Neil Turner

Some predictions for 2025

by

Last January, I wrote a series of predictions for 2024, and had mixed success. So, I’m going to try again in 2025 – let’s see how these work out.

Twitter/X won’t become an ‘everything app’

I’m recycling this prediction from last year, as it didn’t happen then, and I doubt it’ll happen in 2025 either. Elon Musk is apparently going to co-lead Donald Trump’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ or ‘DOGE’, the name presumably chosen because Elon’s sense of humour hasn’t caught up with his age. So he’ll have more on his plate, and at a time when large numbers of people have left X which will affect advertising revenue. Remember that a lot of the money Elon used to buy Twitter (as-was) was loaned, and he’ll need to start paying those loans back at some point. Having briefly looked at Twitter again this morning, the adverts I saw were for mostly unknown companies, some of which had Community Notes attached to them basically stating they’re a scam. So that’s going well.

I still don’t think Elon will sell X this year, but I expect it’ll largely stagnate again.

Donald Trump will be terrible in ways we haven’t foreseen

Trump has already outlined what he plans to do when he’s back in office as US President. I expect some of those policies to be weakened or dropped entirely; even though the Republicans once again control both the Senate and House of Representatives, but the recent deal to avoid a government shutdown suggests they may not always vote as a contiguous block. And not necessarily in the way that Trump wants either.

But I also expect that there are things we don’t yet know about that Trump will react to in the worst way imaginable.

Trump and Musk will have a public fall-out

Musk’s control of X, and massive donations in the run-up to the election seemed to have allowed him to curry favour of Trump – hence Musk being allowed to co-lead DOGE. But I also expect that their egos will clash, and only one of these two people will be President. What the impact of this will be remains to be seen but I can’t help but see Elon as something of an Icarus character at present.

Labour will do poorly in local elections

There’s a likelihood of local elections on the 1st May 2025, although most of these are for county councils which the government is proposing to abolish, so some areas may have elections after all. Labour’s popularity has dive-bombed since winning the 2024 general election, as the government has introduced some unpopular policies. It’s a tactic that may pay off – the next general election may not be until 2029. But I imagine some people who voted Labour last time may be tempted to vote for other parties. And most of the council seats being defended are currently held by the Conservatives.

Reform UK, the party led by Nigel Farage, managed to return five MPs last year and is hoping to make gains in the local council elections too. And there’s a possibility of a massive cash injection from Musk to give them more resources to do this. I can see Reform putting up a strong challenge to Labour and the Conservatives in some seats. Whether they’ll win any, or just split the vote, remains to be seen.

There won’t be a General Election in 2025

Okay, this is a very easy prediction to make. General elections in the UK need to happen approximately every five years, and so the next one isn’t scheduled to 2029, as mentioned above. But governments can call early ones, and indeed this happened in 2017 and 2019.

The only reason why I’m including it here is because 3 million people have (apparently) signed a petition calling for a general election, and it’s currently the most popular petition. There will be a debate about this on Tuesday 6th January, apparently, but most likely in Westminster Hall and not the House of Commons.

The overall situation in the Middle East will improve

I don’t know if there will be a ceasefire in Gaza this year; I hoped for one last year, and it didn’t come to pass. But the situation in Syria is, at long last, encouraging, and I hope that the region as a whole stabilises.

Well, we’ll see what happens at the end of the year.

Welcome to 2025!

by

Good grief, has it really been 25 years since the Millennium?

As per usual, we didn’t stay up to see in the new year – that’s a thing we would have done years ago, but Christine and I are both in our forties now. I’m back at work tomorrow, but Christine has the rest of the week off.

January will be my blogiversary month again, and this time it’ll be 23 years (minus the four year hiatus) since I started blogging. Over the Christmas break, I reinstated over a hundred old blog posts from the 2010s from the Web Archive, so at least it looks like I’ve been regularly blogging throughout most of those 23 years.

My plan for 2025 is to carry on posting new blog entries every other day, as this seems like a manageable amount. I kept it up throughout most of 2024.

