Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 12hDon't usually do posting about work on here because, more than anything, why the feck would I want to talk about work when I'm not at work? But today, my first ever PhD student submitted their thesis and that's so fucking cool, I think it's worth breaking the no-work-posting habit. 1190
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 27/09/2026I’m really not on here for politics, more than anything because my work is too much “Serious Stuff” and I like somewhere to go where I can be silly and engage in totally unserious stuff but… 160
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Away at a big get-together of my mother-in-law’s family. 20 of them. It’s mad. They all appear to genuinely like each other. Good chat. No one casting up a perceived slight from 30 years ago. Zero chance of a fist fight. Maybe my family are the outliers but this is like being in a Hallmark movie. 170
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026On the plus side, just the sort of win that keeps Sean in a job, eh, Edinburgh pals? #ULSvEDI 3102
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026There’s a world where we never talk about the first 46 minutes again but the playoffs are so tight, there’s another one where they are the difference. With respect to Edinburgh, who deserved the win, no excuses good enough for most of that against a team missing almost 20 players #ULSvEDI 460
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026I like to hope I don’t get too carried away by sport and try to avoid the histrionics often associated with it but that’s the single worst half of rugby I remember seeing Ulster play and I was a fan back when Matt Williams was our coach and Niall O’Connor our starting outhalf… #ULSvEDI 370
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026When it’s a home game, the first night of the season is the closest I get to homesickness. C’mon, Ulsterrrrr! #ULSvEDI 320
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Off on a big extended family weekend. #MrsPferd reading the kids everything there is “Playground; swimming look; go-karts; zip wire,” all met with cheers by the kids, then, “Biergarten,” and #WeePferd goes, “For Papa!” Jeez, that’s eye opening 😂 230
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 23/09/202612 minutes of Big Stu being Big Stu is exactly what I need to whet the appetite on the eve of the new season!youtu.beStuart McCloskey is Built DIFFERENT!YouTube video by Andrew Forde 5113
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Finished up The Faraway Tree with #BabyPferd last night and she's wanting to start in on The Hobbit. Seems today is definitely the right day to do so. 150
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Instead of letting me nap, they convinced me to spend the time making a pumpkin pie because they just know I’m the biggest sucker in the world. Never had pumpkin pie crack like that while setting before but it looks how I feel. 140
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 19/09/2026#MrsPferd blew a knuckle at tennis and spent the night tossing and turning; then #WeePferd came to “snuggle”, which mostly involves kicking me. Properly awake since 5am. Invested long morning in doing a stack on pancakes, mostly in hopes I can leverage it for peace and quiet for a nap, later. 030
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Watched Tommy Tiernan’s “Epic West” there. Some lovely moments and it all looked beautiful but much of it felt self-indulgent to me. And that's a pity. All for personal storytelling of broader themes but I don't think this ever hit that. Much too much about Tommy himself than the west or its people. 110
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Slowly working through the classic Peanuts cartoons and it's so heartening that the #MiniPferds get a kick out of them, too. Probably my age showing but they're so different to contemporary kids' shows that flash and jump all over the place. Gentle pace. Gentle pace. Actual stories. Lovely.static.klipy.comPeanuts Snoopy Wizard ExperimentALT: Peanuts Snoopy Wizard Experiment 020
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Worse ways to bring the curtain down on aubergine season than doing a massive fuck off moussaka! 050
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Nothing captures the excitement of the onset of autumn quite like the five minutes of excitement after finding Federweißer down the supermarket and remembering the taste of Federweißer. 120
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Feck sake, it’s only pre-season and I’m having to break this out already… #ULSvOSP 210
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Our wee tree is still tiny and only seems to produce apples every other year, so we’re lucky if we get more than a dozen every two years but going outside, plucking an apple from the tree and eating it right away never, ever, loses its charm. 060
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Went to Ulster's website to see if they're streaming tonight's game (they are, it's £7.50, more than group stages of Europe cost), and I've just been battered by this hellish marketing gibberish. Good. Grief. Annoyingly, kit is decent, but I can't encourage this nonsense by getting one, can I? 660
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Wee bit of the women’s basketball World Cup to get the blood flowing. C’mon, Germany! 020
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Been tinkering with my wee pizza oven for a couple or years now and while the pizzas have always tastes great, they haven’t always looked the best… Slowly getting there, though. Slowly. 4395
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026#BabyPferd woke up and came in and asked what I was watching and I pretty much have the explanation below and now she’s insisting on watching with me. It’d be wrong to say no but now we’re gonna have to explain all or this to #MrsPferd in 15 minutes or so… 010
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Combat sports do nothing at all for me. Quite the opposite. But you damn well better believe I love women's sports. And it's very cool to see something like this happen in front of 80,000 people. Gonna do what I can to enjoy this (and to try to understand what the hell's going on). 140
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026#Minipferds logic: “We made plum crumble when the plums came off the tree, ergo we must make apple crumble when the apples come off the tree.” Not sure if I’m a sucker, or their logic is faultless. 2140
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly find him any more hateful than I do, there he is openly admitting that he drinks black velvets… 000
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Time to put the autumn foliage on Lego Schloss Neuschwanstein, so. 060
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Diet Tom Scott and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Tom Scott have gone to that Lidl Pub in Belfast and made a video about it and of course I’m bloody going to watch it despite myself. 000
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Nine years married today. Goodness knows how #MrsPferd puts up with me but I'm glad she does. 290
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 31/08/2026I lived in a place too rural to sustain an actual video shop. Instead, a lad with a converted horsebox would come around on a Friday and you could choose what you wanted from his expansive range of about 55 VHS. 250
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Ahhh, jeez, #BabyPferd is started in full on wanting a dog and I'm not sure I'm strong enough to say no. Please, give me your takes of woe and general nightmares of dog ownership, please! 1450
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Midweek plum crumble for no reason other than, for the first time, plums are coming out of the tree faster and in greater quantities than we can simply eat normally. 390
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 24/08/2026On an objective level, Ludwig is a terrible program. Worst kind of 2D TV. But it requires no effort, no input, no concentration from the viewer. Which speaks so well to where are right now, as all our energy goes to herding two tireless kids, that naturally it’s become a favourite thing to watch... 420
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 24/08/2026#MiniPferd's favourite new snack just dropped. Frozen peas. From frozen. Taken individually. Each sucked on like a lollipop. You do what you can, etc... 110
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Fortnight back home is a lovely way to spend a holiday. In many ways, I’m a different version of myself there. Easy to be more relaxed, conversationally, with strangers. Yet always aware of identity and, thus, also more self-censoring than I would prefer. The strange duality of the place, I guess. 1101
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Nice wee surprise returning home to a wee crop of almost-ripe plums in the tree. 110
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Two weeks in Ireland and I didn’t even post a picture of a pint or stout… 180
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 21/08/2026I liked The Economist. Not because I agree with it. I prefer to read something I don’t agree with by default. It was that the editorial line was set by the literature and thus less prone to expedient manipulation. Makes the Acemoglu piece even odder. Takes an editorial position on the field, itself. 110
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 21/08/2026I’m not exactly tech illiterate, yet for the third time in the last few weeks, I’ve had to search how to log out of an app because I couldn’t figure it out and in none of the cases was it in the slightest bit intuitive. A perfect example of the problem of the modern internet. 140
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Lads, since when has biscoff been in *everything* back home? Just had a biscoff rocky road. All wrong. Wrong colour. Wrong taste. Wrong texture. Who’s demanding this? 650
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Major gaps in my travel CV are Greece and anywhere east of India, so one of Athens, Hanoi and Bangkok I reckon. 010
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Alright, the #MiniPferds’ definitive Tayto ranking for our 2026 visit is in. Asked if they prefer the yella or blue: #BabyPferd: “I like both but I could eat more of the yellas.” #WeePferd: “Both!” Sorry, followers, the experts have spoken. 010
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Two minor gripes: 1) Whole day in Donegal and we didn’t see one fairy house in a garden. These people should know better. 120
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Another wee thing knocked-off the list: take the wee ferry from Magilligan over to Donegal. 050
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 19/08/2026The weather, and the associated potential that the #MiniPferds might be disappointed, is the main reason why we tend not to do our visits home in summer. Seems we didn’t need to worry. 140
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 18/08/2026I have the feeling everyone eventually grew up enough and became secure enough to admit Donnie Darko was awful and made no sense so I’m about 15 years out of date by saying Donnie Darko but fuck was it awful and made no sense. 171
Neil Pferd @dasneilpferd.bsky.social · 17/08/2026There’s a wee village up here called Ballybogey and I told the kids today as we drove through that they needed to watch out for the Ballybogeyman and then we saw a Ballybogeyman it was was pandemonium… 170