am determined to attend Camp Digital with so many friends speaking but it is also useful as my boss and some of the team are up there.

I’ve decided to shift to a three day week/0.6 FTE from now on – not just as part of a return to work plan but for the foreseeable future. This has meant a change in the nature of my role as well. I really appreciate the efforts the OCDO/NDL leadership have made to accommodate this – it has been a real weight off my mind once it became clear I needed to make some significant changes.

I’ll write about what this looks like in the future I am sure but there are still quite a few moving pieces for now so that is one for a later date.

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I went to the cinema and watched ‘Project Hail Mary’ (at the third attempt after feeling too ill on my birthday and then being in hospital for the replacement ticket I purchased.) I really loved it. I thought Gosling was wonderful, as was Sandra Hüller, and the whole thing looked amazing. 

Got a new print from Mr Jago which is already with Niche for framing. Not sure where I am going to put this to be honest. I’ve long since run out of wall space…but I love it. I also have had a bunch of custom frames for US comic books since Christmas and I have finally sorted a bunch of my favourite covers – mainly from the 80s – to fill the wall spaces around all the street-art-ish prints!

At some point in hospital I ordered two new bags from Stubble&Co – the little ‘Sling’ manbag to carry my insulin supplies (including this insulin cooler plus a mini sharps container for all the bloody needles) and backup Anker Nano – as well as a Field Notes memo book and some Muji Gel pens. I also bought the larger Sling to be my new ‘everyday carry’ for trips to the office etc. I do not remember ordering this at all – but it is very nice.

I bounced off a couple of books, a sci-fi space opera and the Fab 5 Freddy biog – I’ll return to the latter but suspect I’ll write off the other one – it was okay but just not enough to engage my broken brain sufficiently. 

I did finish ‘Outlearn‘ by Pascal Finette

I found it interesting and useful (and for a business-y book mercifully short!).

The theme of the book is that you need to make failure cheap so you can learn (and adapt) faster and that too many organisations embrace ways of working that make this impossible (or at least very hard and far from ‘psychologically safe’.)

Anyone who works in public service digital is going to recognise an awful lot of the symptoms I suspect and also recognise there have been bubbles where the proposed approaches have been embraced (especially during various crises over the last decade!) but they have not managed to stick or spread.

Anyway – it is worth a read – it is reassuring that the same challenges are everywhere and it demonstrates our gov digital community knows what good looks like – we just need to make it happen (somehow!).

Next up for my brain reboot is ‘Crisis Engineering’ from a couple of the founders of the US Digital Service (from the days before DOGE!). I’m going to try and read this on the way to/from Manchester next week.

In the meantime I’ve just started ‘A Violent Masterpiece’ by Jordan Harper. He writes the kind of modern noir that I tend to burn through and I’ve enjoyed many of his earlier novels – especially his previous Hollywood set story ‘Everybody Knows’. I also enjoyed this profile of him in the NY Times.

‘God’s Junk Drawer’ from Peter Climes is on deck next. I do not really remember what drew me to this book – I’ve had it pre-ordered for ages!

Oh and this amazing looking book about Run-DMC just landed! So far I have just admired it 😀

Power Fantasy Volume 3 landed. What a fucking comic. This is going to go down as one of the G.O.A.T.s I think. Story and art are really just ‘chef’s kiss’ and this book really went for it.

On the topic of comics – I loved this article in The Guardian about swapping doomscrolling for comics. I still do more than my share of both it has to be said but I suspect the comics (and the novels) do just about stop me from falling into the abyss given how terminally online I am.

I’ve booked a few days in Lisbon just before Christmas – at a hotel overlooking their biggest Christmas market (I even paid more to guarantee a room with a view of it 🎄). It is a city with a huge reputation for graffiti/street art…but also for steep hills…so we’ll see how it goes! 

It is the 50th party for one of my closest friends on Saturday – thankfully it is family friendly and thus late afternoon/early evening and nearby. It will be the first time I’ve been in the company of anybody other than my parents or medical professionals since I first landed in hospital on March 21st. I’m looking forward to it but am also a little nervous about being out and about…but given I am going to work and Camp Digital next week I need to get over that! 

I did a trial run and popped to the pub for a Lucky Saint in the sun yesterday – I can just about get away with one or two of these alcohol & sugar free fake beers it seems and it tastes fine under the circumstances. 

25 days from thinking it was all over in an A&E bed to a (fake) beer in a pub garden is not too bad.