Things that are currently in our calendar include Sci-Fi Weekender again in March, down in Great Yarmouth, and our summer holiday in July. We’re not currently planning to go abroad again this year – instead, we’re off to Wales for a week. The last time we went to Wales was in 2018, back when Sci-Fi Weekender was hosted near Pwlleli, so although all three of us have been, our nine-year-old was only two and probably doesn’t remember it.

At some point, we’ll probably also go to London again, but we haven’t planned or booked it yet.

I also have some big admin things, as my passport needs renewing – technically it’s in date, but was issued more than 10 years ago which means it’s not valid in many countries. Like I said, I’m not planning to travel abroad, but passport renewal turnarounds seem pretty quick at the moment, and then it’s done. I’ll be keeping my current passport safe though, as it has some interesting stamps in it from my 2015 work trip to the Middle East.

Also, August will be 10 years since I passed my driving test, and so I’ll need to renew my driving license too later in the year.

2024: a year in review

by

As is traditional at the end of each year, I review what I’ve been up to over the past 12 months.

You can read my previous posts from 2023, 2022, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009.

January

January started with a trip to the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, to have a look at their Operation Ouch exhibition about food and, um, poo. They have another exhibition about brains and bogeys in 2025 so I’m sure we’ll be back there soon. We also went to Eureka in Halifax; despite having an excellent children’s museum practically on our doorstep, we don’t go there that often. And there was also a brief trip to the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

On the blog, I wrote one of my perennially popular blog posts about installing Home Assistant Supervised on a Raspberry Pi and how I’d switched to using Simplenote for note-taking. I now take many more notes than I used to with Evernote. I also finally started regularly backing up my blog. January is my blogiversary month and 2024 marked 22 years.

February

After the Januariest January that ever Januaried, we made it to February. We had a bat in our cellar, which a kind volunteer rescued for us, and trips to the Trafford Centre and Beaumont Park in Huddersfield. Meanwhile, I cancelled Disney+ as we were no longer using it.

We ended February on our way down to London for a long weekend.

Houses of Parliament

March

Whilst in London, we went to the Bank of England Museum, the Cute exhibition at Somerset House, the Young V&A and the Cartoon Museum. We also had dinner in Chinatown one night, and Christine stayed an extra night to see Book of Mormon in the West End.

As usual in March, we went to Sci-Fi Weekender in Great Yarmouth, although this time we had friends in the car with us. This made the eight hour round trip much more enjoyable. And over the Easter Weekend, we went to East Riddlesden Hall, and went on the Snooks trail around York.

On the blog, I replaced Automattic’s Jetpack plugin with the much lighter Toolbelt.

April

In April, we went to see Unfortunate at the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford, and I moaned about our car needing more work on it again. I had the car serviced again earlier this month and needed four new tyres, new brake pads and brake discs, and some additional work which was another four figure sum. We probably could have bought a new car for the amount we’ve spent on keeping this one on the road over the past 18 months.

Christine and I had a child-free day out shopping in Manchester, which was nice.

Anteater

May

May is my birthday month, and I turned 40 this year. For my birthday, we went to Dudley, and visited Dudley Zoo and the Black Country Living Museum. We also had a day out at Jodrell Bank to use our annual passes before they expired, and another visit to the Tropical Butterfly House near Sheffield.

I added a newsletter to the blog in May, which is a weekly list of new blog posts. So far, a grand total of four people are fully subscribed, although two were in December so maybe it’s picking up momentum?

I also switched my bank account, but didn’t write about it until October.

June

In 2023, my dad had some health issues which persisted for some time into 2024, ultimately resulting in him going back into hospital again in June this year. Thankfully, this time the doctors treating him seemed to get on top of the issue, and so he’s now much better than he’s been in a while.

Our eight-year-old had an overnight residential school trip, giving Christine and I a rare chance to have a date night towards the end of the month. Meanwhile, we were in the run up to a General Election, and I wrote about the candidates that I could vote for in our constituency.

Seahouses

July

The General Election happened, and for once, the bad guys didn’t win, which was nice. I also made some predictions for 2029, when the next General Election is likely to be.

I fitted my Raspberry Pi with a new case and fan, and started using an SSD with it rather than an SD card.

