2022–2026: the big life update (yes, really)PrologueWelcome back to my own little corner of the internet — and your inbox. I know, I know. It's been a while. Two years, three months, approximately forever. And yes, I also know that when I relaunched this newsletter in November 2022, I had a whole list of things I was planning to write about. A personal update. A professional one. Trips. Tools. Paris life. You've seen this movie before. So instead of dwelling on it: here we are, March 2026, and I'm finally doing the thing. Consider this the update I owe you — compressed, honest, and with a lot of ground to cover.
On where we live nowWhen I wrote to you last, Shana had just commented in the newsletter that she was looking forward to moving into our new place. That comment aged beautifully, because we moved in soon after. We left Montmartre — the 18th arrondissement that had been home since we first landed in Paris in 2019 — and moved into the apartment we'd purchased 'sur plan' back in December 2019. Yes, that means we bought a home based on a floorplan and a small scale replica of the complex, three years before ever setting foot inside it. Pandemic delays, supply chain issues, the Russian invasion of Ukraine — the whole thing took exactly as long as the world took to fall apart and slowly reassemble itself. We're now just outside the city limits, in a new construction. And it has been, slowly but surely, transformed into an actual home. Shana has done an incredible job with that — she has a gift for turning a space into something that reflects who you are, and our home is just that! If you're not already following her work and her newsletter, you should be: she goes deep on interior design, artistry, identity, and what it means to actually build a space that is truly yours.
On becoming parentsThis is the big one, obviously. Our daughter arrived in late November 2023. She's about to turn two and a half. She is a Sagittarius. She is already showing so much kindness, curiosity, and has the most fun personality I think I've ever witnessed in a child. There are things people tell you about parenthood that you nod along to, but don't really understand until you're in it. The love, yes — but also the particular chaos of it, the interrupted sleep, the fact that your previous idea of a "busy day" now seems laughably quaint. We're figuring it out together, the three of us. This past winter, we watched Toy Story 3 together on Christmas Eve, as a family. She was mostly interested in her crackers. I was fully devastated by the themes of losing childhood & growing up, as planned. A couple of weekends ago we had one of those genuinely out-of-time weekends that you wish would never end: chalk drawings in the street, her on the scooter, cycling together through the neighbourhood, cherry blossoms already starting to show, a pastry stop, the kind of moments that you'd want to bottle forever. And then last weekend, a proper trip to Strasbourg with close friends — riverside walks through the half-timbered streets, long walks around town, a saturday brunch, a craft beer watching France win the Six Nations, discovering the cathedral and the old town. She handled the whole thing like a seasoned traveller. We came back very full and very happy.
On turning 35, and the anniversary dinner I owe Shana a mention ofShana & I both turned 35 in February. Unfortunately, we started our celebration week with a cold — which, with a toddler in the house, is essentially a week-long attempt to get back on our feet — but Shana made sure to mark it properly and picked up a box of cookies from one of my favorite places, Puffy, in lieu of a birthday cake. This is 35. I'll take it. A couple of weeks later, we went out for our belated anniversary dinner — nine years together, seven married — at Tram 130, a Viet-French restaurant I'd had my eye on for two years. Worth every month of waiting. The bone marrow was one of the best starters I've had in a long time. The onion tart — sweet, savoury, perfectly balanced —exceptional. The fried chicken reminded me of something from childhood but I can't place what, exactly, I think it boiled down to specific herbs and spices that I grew up with. Matcha crème brûlée and a basque-style cheesecake to end on a sweet note. Chef Priscilla Tram also came out to say hello to the dining room, which was a lovely surprise. If you're in Paris and you haven't been: go.
On workSince I last wrote, I've moved on a bit, professionally speaking. I spent some time working in the sports industry — at the intersection of tech and football, which had been a dream for years. A really interesting chapter blending work & passion. And then, after another freelancing stint for 18 months, I joined a technology company in the Innovation space. I work in a hybrid Customer Success and Account Management role: managing the portfolio of French customers, from the initial onboarding, to adopting new features, all the way to contract renewals and strategic discussions with Innovation VPs. 2025 was a busy year end. I came back from a trip to HQ in Nuremberg, Germany in January — -7°C mornings, Franconian Helles beers, and a lot of debates with colleagues. I usually travel back to HQ for work every quarter, but next month, we'll get to go to the Berlin office instead, which I'm quite excited about.
