Q1 2026

Fatboy Slim at Alexandra Palace. Raye in Manchester. A gastritis diagnosis after years of not knowing. Three rooms of William Morris wallpaper. PETALS Plus plans nearly live. Training underway for a 35km walk along the Jurassic Coast. A switch from ChatGPT to Claude. And a 973-day Duolingo streak still standing. Here's how Q1 2026 went - including how this post itself got made.

Life stuff #

January kicked off with a trip to see Derby County vs Stoke - a family tradition we've established between the Derby and Stoke fans in the family. I love those visits, even when the performances are disappointing. Which they often are. 🐏

After years of digestive issues I finally got an answer this quarter: gastritis. It's a relief to know it's nothing more serious, though the trade-off is rethinking my relationship with alcohol, spicy food and caffeine. Adjustments are ongoing.

It was a brilliant week for live music in February. Lizzy got me Fatboy Slim tickets at Alexandra Palace for Christmas - a long time coming as a fan who'd somehow never seen him live. I went with old uni friends and we made a weekend of it. Genuinely special. That same week, we took our daughter to see Raye in Manchester as her main Christmas present. Phenomenal show, Raye completely outshone her sisters as support acts. We also got time with our son at uni, and watching the siblings connect in that older, more grown-up way was one of those moments you tuck away.

Mrs J and I also had a cheeky weekend at Brownsover Hall, fresh from a renovation. Beautiful decor, great food, friendly staff and the indulgence package was very much worth it. Minor gripe: some of the younger staff needed a few prompts to keep the drinks coming, but nothing that dented the overall experience.

Training has started for a 35km walk along the Jurassic Coast at the end of May. We attempted London to Brighton years ago (100km) and made it to 58km before calling it. This one feels a lot more achievable.

Three rooms in the house have had a William Morris wallpaper makeover this quarter. Cloakroom, downstairs bathroom and stairs. Looks brilliant. Highly recommend going a bit bold with wallpaper if you've been sitting on the fence.

PETALS #

PETALS has had a productive quarter. The monthly newsletter is now a proper fixture, mixing product updates, industry opinions and prompts to try. Open and click-through rates are solid, though engagement is still something to work on.

I made the call to revert the PETALS Slack space to the free plan. A handful of external members were using it actively but it wasn't returning enough on the paid tier, so the mailing list is now the focus. We've also moved our weekly huddles from Slack to Google Meet, which gives us recordings, Gemini-powered analysis and shareable archives. A proper upgrade.

The Plus plans are nearly ready to go live after a lot of detailed work this quarter with Sertan and Brian. One of the more interesting things has been watching prompt engineering and spec-driven development play out in practice. We'll be writing that process up once the plans are live.

Side projects #

Managing Engineers has kept its roughly fortnightly rhythm with topics covering quality engineering, remote working, metrics, communities and AI.

House Finesse has had a bit of a reset for 2026. Seasons are now aligned to calendar years with week numbers, which feels tidier. Taylan has joined with a monthly residency slot, and we've reorganised the schedule with quarterly residencies from Sarah, Taiwo and Disco77. The rest of us fill in around that structure.

The HF VIP Club has had its own journey. I started on Substack but moved to Patreon after some concerns about company ethics. Engagement is still finding its feet and Patreon's newsletter setup is more complex than I'd like. The more exciting development is that Stu (aka LYP) and I have started recording monthly conversations about the house music scene, leaning into the expertise we've both built up over the years. It's a proper podcast format and it's on Spotify, currently exclusive to VIP Club members.

6nationscalendar.com got its annual refresh this quarter, plus some new social posts. Still ticking along nicely as a personal project that means I never miss a game. This year I finally added the Women's 6 Nations fixtures too. Only took me long enough.

I've paused the SuperRams.com Substack for now to focus energy on PETALS and House Finesse. The Bluesky community around Derby County is more active and engaged anyway, so that's where the attention will go when I pick it back up.