As usual in July, we went on holiday with my parents. Though my Dad made a good recovery, we decided to have a holiday in the UK, and spent a week in Northumberland. Amongst the places we visited were Bamburgh Castle, The Alnwick Garden, a boat trip to The Farne Islands to see the puffins and seals, Warkworth Castle, Lindisfarne, Cragside, and Beamish on the way home.

August

Writing about our holiday took me well into August, and I also noted all the places we’d considered but didn’t visit. Storm Lillian visited us, cutting off our power for a few hours, and I wrote about our four most-used cookbooks. We also had a day out at the National Coal Mining Museum for England. At the end of the month, we went to Gawthorpe Hall and Mr Fitzpatrick’s Temperance Bar.

August is always my busiest month at work, and this year was no exception.

September

In September, I made Bluesky my primary social media presence and made my Twitter/X account private. Whilst I’ve logged in to X from time to time, I’ve not posted anything since.

Apple announced that its AirPods Pro could be used as hearing aids, and I wrote about how this could be a game-changer for people with mild or moderate hearing loss.

We didn’t have any days out in September (bar a trip to the cinema to see Inside Out 2), but I did write about travel more generally in a blog post about furthest compass points.

A photo of the Royal Iris ferry on the River Mersey in Liverpool

October

Christine and I went back to the cinema to watch Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, having watched the first film that morning – in my case for the first time. I also got my Covid-19 and Flu vaccines. We went to visit the new Eureka museum for older kids in Wirral, and then took a ferry across the Mersey and visited the Museum of Liverpool.

I had a grumble about parking apps, and why we can’t just have one app that works everywhere, and I summarised my adult life using the various railcards we’ve had over the years. For Halloween, we went to Lotherton Hall, which was full of dressed up skeletons.

November

Another cinema trip, this time to bawl our eyes out at The Wild Robot which is as good as everyone says it is. Our (now) nine-year-old got one of the follow-on books as a birthday present. We also went to Bolling Hall Museum with friends, and had a return visit to the Askham Bryan Wildlife & Conservation Park (which I wrote about in 2017 when it first opened).

America voted for the bad guy again (seriously guys?), and I successfully migrated this blog to a new hosting company, seemingly without anyone noticing. Considering my track record with losing data when doing this sort of thing, I consider this to be a massive win. We did our first Costco visit; we haven’t been back yet but planning a trip in the new year, probably with friends. I also wrote about my home working setup, and how it’s evolved over the past (almost) five years.

December

And so to this month. I wrote a long post about step-free access on the Waterloo & City Line, which pleasingly got picked up by a couple of London blogs and resulted in a few click-throughs. Which I knew about thanks to using Koko Analytics with WordPress.

Throughout the year, I mostly stuck with my target of publishing a new blog post every other day, which I’m really pleased about. I don’t have the time to contribute something every day – I’ve tried that in the past and I just end up writing waffle to fill up space. And, as we’re a family of two full-time working parents, our ability to have fun days out is mostly limited to weekends and holidays. But we did have the opportunity to do a few fun things this year, and have some new experiences. Whilst we didn’t go abroad this year, we squeezed a lot into our summer holiday to Northumberland, and seeing thousands of puffins on the Farne Islands will be something I hope to remember for a long time.

Reviewing my 2024 predictions

by

So, back in January, I made seven predictions about events that would take place in 2024. So, seeing as there’s just a few days left in 2024, let’s see how I did:

Twitter/X won’t become an ‘everything app’

Remember when Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022 that it would become X, the ‘everything app’? I predicted that this wouldn’t happen in 2024, and, so far, it hasn’t. I don’t use X anymore, although I keep my account live, and upon logging in to write this, the only new things I could see were some kind of job search, and Grok, its AI ChatGPT competitor. This is a far cry from apps like WeChat.

One of the few things that Elon Musk is actually good at is over-promising and under-delivering, so this isn’t surprising. But X was supposed to be able to offer all sorts of new functionality, including financial services, if Musk were to be believed.

Labour will win the 2024 General Election

Yes, they did. But any other result was unlikely, to be fair. It has been a rocky ride since then, with Labour front-loading their time in power with unpopular policies like the limits on the Winter Fuel Payments. However, with the next general election not due until 2029, there’s time to re-build.

