Mingo.Life

As 2024 staggers to a close, carrying the same air of disappointment as a box of post-Christmas Quality Street that’s just got the blue ones left, I sit here on my sofa staring at the Christmas tree lights—those tiny, smug little LEDs—and wonder how many of you are itching to see the back of this year. I firmly feel that I’m not alone in counting down the days until we can shove this comedy of errors into a dusty box labelled “Do Not Open.” Surely, 2025 has to be better, right? It’s got that nice, stable vibe. A round, dependable number. A solid quarter of a century into the new millennia. Plus, it’s far enough removed now from 2019, 2020, and the unholy COVID fever dream years that followed—a blur so chaotic that even my Netflix algorithm still thinks I’m stress-watching pandemic documentaries.

“Why not write a painfully cliché, yet somehow hilarious and heart-warming, year in review?” said no one. And yet, here I am, doing it anyway because, well, why not? If my words light up the neural pathways of amusement in just one reader, friend, or family member, then it’ll be worth doing.

This isn’t about revisiting this blog’s humble beginnings, of course (though fun fact: we launched in July 2024, wrote 10 articles thus far, and have managed a decent 1,991 unique views—at time of writing. Awesome, and just a smidge under book deal numbers. Definitely). No, this is about celebrating the fact that we’ve all survived another year, which, let’s face it, deserves a standing ovation for simply not being 2020-level chaotic anymore.

Every year, I keep a small leather-bound diary that I scribble in most days. No, not the “Dear Diary, Joe didn’t invite me to his birthday party” kind, but a daily good things diary. It’s my secret weapon for staying sane—a mental well-being strategy I started when I was at my lowest a few years back. Even though I’m now in a much better headspace, I’ve kept the habit alive, and I fully encourage anyone reading this to give it a try.

The concept is beautifully simple: at the end of each day, you jot down three good things that happened that day. They don’t have to be life-changing epiphanies. “Had a decent coffee” totally counts. But for me, the entries often lean toward the more obscure. It’s a habit that forces you to pause, reflect, and find the silver linings—or, more accurately in my case, to document the bizarre, heart-warming, or downright ridiculous moments that make life interesting.

I encourage you, dear reader, to tell me 3 good things that happened to you this year. You’ve got a whole year to reflect on, you must be able to give me something. I want to hear your story. Pop them in the comments box below this post.

So, I thought I’d crack open this dusty leather tome immortalising my memories as a thirty something parent of two and see what treasures await inside. Of course, it’s a very private and personal thing intended solely for my own consumption – so why wouldn’t I share it publicly with the anonymous collective on the internet? It’s not like I’ve written on the first page; “PRIVATE: No seriously, once you read it, you can’t unsee this stuff. Just don’t. For your own sanity. Put the book down. Thank you.”

When I originally wrote this article, I entitled it “Goodbye 2024: You Sucked,” but by the end of writing, I changed the title to its current iteration. Because really, things aren’t that bad when you take a minute to breathe and reflect. Even if you’re like me and you had surgery, entirely burned out to just a shell of your former self, went on a crap holiday to recover, and your face hurts every day.

There are still so many moments of joy amongst the chaos, and one big one for our little clan this past year. I figured I would provide some highlights of the first 6 months here, and then I’ll welcome in 2025 with a suspicious side glance as I hold the door slightly open for it, and recount July-December in Part 2! Who knows, I might even make it an annual tradition. Like a round-robin family letter but slightly less awkward.

Don’t forget to check out our “Buy Us a Coffee” link. All support is gratefully received and goes to either keeping this site running, or genuinely buying Emma a Coffee and 5 minutes to herself. So without further delay…

JANUARY
Sponsored by Krispy Kreme.*

January 1st: HAPPY NEW YEAR! I was due up at 5am for work, so I grumpily woke up to see in midnight and watch some fireworks out the window before turning in again. My next update comes on January 4th and simply reads, “Couldn’t write for 4 days. Drilled a hole in my hand.” Yes, dear reader. I drilled a frickin’ hole in my own hand. I was up late one night trying to build a crib for our second child, who was very much eagerly on the way. Suffice to say, me and the power drill had a falling out. It didn’t help that my father took great delight in reminding me that I didn’t need to use a power-drill for the kind of gentle DIY required to build a baby crib. Yes, I did. Because POWER. Fellow dull men will understand, but I’ll never live this down.

