I’m sat here trying to finish a presentation I’m giving next week on design systems at Front in Zurich. That last 20% is always the most difficult and I’m well into that stage of a conference talk where I’m questioning every word, thought, slide, or statement. I much prefer the crappy first draft phase.

The last month has been a bit of a blur. A trip to Germany to EMBL HQ, then just a few days to get things together before a family holiday to Mallorca. I’ve not been to the island before but would certainly go again. We stayed in the north west little town of Pollença which turned out to be the perfect location for good restaurants, access to some of the best snorkelling on the island, and close to the fabulous cycling the island has to offer. It was hot though. Especially the first week it was tipping 38C every day which takes a bit of getting used to. During the second week, we took a day trip to the picturesque Port de Sóller for a spot of lunch and maybe a snorkel in the bay if time allowed. After a hilarious amount of time driving around trying to find a parking spot (apparently, the town has a ‘parking problem’) we found a delightful spot for lunch right on the beach and spent some time afterwards in the sea. Our trip was cut short by my eldest daughter being stung on the foot by a jellyfish. She’s still in quite some discomfort with it a week later with recurrent boughts of pain, intense itching and swelling. Poor thing.

Our dog, Charlie, spent two weeks with his dog sitters. He goes to them twice a week and seems to enjoy spending some time around some older dogs but he was so out of his routine when he came home I’ve spent the week reasserting my alpha status. It’s pretty exhausting having to constantly set expectations for him, but after a week of consistent rule-setting he’s thankfully settled back down into his normal daft, sociable ways.

It’s nice to be back home for a little while.