What I didn’t expect was how well the Liberal Democrats ended up doing in the election. Their tactics of concentrating on seats mainly in the south west massively paid off, with one of their best ever results.

There will be a ceasefire in Palestine

Nope, sadly. We’re over a year in now, and fighting continues. The recent regime change in Syria is a potential bright spot though.

But the war in Ukraine will continue

Yes, sadly. But it’s notable that things are not going well for Russia, with forces being drafted in from North Korea. That’s because Russia is rapidly running out of people fit to fight on the front in Ukraine, as shown by its massive fall in unemployment.

Energy prices in the UK will start to fall again

They did, and then they started going back up again in October, by around 10%. Overall, Brits are still paying significantly more for energy than we were a few years ago, although there are at least a wider range of tariffs available now.

The UK will do okay at Eurovision this year

No, we didn’t really. We came 18th out of 25th, with all the points coming from professional juries and none from the voting public. I was hoping we would do better, with Olly Alexander representing us, but I don’t think it was the best song.

Trump won’t win the US Presidential Election

Oh dear, a big no. Honestly, in the run-up to the election I though Kamala Harris had it in the bag, so I was surprised and disappointed that she didn’t win.

So, overall, half of my predictions were (mostly) correct. Which isn’t bad, although clearly there were some that I wanted to be correct but weren’t. Oh well.

Playlist of the month: New Year

by
A screenshot of the New Year's Day playlist on Spotify

So it’s time for a playlist of the month for December. I did my best Christmas songs last year, and whilst I considered doing a ‘worst Christmas songs’ playlist this time, I decided that no-one really wants that. Anyway, as it’s a new year in a few days’ time, here’s a New Year’s Day playlist. I cannot confirm or deny that these are the first 10 songs that I liked when searching for ‘new year’ on Spotify.

  • New Year’s Day by U2. I know this better as the 2003 remix, New Year’s Dub, but here’s the 1983 original. Yes, you’re old.
  • Happy New Year by Abba. I’m not a big Abba fan, and this was released before I was born. It’s a typical Abba song.
  • No Tears for New Years by Katy Perry. After a couple of older songs, here’s a brand new one from Perry’s latest album.
  • New Year’s Day by Taylor Swift. This is actually the first time I’ve included a Taylor Swift song in my playlists of the month. It’s from her sixth album Reputation, so, at the time of writing, there’s no (Taylor’s version).
  • New Year by Sugababes. The second single from their first album, and was released before any of their numerous line-up changes. I suppose you can consider it both a Christmas and New Year song.
  • New Year’s Revolution by NOFX. Start the new year with a bit of pop punk. Although “Next year is gonna be bad, The next one even worse” maybe isn’t the most upbeat way.
  • Is It New Year’s Yet? by Sabrina Carpenter. Another relatively new song, having been released last year.
  • New Year’s Resolution by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas. And now for a much, much older song; this one is from 1967. A bit of a slow jam this one.
  • What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? by Ella Fitzgerald. Staying in the 1960s, Ella Fitzgerald is well known for her classic versions of Frosty the Snowman and Sleigh Ride, but she also did this New Year’s song too.
  • New Year’s Day by Rob Thomas. You may know Rob Thomas as the lead singer of Matchbox Twenty, or the guest vocalist on Carlos Santana’s song ‘Smooth’. This is another slow piano track.

Merry Christmanoëlavidad!

by
Photos of the two books that I bought Christine for Christmas: A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett, and Designing Terry Pratchett's Discworld by Paul Kidby

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, a Joyeux Noël and a Feliz Navidad, should you be celebrating today.

Once again, we’re staying with my parents in York for Christmas, having arrived last night. Whilst I’ve been lucky enough to work somewhere that closed at 4pm last Friday, for Christine, Christmas Eve was a normal working day. We’re here in York for a few days.

As per usual, we’re not having turkey – it tends to fall to my mum to cook Christmas dinner and she’s not a fan of turkey. Instead, we’re having pork.