January 7th: Ate a Krispy Kreme at work. Good day today.
January 9th: Poppy and I built a shoe bench for the hallway. She insisted on “helping” me by picking up small bits of wood and slapping them with her toy hammer whenever I hammered in nails on the main piece of furniture. Helping! Very cute.
January 10th: Got twelve Krispy Kreme’s as a Christmas present. Immediately ate 3 of them. Power move. Any judgment is invalid.
January 13th: Emma and I saw Bring Me The Horizon and Bad Omens at Arena Birmingham. What a show. A metal gig, while 30 weeks pregnant, is a badge of honour. Seated or not, Emma gets serious points for rocking out with a baby on board. That kid is going to enter the world to a shredding guitar solo.

January 17th: On this day, I discovered the “wonky veg box” concept at Lidl. An absolute cost-of-living game changer. £1.50 for a bunch of unwanted, allegedly mis-shaped yet delicious fresh food. Now I’m making it a habit to swing by after my night shifts and grab me a treasure chest packed full of rejected vegetables and questionable life choices. It’s like playing produce roulette: one day, you’re drowning in oddly bent carrots, the next, it’s a zucchini with what can only be described as “personality.”
And the avocado. Always the avocado. Is it ripe? Is it rock solid? Will it sit on your counter for three weeks before deciding to spoil overnight? Who knows? That’s the beauty of the wonky box—it keeps you humble.
Still, at £1.50, it’s a glorious bargain.

January 19th: Quite a big day for me, I was officially promoted at work! After over a year of doing the job anyway, it’s nice to secure it properly and move on.
Also, on January 19th: This genuinely shocked me… Had my first Creme Egg of the year. They were already on sale since before New Year’s Eve, as the supermarkets barely wait for you to choke on the last piece of Turkey before ramming Easter down your commercially thirsty throat.

January 28th: 32 weeks pregnant. Midwife appointment today. I heard our little baby’s heartbeat, and it is strong! Poppy came along and sat on the floor of the clinic, copying the heartbeat sound by bashing her plastic cup on the floor rhythmically. Emma cried. I cried. The midwife cried. The plastic cup cried. It was a beautiful day.

January 29th: Every time I get my haircut, I write in the book, “Got ma’ haircut, I’m a cheeky boy,” mimicking a sketch by Australian Comedy Trio ‘Aunty Donna’. For a man with so little hair, it’s surprising how many times I felt the need to visit the money lau-, the barber shop.

January 31st: Poppy saw a spider running across the living room floor and watched it intensely, giggling as it ran toward me with murderous abandon. My child is Satan.

FEBRUARY
It’s all about family.

Mercifully the shortest month of the year, interspersed with a vomit inducing hallmark holiday. February is a month that can’t decide how many days it wants to have.

February 1st: We gratefully received some equipment in the home for Poppy. Whenever I have those fleeting “grass is greener” thoughts about moving elsewhere, be it in or out of this country, I have to remember the incredible support network built up around our special little girl where we live. We took delivery of a fancy new chair all the way from Germany, which is absolutely perfect to help us progress meal times with her. We also had a radiator cover installed, effectively giving us a lovely mantlepiece and allowing me to make a safe little den for the girls in the corner of the living room. Very homely, very nice.

Monday, February 5th: Week 33 of pregnancy, this is officially going better than Poppy, who had already been born by this point. Apparently, the baby is the size of a pineapple? With a new sofa and new chairs for Poppy, we tried to sell our old “cuddle chair” and create some space in the house, but it had sat in the garage unsold for months and gotten mouldy. So, we dismantled it. With an axe. I have never seen Emma so violently attack furniture with an axe before, and I don’t know whether to be scared or excited. I might add that she was still pregnant at the time. Do not piss off a pregnant woman.

February 7th: Braxton Hicks.
February 9th: The daffodils have emerged. Spring is coming!
February 10th: Week 34. The baby is the size of a cantaloupe melon. Who wrote this?
February 11th: More Braxton Hicks.
February 19th: Week 35. This week, she’s the size of a honeydew melon. Really focused on the melons here.

February 22nd: Poppy had an MRI scan on her brain under general anaesthetic. This is one of those moments as a parent they don’t prepare you for. I did NOT like seeing her being “put under” as her arms and legs involuntarily spasmed. Even writing about it now, almost a year later, fills my mind with unwanted visuals. She was so small and helpless as her body violently lurched when the sedation took effect. I was told it was normal. It did not look normal.
The kind nurses escorted me out of the room whilst they intubated her, and I burst into tears. An anxious hour of waiting later, and I was called to her side as she groggily woke up. She was such a trooper. We later found out that her brain is doing well and shows no signs of anything serious. It means we still await a formal diagnosis, but it rules out a whole host of life limiting conditions. She had brain damage at birth, and now it’s totally gone. The sense of relief was welcome, yet exhausting. And breathe…

February 24th: Week 36. The baby is the size of, wait for it, a romaine lettuce. This is genuinely from the NHS website. I’m not making it up.

