Happy Friday! This week I made a concerted effort to look for links for this post during the week.

There’s nothing ‘great’ about this new British Railways revamp

How quickly Boris Johnson’s triumph has given way to doubt and instability

Blaming the unvaccinated for Covid’s spread won’t help stop the virus

Don’t Take the Narrow View of What’s Happening in Gaza

It’s pretty clear where I stand on the Israeli/Palestinian issue but this is worth watching

‘Bearing the brunt’: the suffering of children in the Gaza-Israel conflict – photo essay

You Can Only Maintain So Many Close Friendships. I’m really low across all those numbers because I’m fundamentally anti-social..

Tact & Tactics: Meet The Leading Women Diplomats Representing Britain Abroad. This came from my friend Jo, who is a diplomat and says that everyone wants to be Karen Pierce when they grow up!

‘She has a skill you can’t buy’: the making of Chelsea’s Emma Hayes. There has been a lot said about the Chelsea Men’s team but the Chelsea Women’s team has had an amazing season too. Even though last weekend went wonky for both teams…

Why We Speak More Weirdly at Home. This is lovely and so true. In our family we have nicknames and lots of weird words and saying. For example, I’ll answer to my actual name and two others. My brother is often Bungy, we call my sister in law ‘Lu’, we had thought that it was a nickname but it was about a year into knowing in her we realised that my brother invented it. In fact nicknames are our thing, I call my goddaughter “Tabs” but I’m pretty sure I’m the only person that does, Ma and I talk about ‘the boy’ which often means Ben but sometimes the youngest nephew. At Easter, we eat ‘cross H buns’ because I couldn’t get the sequence of words and say Hot Cross Buns. There are others but they are all peculiar to our family and I bet you have them too.