Day: 23 March 2025

Weeknotes #113: view to the past and the future

NHS visit, theatre, social outings, art, music, and musings.

Week commencing Monday, 17 March 2025

This image shows a public sculpture of a person lying down on a brown, angular plinth or base with vertical ridges. The statue depicts a person with dark, curly hair resting on their back with their head on a stone-like pillow, one hand placed on their chest, and knees bent upward. They're wearing a blue-grey shirt and dark trousers or jeans. The sculpture is "Lying Down" by sculptor Sean Henry, known for creating figurative sculptures of ordinary people in everyday poses, often slightly larger than life-size and placed in public spaces.
“Lying Down” by sculptor Sean Henry

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move 7/7. (86%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 56,671

Life

  • Another nice experience with the NHS. The doctor is very pleasant, which makes the visit less worrisome.
  • Tuesday’s view on the past: a last-minute decision to see Alterations at The National Theatre, a new staging of a 1978 play. Set entirely in the upstairs alterations shop, the characters rush to complete an order, keeping them close – with all that brings – for the duration. The playwright, Michael Abbensetts, was the first Black British writer to have a series commissioned by the BBC. Ambitious Walker, who runs the shop, is complex, driven, and ultimately not likeable. I don’t know how close to the original it is, but it didn’t feel dated. Are the issues of identity and the complexities of Black British life the same today as they were almost 50 years ago?
  • Related, there were many chatty bodies in the audience and people taking photos throughout the single act. I’m not sure if the photographer’s pictures were deleted, but the front-of-house staff were trying.
  • Thursday was a night out to say goodbye to one of our Polish team. Excellent company.
  • Friday’s view to the future: to a performance space near Bethnal Green for Séayoncé: The Oral-cle’s Prophesissy. The Venezuelan food eaten in the early evening was delicious.
  • On Saturday, I saw Sean Henry’s Lying Down. I also watched, via the doorbell camera, the carpenter install a new bit of the door without the need for anybody to be home.
  • I Can’t Dance, Against All Odds, Invisible Touch, One More Night, Easy Lover, Sussudio and In The Air Tonight – a Sunday evening of Genesis and Phil Collins at The Crazy Coqs.

Reflections on Florida

Having enjoyed Florida so much, I wonder how many more times I will go back.

I am back in London now and missing Florida. Last week was very different from many holidays I have taken before because it was so packed with things to do. I tend to prefer the kind of holiday that lets you relax rather than fill the days with more effort than you would usually put in at the office. Orlando, however, was very different. Although the days were filled, it was thoroughly enjoyable and felt like no effort whatsoever. I’ve really found a new love of roller coasters, and it’s awoken a childlike interest in theme parks. I think the enjoyment of the theme parks was the element I was most surprised by. Perhaps all these years of believing I wouldn’t enjoy them meant I found them all the more entertaining. Of course, there was the added fun of six people to holiday with. It’s a time that I won’t forget easily.

What also struck me was that the ‘have a nice day’ mentality/philosophy, which I often find saccharine and insincere in other American cities, was so right in Florida that it made me readdress my thoughts on that whole approach to life. It adds to the whole experience and really proves that just being nice to others can help make somebody else’s day all the brighter.

So, please, have a nice day, and any suggestions of alternative American locations for a holiday would be most welcome.