February 25th: Poppy was diagnosed today with Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder, so she started new medication to help her with bedtime. It turns out to be amazing and regulates her life into a routine. She finally gets a proper sleep every night. This is a big turning point in the Mingo Family life.

February 28th: Emma has had a stitch in place to kind of keep the baby in as long as possible… It bloody well worked. Today, it was removed. There was no immediate arrival of the baby, so we went home, ate pulled pork, and watched Oppenheimer together. I didn’t like it. The film, not the food. Any meat-eating human who doesn’t like pulled pork needs to have a serious word with themselves.

February 29th: There was a February 29th this year. Baby Evie did not put in an appearance on the labour ward. If she had, she would have been a ‘leapling’ baby, which sounds amazing, like a high fantasy creature of some sort.

MARCH
Introducing: Baby Evelyn.

March 1st. Week 37! This week’s weird fruit analogy is… The length of a leek (according to the NHS), or the size of a Canary Melon (according to some American healthcare websites). Can we stop comparing unborn babies to melons please. It’s getting weird. Anyway, week 37 means baby Evelyn is medically considered full term at this point! We honestly never thought we’d make it this far after everything that happened with Poppy.

March 2nd: Watched the Spongebob Squarepants movie with Poppy. I’m not quite sure why I did that. Then, later that night, Emma and I rounded out the day with the Barbie film to officially complete the Barbenheimer craze (remember that?). I can’t help but agree that Barbie with nukes would’ve added a certain… je ne sais quoi. Imagine: Malibu Dream House vaporized in a pink mushroom cloud while Barbie smirks and adjusts her heels. “Come on, Barbie, let’s go annihilate.”

March 4th: I had a wobble. The baby was due any day now, and I just wasn’t cut out for this. How could I be what Emma needed me to be? Things with Poppy were so hard to deal with. How could either of us possibly do that again? What strength do we have left to give?
My friend Joe listened to my troubles and sent me a message the next day. I saved it.
“You are the most mentally resilient person I know. You can handle these things like an absolute champion. When you talk about these things to me, it’s like the bumps in your road are mere specks of dust, whereas to anyone else (including myself), they would become an enormous fissure like driving in the middle of an earthquake. I know you got this.”
I needed that, because…

March 6th: At 04:37am, weighing just 4lbs 15oz (2.250kg), baby Evelyn was born.

Of course, it wasn’t as straightforward as that. But that’s a story for another time.

March 21st: Poppy got her wheelchair today. Instantly figured out how it works. She’s such a clever girl!
March 22nd: Bought some solar lights from the middle-of-Lidl. They were shit.
March 28th: Night time is hard with a newborn. I miss sleep. However, we did have a few visitors over the last few days bringing gifts of food, clothes for the baby, and little toys so that Poppy isn’t left out. And we finally saw the bottom of the laundry basket.

March 29th: Took our old car to be deep cleaned. Had a full English & a lovely coffee whilst I waited. Then the exhaust fell off on the way home. Brilliant.

APRIL
Do you remember what life was like a year ago today?

April 8th: Went back to work today, despite the anxiety and sleep deprivation. I immediately then took another week off to spend with the baby and help Emma. 2 weeks paternity leave is laughable, and some men don’t even take both. They can’t afford to.

April 10th: Came across a very relevant quote. Wrote it in the book.
“Life is a collection of experiences. We often focus on the negatives at the expense of the positives. We’re predisposed to threats.”

April 11th: The new Fallout TV show is rather good, isn’t it.
April 12th: Baby’s first smile! I was giving her a bedtime bottle, and I got an unexpected flash of a grin. Emma didn’t believe me. Poppy then wanted to climb all over me and was roaring with laughter. Today, I felt like a wealthy man.

April 13th: Celebrating my birthday this weekend. Emma made me the most epic cake ever. A God of War themed chocolate cake, complete with an axe and chains made from icing. A true Greek labour of love. Kratos himself would have been proud of her tireless efforts.
She also made us a simply mind-blowing 4 course dinner; French Onion Soup, followed by Wings with Blue Cheese Sauce, a main of Duck served with Whiskey Passionfruit something and finally, the aforementioned cake (with cream).
I promise I do things that aren’t eating.**

April 22nd: They say good things come in threes. Poppy no longer needs special prescribed milk, and can move onto big girl food. Evie slept through the night for the first time, and the sun came out today. It was actually, dare I say it, warm? Felt pretty content about all that.