Pictured above are the gifts that I bought for Christine:

Yes, there’s a theme. My gift to her last year was Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch (sponsored link), written by Rhianna Pratchett about her father’s characters, and required a bit of a mad goose chase around the various bookshops of West Yorkshire to find a copy. Thankfully, the glorious Waterstones in Bradford came up trumps.

I’ll have probably opened my presents by the time you read this, but I’m writing this ahead of time.

My best children’s fiction books of 2024

by

Between now and Christmas Eve, I’ll be posting about the best books that I’ve read (or the best audiobooks that I have listened to), just in case you need any last minute present ideas. On Thursday, I wrote about my favourite non-fiction books, and yesterday, my favourite adult fiction books. Today, I’m focussing on the fiction books that I’ve read to our soon-to-be nine year old this year. All of these are books that I have awarded five stars on Goodreads.

The links below to buy the books are all sponsored links to Amazon, but you’re welcome to borrow these from your local library, or buy them from an independent book shop.

Luna Wolf: Animal Wizard by Alesha Dixon

The cover of Luna Wolf: Animal Wizard by Alesha Dixon

Our eight-year-old picked this out of the school library, and wasn’t aware that I used to listen to Alesha Dixon’s music as a teenager, from when she was part of the girl band Mis-teeq.

Luna Wolf: Animal Wizard is co-written by Dixon in collaboration with Katy Birchall, and is about a girl called Luna who has recently moved to London with her father, following her mother’s death. Through her volunteering at a local animal rescue centre, and her bond with one of the rescue dogs, she begins to uncover her mother’s exciting past, and a plot to capture some very special animals that her mother worked with.

The Day My Dog Got Famous by Jen Carney

The cover of 'The Day My Dog Got Famous' by Jen Carney

We picked up The Day My Dog Got Famous from our local library, and it’s written and illustrated by Jen Carney. It follows the story of Ferris, who lives with his two mums, his dog Aldo, and a revolving door of foster brothers and sisters. Alas, despite Ferris’s attempts to make Aldo appear amazing, by drawing comics, Aldo is anything but, and this presents a problem when his next-door neighbour Destiny challenges him to a video contest.

I’ve read many books to our nine-year-old over the years, and this stood out because it’s a bit more inclusive than others. It’s nice to see families represented that don’t fit the standard 2.4 children pattern.

Rainbow Grey by Lauren Ellen Anderson

The cover of Rainbow Grey by Lauren Ellen Anderson

Another book which is written and illustrated by the author. Lauren Ellen Anderson is probably better known as the writer of the Amelia Fang books, which we haven’t yet started.

Rainbow Grey follows the character of Ray Grey, who is a ‘weatherling’ and lives high up in the clouds. But whilst every other weatherling has powers to control the weather, she doesn’t. Until one day, when she ventures down to earth, and encounters a mysterious artefact.

There are now three books in the Rainbow Grey series and we’ll be on the lookout for the others.

Honourable mentions

Whilst the above books were deserving of five stars, these are the four star children’s fiction books that I also read this year:

That’s the end of my 2024 lists of best books; hopefully, if you were stuck for ideas for Christmas presents, these will have helped you. Obviously, it’s cutting it a bit tight to order anything in time for Christmas now…

My best adult fiction books of 2024

by

Between now and Christmas Eve, I’ll be posting about the best books that I’ve read (or the best audiobooks that I have listened to), just in case you need any last minute present ideas. On Thursday, I wrote about my favourite non-fiction books, and today, I’m focussing on the fiction books aimed at grown-ups that I’ve read or listened to this year. All of these are books that I have awarded five stars on Goodreads.

The links below to buy the books are all sponsored links to Amazon, but you’re welcome to borrow these from your local library, or buy them from an independent book shop.

Baby Does A Runner by Anita Rani

Cover of 'Baby Does A Runner' by Anita Rani. It's mostly pink at the top and green at the bottom.

Okay, slight conflict of interest time: Anita Rani is our chancellor at work, although it’s a largely ceremonial role and no, I haven’t actually met her in person yet. In 2021, she published her memoirs, The Right Sort of Girl, which were great – having spent some of my formative years in Bradford, I related to a lot of Rani’s experiences. Baby Does A Runner is fiction, and is about a young British-Asian woman who sets off to her family’s ancestral home in India to uncover a family secret. Whilst it’s not a true story, there’s a lot about topics like the Partition of India which certainly wasn’t taught to me in history lessons at school. It does well to tackle colonial-era views of India.