On sportsLet me tell you about Paris Basketball. After attending a few games, I decided to become a season ticket holder during the 2023-2024 season. We play in the brand-new Adidas Arena —in two leagues: Euroleague (the basketball equivalent to the Champions League, facing the biggest team on the continent) and domestic games in the LNB Elite against other French rivals. When that crowd is fully locked in, the atmosphere is something I struggle to describe to people who haven't been. We had a rough stretch through February and into March: the kind of losses that feel entirely preventable, which somehow makes them worse. Last Thursday we beat ASVEL 90-81 in Euroleague and it felt like a real reset. But then this week we lost against Partizan Belgrade. You win some, you lose some.
Thursday evenings are also sacred in a different way: weekly pickup basketball with friends, going strong for almost three years. And this week I mixed it up — played a football (⚽) evening for once, which doesn't happen often. Scored a goal and got two assists. Not that I'm keeping count. (I am absolutely keeping count.)
On the running front: I barely got out in January between family sickness and broken sleep, but the weather improved over the past weeks — reaching 15°C and sunny on a Tuesday mid-day run — so I was able to get back on the track feeling genuinely good. I (re-)started running regularly last August and made real progress by winter. Starting this year earlier means I'm excited to see where things are by the end of 2026.
On things I've been watching, reading, listening toConcerts. It's been a strong run. Blink-182 reunion in 2023 was exactly what it needed to be. Sum 41 the following year — their final European farewell show, 19 years after my first ever concert; the full-circle feeling on that one was real. John Mayer in 2024, his first ever Paris show, solo and acoustic. Clipse at L'Olympia in November — I'd been waiting years to see Pusha-T live, and then Pharrell Williams walked out for the last song because he lives in Paris now and apparently just does things like that. All Time Low in January was a brilliant way to start the year. And last month I secured J. Cole tickets for his Paris date, which I'm genuinely excited about. Still to come: Billy Talent, Pennywise + The Ataris, A$AP Rocky, Simple Plan. And a Nikki Glaser date night in June, as a surprise date night with Shana. Movies. Finally watched Sinners on New Year’s Eve (the only right way to close out a year). Toy Story 3 on Christmas Eve with the family hit different watching it with a toddler. Recently finished rewatching the Scream franchise ahead of the latest installment ! And next up will probably be One Battle After Another once I find some time. I'm on Letterboxd. Television. Andor remains the best thing in the Star Wars universe and it isn't close. The Bear did what it does to people. Most recently, Slow Horses and The Studio both built up nicely over their first seasons on TV — exactly as advertised. I just finished Drive to Survive (F1 szn baby! 🏎) and am making my way through the latest season of the heartwarming and hilarious Shrinking, with Shana. I log all of these on Trakt. Books. Finished Travis Barker's memoir (Can I Say) — still holds up. Currently reading Why We Love Baseball by Joe Posnanski on my 10-year old Kindle Paperwhite I've somehow had for over ten years. Perfect timing heading into spring. The Storygraph is a great alternative to Goodreads, by the way! European, and NOT Amazon-owned 😉 I'm @iTibz over there. Music. John Mayer is still my all-time number one on Last.fm. Heavy Gorillaz, Bad Bunny, and All Time Low rotation lately, post-concert. The recent runs from A$AP Rocky, J. Cole, Yellowcard — good times for that particular corner of my taste.
On a few things I keep thinking aboutThe question of how to use AI tools well — not for everything, but in the specific places where it genuinely makes you sharper. I've been building agents at work that are paying real dividends. The interesting challenge isn't the capability; it's the judgment about when to deploy it. There is objectively too much content. I manage an RSS reader, Substack, The Athletic, Apple News+, and various other sources, and the curation problem is getting harder, not easier. I don't have a solution. I'm just naming it. And — the one I think about most — creating family traditions with Shana and our daughter. The kind that will stick. The ones she'll carry with her. We're at the age and stage where these things start to matter in a new way. We try to plan a little family trip around Easter together. Another one being celebrating Lunar New Year consistently too.
EpilogueWhat started, as usual, as a "catch-up email" turned into a train-of-thought writing exercise. Some things don't change. The blog is still active at tibz.blog, where I post more regularly in short-form. My /now page is probably the best snapshot of where things stand at any given moment — I try to keep it current and update it every few months. And as always, I don't want this to be one-directional. So: => What is one thing that's changed in your life over the past few years that you didn't see coming? Respond by replying to this email, or leave a comment below. I read everything. See you again soon — hopefully before 2028. —Tibz 👋 The TibzLetter is and will always be free, personal, and ad-free. No agenda, just updates. If this is no longer your thing, no hard feelings — unsubscribe below. |