Day: 14 June 2026

Weeknotes #177: beers, sales and barbecue

Quiet week grows into theatre, reflection, memorial, barbecue, and lunch.

Week commencing Monday, 8 June 2026

A riverside promenade along the Thames at Battersea Power Station, viewed on a partly cloudy summer's day. In the foreground, silvery-white dusty miller plants grow in raised planters beside a stone balustrade. A yellow banner on a lamppost and colourful bunting in red, orange and yellow hang along the walkway, where a few pedestrians stroll. Across the river, the Vauxhall skyline is visible, with modern high-rise residential towers rising against a blue sky scattered with white clouds.
Silver plants frame a sun-dappled Thames, Vauxhall beyond.

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 2/7 and Move 4/7. (%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 42,088. 13 hours in meetings.

Life

  • A quiet start to my week. My diary for Monday and Tuesday features a coffee pot and a plastic bag.
  • But I got out on Wednesday night to meet an ex-boss of mine. We chatted a lot about the product management space at the moment and the relentless pressure to use AI in everything, even if we’re not clear what it will do. There was broad agreement that, in some cases, AI has become a priority for companies, and product teams are being asked to demonstrate usage because leadership wants evidence that the business is becoming more efficient, innovative, and “AI-ready”, even before everyone is clear on where the real value lies. Interesting to get a consensus. A bit deep, but the beer was good.
  • Thursday, to The Old Vic for Glengarry Glen Ross, about desperate Chicago real estate agents trying to survive a brutal sales contest, where the best leads are fought over, and morality is the first thing to go to make a commission. The talking point is the gender switch, where characters written as men are played by women.
  • Related, I thought the gender switch was intriguing, but it mainly made me realise that anyone can be a ruthless salesperson when there’s money on the line.
  • On Friday, we were at a crematorium for a short memorial. It was very nicely done.
  • Saturday, a lovely barbecue in the garden. We got the BBQ out of the cupboard, which means it’s out now until the autumn.
  • The new Battersea Power Station had a wine festival, but we didn’t go for that; instead, we opted for a nice lunch by the river.

Personal Information Management

A little rant about data synchronisation is brewing. This isn’t it.

I have such a long post ‘brewing’ about data that we all need to transport around with us regularly. I have Microsoft Outlook at work, a Palm-powered Treo phone, and a Palm desktop/Mozilla combination at home. I occasionally back up all my data to Yahoo’s organiser (calendar, address, memo). There is no reliable synchronisation tool that handles everything well for me, and this is one of the things that truly frustrates people trying to utilise all this technology. It was one of the reasons I switched to a Palm-powered Treo rather than my old Nokia favourites (at least a good part of the synchronisation works). There are some immovables in the equation: Outlook is in use in my office, and I can’t change that, and I am attached to Windows-based computers. Although I have heard some reports that Apple’s iSync isn’t as great as it’s claimed it is – at least – an option for Mac users. I notice another satisfied user today: Jase and his Sony Ericsson T610. Maybe that post will eventually see the light of day!

Cameraphone Backlash

A little tech news I have found: camera phones are bad, seven-year-old bloggers are getting educated, while the rest of us are supposed to be old and rich.

BBC News has an article on camera phones and a backlash against them. I read it, and the main thing that stood out to me was that I have both of the phones pictured, and I don’t think either of them is good at taking photos. Sad, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, they also have an excellent article on the use of weblogging tools as learning aids for schoolchildren, which I think raises some very interesting ideas for the use of software in education.

Meanwhile, MediaPost links to an article suggesting that bloggers are “older and wealthier than what’s portrayed by their stereotype” [source]. I think we all wish we were wealthier, but to be told I am older than other people is alarming!

Already, it’s mid-June

It gets to the middle of June and I haven’t written that much. I must have been enjoying the sunshine.

It doesn’t feel like last week since I wrote anything here, but it is. Given that May was possibly the most prolific month on Listen To Musak, I think I am subconsciously giving myself a day or two off. The weather has been wonderful for the past couple of weeks, and I’ve been extra busy in the office, so there has been little time to get into the writing spirit.

Interestingly, the vote is in for the Mayor (Ken is back) and the local council elections. The results of the European elections were announced last night, and it seems the new countries didn’t see a very high turnout, which seems odd given their recent arrival in the community. It also seems that a good number of people in the UK wanted to get the message across that they are not happy with plans to take us further into Europe. I think this is sad and wonder if it’s only a shot across Blair’s bow in the mid-term or a sign of something more powerful. The two main parties all lost, and I watch with interest what their reactions to the recent votes will be. Turnout in the UK was up, which was certainly one good thing to come out of last Thursday’s poll.

Of course, the main news pushing Europe to the middle pages is last night’s football defeat at the hands of France, when it looked so certain that we had the game in the bag. Even I could tell there were some silly mistakes in injury time. And then, I woke up this morning to see Ralf Schumacher was disqualified from yesterday’s Canadian Grand Prix, resulting in a podium place for Jenson Button. And then we beat New Zealand at Cricket. I could almost be interested in a summer of sport.

Around The World

curnow.org may be my place on the web, but I am keen to hear from Curnows around the globe.

curnow.org may be my place on the web, but I am keen to hear from Curnows around the globe. If you are a Curnow, why not drop me a note using the comment form below? I would be interested in knowing anything about the history of the family name so please get in touch.

There are many Curnows who have contacted me and, one day, I may start a directory of sites related to the name. If you are interested in that or would like to submit a site then, again, please drop me an email using the form below.

Please forgive me if it takes a little longer than it should to get back to you – I am trying to keep up with my emails, honestly.

[contact-form-7 id=”26454″ title=”Contact form 1″]

Did you know that a quick search on Flickr shows up many more Curnows than you would imagine.