Day: 19 July 2026

Weeknotes #182: graduations, glasses and glory

Celebrations, socials, sport and cabaret.

Week commencing Monday, 13 July 2026

A wide-angle view inside London Stadium during the Novuna London Athletics Meet, showing the packed stands, the running track and infield with athletes preparing for a field event, all beneath the stadium's distinctive open roof structure against a blue sky.
Packed stands greet athletes at London Stadium’s summer meet.

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move 6/7. (76%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 53,796; 22.9 hours in meetings.

Life

  • Monday, a drink and a bite to eat at The Leather Bottle, which I was delighted to do given I’d not left the house all day. PY had some good news, so we had another glass.
  • Proud godparents on Tuesday, as K graduated from Cardiff with an amazing degree. Seems like I know some smart people.
  • My pension adviser reckons I might live to 83. Now we’re trying to figure out when the money might run out. So, still working.
  • Drinks on Wednesday were meant to try and avoid the World Cup. We failed and got quite into it.
  • Lovely work social on Thursday. I may have gatecrashed the social committee’s post-event drinks, mainly because I didn’t clock that they were doing it.
  • Relatedly, I paid for an Uber that I didn’t take. It took so long to turn up that I hopped in a taxi. I don’t have the energy to argue with them about it.
  • I was there: a spectacular performance by Great Britain’s Josh Kerr, who shattered Hicham El Guerrouj’s 27-year-old world record in the men’s mile at the Novuna London athletics event.
  • Cabaret in the Crypt – The Best of West End Musicals, in St Martin-in-the-Fields’ Crypt café. Great performances, but the backing track made it feel less real.

World Cup Matches

  • Remember, I said this last time about the AI commentator.
  • Wednesday, COMMENTATOR: It was a game of two halves — a cagey, scrappy first period in Atlanta where neither side truly convinced, before Gordon’s thumping 55th-minute finish, set up by Rogers, had England dreaming of a first World Cup final in 60 years, only for Argentina to do what Argentina always seem to do — summon Messi from somewhere deep, watch Fernandez curl in a brilliant long-range effort on 85 minutes, and then, in the cruellest of all stoppage-time twists, see Lautaro Martinez nod home another Messi assist to shatter English hearts once more and send the defending champions through to face Spain in the final.
  • Saturday, COMMENTATOR: It was a game of two halves — extraordinary, barely believable halves at that — as a second-string England side, Kane and Bellingham both left on the bench, tore France to shreds in Miami with Rice scoring inside three minutes, Konsa heading in a second, and Saka running riot to make it 4-0 by the break, before France emerged for the second half a completely different proposition, Mbappé bagging a brace to become the all-time leading World Cup scorer and Barcola and Dembélé adding two more to have England clinging on desperately, until substitute Bellingham settled nerves with a composed finish in stoppage time to seal a quite remarkable 6-4 victory and give England third place — their best World Cup finish since 1966.

Media

A Non-Existent Dream

If we’re not careful, the UK will topple over as the South East of Britain sinks into The Channel under the weight of all the people migrating from other parts of the country.

After last night’s little rant on the state of the London Underground system, I heard about this morning’s nonsense from the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) to start charging commuters more to sit on overcrowded, dirty, late-running trains. I guess the plan reasons that charging higher fares means fewer people will travel by train. Surely, this proves that an integrated transport policy for London’s workers remains a non-existent dream. Ken Livingstone wants to charge people for driving into central London. The SRA wants to charge more for travelling on trains. How are people expected to get to work? The answer is they will still drive and take the train, and it will cost them more – status quo remains. It seems to me that nobody is prepared to do what it takes to sort out transport in the South East. And that still stinks.

So then, I got to thinking about John Prescott’s[John Prescott as Boss of Bosses?] little plan to build more affordable housing in the South East of England (to ease the chronic housing shortage, apparently). Affordable housing implies that this is aimed at people on a lower wage (am I taking a big leap here?). How, exactly, are these people going to get to work in London if train prices rise and roads get tolls? Again, it appears inconsistent and badly thought out. Why not take some of this £4 billion and encourage businesses to move out of the South East to areas with too many houses or less congestion? If we’re not careful, the UK will topple over as the South East of Britain sinks into the Channel under the weight of all the people migrating from other parts of the country.