Rani reads the audiobook herself, and does an excellent job of it, giving each character a unique voice and accent.

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven and The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson

The cover of Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

I’ve grouped these books together as they form the first two books in a trilogy; book three, Human Rites, is due out in summer 2025. Book one, Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, follows four witches, Niamh, Leonie, Elle and Helena who knew each other from school, and now each have their own professional working lives. Only Helena remains part of the secretive government department, Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, and there are rumours that a ‘sullied child’ will bring forth Leviathan and a terrible disaster.

The Shadow Cabinet picks up from the same cliff-hanger scene at the end of the first book, and sees Leonie take off on a wild goose chase around Europe. Meanwhile, we find out about The Shadow Cabinet, a board consisting of witches, warlocks and so-called ‘mundanes’ (non-magic users) in government. Again, there’s a cliff-hanger at the end of this book, and I’ll have to wait several more months to find out how it ends.

The cover of The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson

In the meantime, there’s a prequel, Queen B, set in Tudor times, which I’ve yet to read.

Both books come highly recommended. Again, I relate to the settings, as many scenes take place just up the road from us in Hebden Bridge, and Hardcastle Crags in particular. They’re also the first fiction books that I’ve read/listened to by Juno Dawson; I’ve previously enjoyed her non-fiction books, The Gender Games and What’s The T?

Both audiobooks are read by Nicola Coughlan, known for her roles in Derry Girls and the later series of Bridgerton, and her narration is excellent.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The cover of 'The Midnight Library' by Matt Haig

Another author for which I’ve only really read their non-fiction before. I believe I picked up The Midnight Library cheaply in an Audible daily deal, and my only regret is that I didn’t listen to it sooner. It goes to some dark places; consider this a trigger warning for suicide, and a subject that Matt Haig has written extensively about in his non-fiction books.

The story follows Nora, who’s reached rock bottom and sees no way out. Except, she ends up in a mysterious library, seemingly staffed by the librarian from her school days, and each book shows her a possible life that she could have lived, had she made different decisions. The ending wasn’t quite as predictable as it could have been, which kept the book interesting, and it is very well written.

The actress Carey Mulligan narrates the audiobook and does a decent job of it.

Honourable mentions

Whilst the above books were deserving of five stars, these are the four star fiction books that I also read this year:

Tomorrow, I’ll focus on the best kid’s books that I read this year with our eight-year-old.

My best non-fiction books of 2024

by

Between now and Christmas Eve, I’ll be posting about the best books that I’ve read (or the best audiobooks that I have listened to), just in case you need any last minute present ideas. Today, I’m focussing on the non-fiction books that I’ve read or listened to this year. All of these are books that I have awarded five stars on Goodreads.

The links below to buy the books are all sponsored links to Amazon, but you’re welcome to borrow these from your local library, or buy them from an independent book shop.

‘Period. It’s About Bloody Time’ by Emma Barnett

The cover of the book 'Period. It's About Bloody Time' by Emma Barnett.

I don’t get periods, being a cisgender man, but my wife Christine does. Whilst this isn’t the first period book I’ve read (that would be Maisie Hill’s Period Power), I really enjoyed Period. It’s About Bloody Time by Emma Barnett. It’s funny, but also a very important book about how periods are perceived, and what society can do to better accommodate those who menstruate.

I like how it goes through lots of the euphemisms that people use instead of the word ‘period’ (it’s called ‘Shark Week‘ in our house).

The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read by Philippa Perry

The cover to Philippa Perry's book 'The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did)'

Or to give it its full title, ‘The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did)’. If you only ever buy one parenting book, make it this one, as it was full of useful advice. It’s taught me to be more patient as a parent, and to focus on being present and nurturing with our child.

I also read Perry’s follow-up book, The Book You Want Everyone You Love To Read (and maybe a few you don’t) this year, which was still good but not as good as her first.

