Recap of the month - October 2023

October was a very busy month of travelling. In addition to our trip to DisneyLand Paris, I spent a weekend in Hartlepool (where, yes, I saw the monkey in the Marina!), and had a day working in London as well. 

The trip to London was to do some filming in the Diabetes UK London office. It meant an early start. I also had an extra-late finish because I broke my journey home in Reading, to attend the Quality in Care Diabetes Awards. One of the projects I worked on a couple of years ago, How to Manage a Mammoth, was nominated - and won!

As I said on LinkedIn, it was a long journey from the initial discussion around a kitchen table about doing this kind of book. My friend Rose wrote it. Another friend of mine, Richard, illustrated it. And now it's published and been turned into a short cartoon as well. 

It was a great night out for many of my colleagues from Wales. My friend Scott, who I keep bumping into at football matches, won an award too. And my former colleagues on the SEREN education programme were highly commended for one of their modules. 

Fist pump from Scott

"Team Cymru clean up again"

An added bonus was catching the train home afterwards with my friend Sara, which gave us a fab opportunity for a proper catch up!

Photo on the bus that took us to the train

The next week we went to DisneyLand. The day after we returned, I drove up to Hartlepool. It was during Storm Babet, and it felt like most of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire was under water. 

I went up for a birthday party for my friend Tom. He had insisted on a dress code of "double denim" and had decided to complete the look with a mini mullet haircut. We all have different ways of dealing with growing old.

The final weekend of the month saw even more travelling as Cathy and I headed over to Gloucestershire to meet up with more family. I didn't take a photo of us all, but I did take a photo of the amazing cupcakes that Bonny made - all Sesame Street characters.

I really liked the look of Count von Count, but someone else called dibs. So I ended up eating Ernie instead.