Lincoln’s not always the biggest fan of new things. We know this, so when we got him a bike as part of his birthday gifts last year, we bought cheap and second hand. ‘If he refuses to use it, it’s not the end of the world’, we thought.

Sure enough, he was a bit suspicious of it. He agreed to come out and try and learn with me within a few days though, and did pretty good. Not fully cycling on his own, certainly not confident on it, but pretty good as first attempts go. ‘Maybe he’ll like it after all then?’, we thought. That was 4 months ago. He’s not been on it since, and not through a lack of offering and trying to convince him.

So today, when our daughter Lyra asked him if he wanted to play out on the bikes my inner monologue said, ‘no chance kiddo, sorry’. But then Link surprised us. Not only did he okay the idea, but he got his trainers and helmet on, and rolled out the bike without complaint.

I waited inside, fully expecting them to be back within 30 seconds. Sure enough, within the time it took to turn on the coffee machine, my wife — about to drive to the supermarket — calls from outside. My eyes roll. But before I can muster a, ‘what’s gone wrong?’, she said, “you might want to come and see this”. Through force of will, personality, or some unknown black magic, Lyra’s not only got Lincoln to get on the bike and accept her instruction. BUT HE’S CYCLING UP AND DOWN THE ROAD UNAIDED. On his second time ever on a bike without stabilisers. Within literally minutes. I don’t know how she did it. I don’t know how he did it. I do know kids are full of surprises, and you should never, ever, write them off at anything.

Apple TV+; hit after hit after hit. Snappy, well written, well shot and very very funny. It might be my new favourite thing on TV, and I’m only 2 episodes in. Can it sustain the momentum? I guess we’ll have to wait and see eh? But it’s the rare sort of show that would’ve had young me scrambling to download the episode as soon as it aired back in the HBO Golden Era. Now I’m old and can afford TV subscriptions. But still, S01E03 - gimme.

I know, I know. It looks like another cheap Channel 4 comedy — It's even got the man with the world's most annoying laugh, Jimmy Carr, hosting. But trust me, any show with Richard Ayoade and Bob Mortimer is a must watch. Basic premise, 10 comedians are locked in a room with each other and have to try to make each other laugh — the catch? They're not allowed to laugh. 1 laugh is a yellow card, 2 and you're out. Turns out, watching genuinely funny people trying not to laugh at other genuinely funny people is, well, genuinely funny.

It's on Amazon Prime. Have at.

Last week, I was a speaker at Process Events at The Attic, right here in Leeds, on behalf of Robot Food.. Thanks to Frazer Sparham for having me ramble on about who we are and why we do what we do, The Robot Food gang for coming out in force to support, and everyone for their friendly faces, time, and questions.

Covid was devastating for community events like these in Leeds, so it's great to see them coming back and better then ever.

I said at the start of my talk; but we've (Robot Food) been notoriously crap at speaking about ourselves in public over the last 10 years or so. We've let the work do the talking, and we've never really lifted the curtain much on the people, and our way of working. We'd like to change that going forward – as a community our shared knowledge and experiences lifts us all up and makes us all better, if we can be a small part of that then we're up for the challenge. If you do want to hear more from me, or any of the much more eloquent gang at Robot Food, feel free to slide into the DMs or drop me an email.