Barry Cryer: Same Time Tomorrow? by Bob Cryer

The cover of the book 'Barry Cryer: Same Time Tomorrow?' by Bob Cryer.

I’ve been to a couple of recordings of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, which is now into its 82nd series, and Barry Cryer was a regular contestant for over 50 years before his death in 2022, aged 86. Barry Cryer: Same Time Tomorrow? is a biography of him written by his son, Bob, along with many anecdotes contributed by Barry’s friends and colleagues. It’s a lovely tribute to someone who carried on working in comedy well into his senior years, and was loved and respected by comedians both new and old. As with Rob Wilkins’ biography of Terry Pratchett, it’s written with warmth and admiration.

A Girlhood: A Letter to My Transgender Daughter by Carolyn Hays

The cover to the book 'A Letter to my Transgender Daughter' by Carolyn Hays

Right now, the issue of care for young transgender people is very much in the news, and I would urge anyone wanting to have an informed opinion on the topic to read A Girlhood: A Letter to My Transgender Daughter by Carolyn Hays.

Published under a pseudonym, it’s written as a letter over several chapters, about a family who is doing their best to provide gender-affirming care for their child. There’s a lot of bravery on show, especially as the book starts in an American state which isn’t particularly trans-friendly.

Fix the System, Not the Women by Laura Bates

The cover of the book 'Fix the System, Not the Women' by Laura Bates

Laura Bates was the founder of the Everyday Sexism project, and wrote a 2014 book of the same name. This follow-up, Fix the System, Not the Women, is about how society’s systems and structures work against women and other marginalised people. But it also has positive recommendations for how society can change to be more equal.

It’s an important book for anyone committed to gender equality and inclusion.

“No Offence, But…” by Gina Martin

The cover to the book 'No Offence, But' by Gina Martin

Gina Martin is probably best known as a campaigner who pushed for the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019, which made upskirting a specific criminal offence. “No Offence, But” is a useful handbook for responding to claims such as ‘not all men’ and ‘playing devil’s advocate’. Whilst Gina herself has written around half the chapters, there are also contributions from other authors and activists who write in their area of expertise. Again, it’s a positive book that offers useful talking points to respond to lazy stereotypes.

Next time, I’ll be writing about the fiction books that I’ve most enjoyed this year.

Shopmium – cashback on grocery shopping

by
A screenshot of the Shopmium app

If you fancy small discounts on your grocery shopping each week, you could give Shopmium a try. It’s a cashback app, where if you buy certain promoted products, and upload a receipt, you’ll get some of the cost back.

I’ve used Shopmium and similar apps for a while. There used to be one called Shopitize, that worked in the same way, but it seems to have closed down (although its web site is still live). There’s also CheckoutSmart and GreenJinn, which work in a similar way, although to date I’ve never found anything in CheckoutSmart that I’ve actually wanted to buy. GreenJinn focuses on sustainable and/or vegan products, but also sometimes offers cashback on supermarket own-brand fruit and veg. Of the three, I have the most success with Shopmium.

Once you’ve signed up to Shopmium, you’ll need to download their app. At the top of the app, you can filter it by supermarket; some cashback offers are only valid at certain supermarkets. Once you’ve bought an eligible item, you scan the barcode, and upload a receipt. If it’s approved, then your account is credited with cashback.

Shopmium used to pay out for each individual cashback claim, but now you need to accumulate a minimum of £10 of claims before you can be paid. The money is sent by BACS to your bank account.

Once you’ve made 10 claims, you move up to ‘Gold’ status in Shopmium. This offers extra benefits, like a treat on your birthday and being able to see offers before they’re live, but to maintain your status you need to make at least one cashback claim every month. I’ve been a gold member for a couple of months, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to maintain it. A lot of the products on offer are things that I would never buy. And sometimes, even with the cashback, there will be supermarket own brands that are cheaper. Oh, and (for the most part) it only works at Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Waitrose and Co-Op. We tend to do the majority of our shopping at Lidl, and some offers aren’t valid there.

If you fancy trying Shopmium, you can sign up with my referral code CI54t4. I believe this gets you a free gift, which looks to be a bag of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk buttons.