MAY
“To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.” –  Leonard Bernstein

May 2nd: Well, the parental leave and the training courses are all over. It was back to the day job. The insufferable daily grind. Fortunately, and here’s another little life hack for you, I always have something booked in the calendar to look forward to. I discovered an app called “Days Until” and set up some countdowns to remind me that life is not that shit.

May 9th: It lasted the briefest of seconds. A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment. But, it still counts. Poppy stood up. There was a day we thought she would never, ever be able to do this, but Poppy stood up. Sure, it lasted about 1.3 seconds, and she immediately tumbled, and I was there to catch her, but heck, I am one proud Dad. There’s promise and hope for her future yet.

May 16th: The house got surveyed. (This happened a few more times and cost us a lot of money owing to the sheer incompetence of others).
May 17th: Planning our extension project. New bedroom. Extended dining space. Felt a bit like that man off the telly, Kevin the Cloud or something. Making things happen.

May 25th: Poppy kept copying the Donkey Sanctuary advert when it rudely interrupted her cartoons on Youtube (about once every 2 minutes for those of you who know). We had a whole week of “hee-haw noises.” So, I caved. I took her to the actual Donkey Sanctuary. Most effective advertisement campaign ever?

May 31st: Emma & I were afforded a couple of days to breathe. We booked a little log cabin in Cornwall and the kids spent some time with their grandparents. We had dreams of cooking over the fire, consuming delicious wines and cheeses, making a dent on our pile of un-played board games. Dear reader, we fell asleep. We slept the Odin sleep. We woke up, and then we slept some more. It was glorious.
I did eventually cook a steak, soaked gently in some ‘Aberlour’ 12 year old whisky and then flambeed over an open fire to seal in that flavour. I did a thing!
We also discovered Snowdonia Cheese Company and their ‘Rockstar Cheddar’. Heaven.

JUNE
From a cartoon dog to angry Germans with flame-throwers.

June 1st. We went to see Bluey’s Big Play! Not sure if it was more for the kids, or the adults. Surprisingly, Poppy & Evie were absolutely absorbed by the show. Adorable.
June 4th: Got ma’ hair cut, I’m a cheeky boy. (Tally: 3)
June 5th: Heard a neighbour mowing their lawn. Lawn envy kick in. Mowed my lawn. Later heard neighbour further along also mowing their lawn. Feel like we’ve just silently played lawn mowing dominoes down our street. This is possibly just a British thing.
June 14th: … We needed that rain.

June 23rd: We travelled to Dublin to see Rammstein! We had ‘Feuerzone’ tickets, which meant we were close to the action (Rammstein use a LOT of pyrotechnics). Note: It is pronounced Fire Zone and NOT Fuhrer Zone as the public address system announcer very unfortunately called it.
I had a Guiness in Ireland. It was shit.

June 24th: A walk around Dublin town before our flight home, wondering if this counts an ‘Extreme Day Trip’ (look them up, it’s a thing). We found the Dublin to New York portal. I played imaginary catch with some kid walking past. At a distance of 3,177.98 miles, that has to be the longest I’ve ever pretended to throw a ball.

And just like that, we’re halfway through the year already.
In early 2024, life was a whirlwind of chaos and small victories. January was a blend of dodgy DIY and heavy metal, sometimes both at the same time. By February, the stress of Poppy’s MRI had me in tears, but she’s doing well now, and so is Evelyn, who arrived in March at a tiny 4lbs 15oz, bringing both joy and sleep deprivation. April was a blur of existential crises, but I survived with pulled pork and a God of War cake. In May, Poppy stood for the first time, and in June, we attended a Rammstein gig in Dublin, where I nearly lost my eyebrows to pyrotechnics. Parenting, work, and questionable choices in food and entertainment—nothing sums up the first half of our 2024 better.
Things seemed pretty good by the time July rolled around, but would they stay that way? No. No, they would not.
Part 2 is coming shortly, featuring a veritable cavalcade of calamity. You can pop your email in the subscribe box if you want to receive the blog directly to your inbox before anyone else.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Mingo family.
Thanks for reading.

*Not really sponsored by Krispy Kreme, as if we live in a world where I have to explain sarcasm in the foot notes in case anyone gets offended or thinks I’m getting free doughnuts. Although, feel free to send free doughnuts.

**Like making you read an absolutely pointless footnote.