AI tooling #

This quarter I made the switch from ChatGPT to Claude as my primary LLM. The US military situation was a nudge, but the results have generally been better too, especially for coding. I've also been trying Gemini for certain tasks, and Google Jules has been genuinely useful for some lower-risk project work.

I've set up OpenClaw on my M4 Mac Mini (always on, always ready) and I'm exploring personal automation from chat prompts. Direct access via WhatsApp is already working and I've started experimenting with safe, read-only services like Spotify. Lots of potential here.

Oh, and these blog posts themselves. I've started brain dumping raw moments into Claude and letting it curate and shape them into something coherent. You're reading the results. It feels like a good use of the technology - my thoughts, my voice, just a bit more organised.

Other tech distractions #

I switched to Castro for podcast consumption this quarter. The chapters UX is excellent, though I'm still finding my way between the inbox and queue interface. Recent updates have made it more manageable though.

I also tried AutoMemo, an iOS app for quick audio notes on the go. The CarPlay version is genuinely handy for recording thoughts on the commute, but the audio quality isn't good enough to repurpose for podcast use, which was the dream.

Journaling on iOS has become a regular habit too. This is less "blog mode" and more personal reflection, checking in on how I'm feeling rather than just logging facts. One thing I really like is how it automatically detects and pulls in exercise activity, which makes it easier to spot the connection between movement and mood. It's helping me find my voice a bit more and be more considered about my wellbeing. Recommend it.

I gave the Comet browser a try and came away unimpressed. Not worth the data trade-off. Brave remains my default, Safari as backup. Chrome stays off the table.

And finally, the iOS app development rabbit hole - I started looking into building something custom for listening to my legal MP3 collection during workouts. It's definitely possible with AI assistance but life got in the way. One for the backlog.

Reading #

Two books keeping me company in the quieter moments this quarter.

I Love You, Byeee by Adam Buxton - a delightful autobiography from one of my podcasting heroes. Warm, funny, full of great anecdotes from a genuinely interesting career. Highly recommend if you're a fan.

The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman - a much weightier read, but thoroughly gripping. Suleyman co-founded DeepMind, sold it to Google, and is now CEO of Microsoft AI, so when he writes about the implications of AI and biotech convergence it carries real authority. Scary in places, essential in others.

Habit tweaking #

I've been getting more deliberate about tracking my Greek language learning this quarter. What started as a Google Sheet evolved into a Numbers spreadsheet with some Apple Intelligence shortcuts bolted on. I swapped out a ChatGPT call (which was parsing screenshots) for a local model instead, which feels cleaner. The payoff is being able to see granular accuracy trends that Duolingo only shows you after a long session - genuinely useful for spotting where you're slipping.

On the content creation front, I'm deep into a #Threads100 challenge, using Blacktwist to schedule daily posts. I'm on the home stretch now. It's less about the engagement numbers and more about rebuilding the habit, getting back into the rhythm I had on Twitter. I've also been syndicating selectively to Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn via Buffer. Worth a special mention for Blacktwist itself - it's a great example of vibe coding a real-world app in public, and it's been genuinely inspiring to watch it take shape whilst using it as part of my daily routine. Exactly the kind of thing that makes the current AI development moment so exciting.

Fitness - Q1 2026 vs Q4 2025 #

Q4 2025 breakdown #

December was almost a complete write-off due to an ankle injury - Q1 was essentially recovery and rebuild, with walking taking over from the elliptical as the primary activity. The Jurassic Coast challenge in May is providing good motivation to keep the momentum going.

Duolingo - Q1 2026 (Feb-Mar) #

Tracking started mid-February. Greek picked up in March ahead of the annual trip to Greece in August - and a potential side mission rebuilding a hotel website. March was a perfect month - zero days missed.

Podcast listening - Castro (Feb-Mar) #

Combined: 70h 16m, 95 episodes. Switched to Castro in February from Fountain - January data unavailable.

On the subject of podcasting, I also posted a YouTube Short in February on Apple going all in with video podcasting and what it could mean for the space. Worth a watch if you're interested in where podcasting is heading: