iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 22h

French theatre seat numbering… always confusing, but what else to expect from the 4x20+xx nation!

Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 10/10/2026

^^ Related. Wondering what a good retirement looks like? I think I thrive on some kind of structure/rhythm. I need a project to get absorbed in, but where the hell to start? I’ve always thought I’m tone deaf, but maybe it’s just a muscle to develop, so learn to play the piano 🤷‍♀️

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 10/10/2026

I spent the day sorting out the garden before winter kicks in… and wondering just how much more gardening I might do when I finally retire in a couple of year? I think I might want a *high-maintenance* garden.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 10/10/2026

oh god, totally transported back to watching that series!

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 09/10/2026

I know a bit about counting beans after all these years. QB, Sage, Xero… they do all work. But fwiw, I’ve been very happy to send xero my hard earned €€/££ every month, for last 15 years or so. Nothing comes close. YMMV of course.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 09/10/2026

Just cut the cord FFS. You’ve been hating on QB for years. It’s software not a marriage.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 09/10/2026

Bring. It. On… we have snow up top!

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 07/10/2026

Also a content designer would have a field day fixing a templated letter I just received. I’m moderately good at admin and numbers, but am left none the wiser as to what action I need to take. So I’ve picked up the phone, which I’m guessing is HMRC’s least preferred channel for contact.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 07/10/2026

The process for paying voluntary NICs from abroad has been a proper eye-opener about how much digital transformation is left to do in govt. I mean, I know it’s a relative edge case, but here I am, writing a cheque and a covering letter and putting it in the post.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 05/10/2026

yeah, I think this might. be a pattern!

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 05/10/2026

oof. yes, a wide berth is a good idea I reckon.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 05/10/2026

this is the story of my life… I generally understand perfectly well what’s going on around me. But my ability to express myself lacks any sort of nuance!

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 05/10/2026

interesting around us, the lycéens are either studying at home or locked down in the school… a demo here started with kids and cardboard signs demanding installation of clim, but they soon became intimidated by older-left-anarchist-esque young adults coming in from out of town, and so they stopped.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 05/10/2026

I take some solace I guess, that I don’t live there any more, and am unlikely to again. But then I remember that the French elections are just around the corner… 🤯

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 05/10/2026

FB served me up a dose of far-right chat from Southampton, my home town. Shedloads of bots baiting young men to “defend their women”. I try to limit the space in my head that this stuff gets, or it will drive me mad (quite literally I fear, the heart rate and anxiety uplift is palpable).

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 02/10/2026

oh I’m so sorry to hear that news. I have vicariously enjoyed his presence via your pictures over the years. He looked a magnificent, contented boy with *the* most wonderful snout. Sending you all my kind thoughts - our four-legged friends leave such a hole in our lives when they pass. 😢

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 02/10/2026

Today I had a 🇫🇷 exam: discovered a hole in my idiomatic vocab. Apparently you get red in the face like a 🍅 whereas I guessed 🍒. Learning this language feels like a never ending maze; and today I’m feeling claustrophobic within it. But as my old mum would say, this too shall pass.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026

Today’s funeral was a wonderful uplifting celebration of a good life, well lived. Our friend Colin certainly packed in family, work and adventures. Inspirational, tinged with sadness that he’s gone too soon. Much to reflect on, in how we spend our next (we hope) decade or two.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 26/09/2026

Well another week on a 🚴 in a new part of 🇫🇷. Correze is a veritable treat, empty roads, beautiful villages, and wonderful food.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 23/09/2026

I think we only met in person a few times, but he always struck me as a kind and supportive presence for many finding their way in those early “digital” years.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 22/09/2026

Today I am mostly channelling the late David Pearson’s wisdom: Your lack of forward planning is not my emergency.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 16/09/2026

true true. My sense is that benign probably doesn’t endure. But jeez, the governance overhead of scaling (in all the many different governance forms I’ve encountered) is galling. Am now noodling on maybe the problem lie in the scaling itself (am reminded of Goretex and centurions) 🤷‍♀️

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 15/09/2026

Wondering if there are any good longitudinal studies on the cost and efficacy of different governance structures? Personally I’m a fan of a benign dictatorship. Curious to see if/how that actually pans out at scale.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 06/09/2026

cycling in Germany. None too shabby…

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 02/09/2026

Yesterday I learned an old friend died on Saturday, just month after receiving a cancer diagnosis. It’s been a timely reminder to crack on with living today, as our tomorrows aren’t guaranteed.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 01/09/2026

That book was my gateway drug to the rest… he is absolutely my go-to author, of some years standing. Just the right balance of plot & character development for me, with a dollop of seriousness but not too much “literary bollocks”. I love some more than others, but not found a dud yet!

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 30/08/2026

Introduce yourself with 10 acts you’ve seen live Scissor Sisters Dirty Vegas Faithless Toumani Diabate Tinawiren Pink Floyd David Gray Little Feat & Bonnie Raitt The Pogues Jethro Tull

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 30/08/2026

Writing a list of things we need to do before the the ski season - our counter-cycle life 🤯. Stabilise garden gravel, install ceiling curtain tracks, buy new curtains, deep clean gym, install EV charger, stockpile de-icing salt, repaint ceiling, replace veneer on window trim, sand+seal table…

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 29/08/2026

MY oh my. What comes around goes around.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 16/08/2026

Usually I loathe impromptu signs taped to a window, but I’ll make an exception for these…

A building with big wall signage saying “Spare Bank” and “Andalsnes Avis”

A small handwritten sign saying

THIS IS A NEWSPAPER!
WE DON'T HAVE CASH
WE DON'T HAVE RENTAL CARS

a small typed sign saying

Dear tourists
Andalsnes Avis is a newspaper.
For car rental please call
Avis: 0047 932 12 401
(or walk to Grand Hotel Bellevue-just around the corner)
Have a nice day

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 15/08/2026

kinda niche I know, but I do like a good public transport based holiday.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 15/08/2026

Also, the buses are *amazing* if a little €€ for short journeys out in the sticks. But we’ve been able to do a 2 hour scenic fjord-side route from our home exchange house to our next hotel, booked and paid online, comfy coach with seat-chargers and an onboard loo for €20! #norway

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 15/08/2026

Norway. Surprisingly well served by Thai restaurants. Which suits me just fine, as they all seem to offer the right level of 🌶️🌶️🌶️ .

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 12/08/2026

And as I listen to VtM in Norway, I’m smiling at the memory of my fave Norwegian, and what a great time we had with JP et al seeing him at Royal Albert Hall. Dearest @TheArly (in the other place) you are much missed, and warmly remembered.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 12/08/2026

listening to Astral Weeks. God it’s good isn’t it? Immediately transports me back to the first time I heard it (I came to it late, probably 2008 ish).

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 04/08/2026

Just finished Half Man on Amazon Prime. What a gut punch of a drama. Not for the faint hearted, but full of twists and turns. Genius.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 02/08/2026

I wish you bon courage with it - never easy!

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 02/08/2026

it’s such a tough one. I fundamentally believe we’d all have been better off with some more honest convos, twenty years ago. Alas twenty years ago I probably wasn’t in the right headspace for it, and now it’s too much to impose on others!

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 02/08/2026

100% this. I am (finally) learning to bite my lip and let it go for the sake of my old mums final years! Younger me fought it tooth and nail. There is a thesis to be written on inter generational trauma from WW2 (and before) I’m sure.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 02/08/2026

On the train headed home. Jeez families are complicated aren’t they? Not arguing with the rose-tinted spectacles and re-writing of history is my own personal nemesis.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 02/08/2026

I am a walking stereotype… it’s always referred to as the Gruaniad chez-nous!

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 31/07/2026

Another day, another flight flight delay, another airport breakfast. Le sigh.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 29/07/2026

I am covetous of your apple and pear trees… we have one old gnarly crabapple tree that really need grubbing out to make room for other stuff. But high hopes for the peach tree as long as we survive the summer without a hailstorm this year!

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 29/07/2026

We’re down to one plant… first the crazy rain and slug attacks, and then the canicule, but it is delivering up three a week which is about right for the two of us!

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 29/07/2026

IKR, high quality problem to have!

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 29/07/2026

true true. how’s the rest of the garden fairing? We have a lot of bean leaf and flowers, but as yet, not really many beans. I’m impatient!

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 29/07/2026

It’s making a nice change for us, last year we had some tiny gherkin-sized cukes that were a bit average, and not so many of ‘em.

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Jayne Hilditch @jayne.eurosky.social · 29/07/2026

oh rotten luck. Ours are romping away despite the benign neglect… no pruning or tie-ing in, and yet still the come 😂

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