Day: 26 July 2026

Weeknotes #183: keys, leaks and a book suggestion

Tower traditions, island reassurance, gripping books and cheerful journeys delighted.

Week commencing Monday, 20 July 2026

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 6/7 and Move 7/7. (90%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 55,645. 20.4 hours in meetings.

Life

  • The Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London is a wonderful tradition, and I am glad I got to see it this week.
  • News of another leak in Ryde midweek turned into a nice couple of days on the Isle of Wight, and no real damage was detected.
  • I took the advice of the bookseller in Waterstones on Thursday and bought Alice Feeney’s My Husband’s Wife. I’d finished it by Saturday. Maybe I should ask for advice more often.
  • In the food court that I went to after buying the book, I became transfixed by a man who sat in one of the bar-like spaces, working on a laptop with an attached second screen as though it were his daily place of work. How the entire place wasn’t reading his work is beyond me.
  • On Friday evening, I used the seasonal bar at the FastCat terminal to buy wine for the train. The front carriage was air-conditioned and almost empty.
  • Related, the man across the aisle from me on the train, all tight vest and hair gel, suddenly blurted out the theme from The Archers. It made me smile; his look was not what I expected from an Archers fan.
  • Sunday, an air-conditioned, quiet, central London pub made for a nice afternoon catch-up with friends.

Another New PM

  • We started the week with a new PM. Andy Burnham took over from Sir Keir Starmer at Downing Street after being confirmed as Labour leader last week. The former mayor of Greater Manchester becomes the 59th person to hold the office.
  • Relatedly, three hours after he stepped into No. 10, I was listening to a podcast questioning his legitimacy to be in charge. It’s so depressing: journalists creating a low-level narrative just hours in.
  • Relatedly related, on Tuesday, John Healey was named Chancellor, becoming Burnham’s first Cabinet appointment. Ed Miliband moved from energy to become Foreign Secretary, Wes Streeting — Burnham’s leadership rival before he ruled himself out — was made Defence Secretary, and Angela Rayner returned to government as Housing Secretary after her earlier resignation over her housing-related tax affairs. The ins and the outs are fascinating, but do they change anything?
  • Burnham framed his premiership as a “circuit breaker” for Britain, bringing forward “the biggest changes in the last 40 years”. I guess every PM needs a narrative now, and it better work on TikTok.

Media

  • Maria McErlane on the ’90s, talking about the Loaded magazine staff: “I was always slightly afraid of your mob. And, you know, I’m sure our paths crossed in some of the sort of ’90s bars and clubs. I’m sure, and I remember people saying, ‘Oh, there’s James Brown over there with his cronies.’ And I remember feeling frightened because I didn’t feel that you were very nice to women.”
  • Post-World Cup, why are people discussing commentators’ lip mics? Here’s a history.
  • Finished the current series of the new Bergerac. It was a bit of a step up from the first season, with a decent mystery — a groom killed at a Jersey wedding — but possibly a bit padded in some of the middle episodes.
  • And then another remake was suggested to us. This one is much more absurd: Magnum P.I.. Both versions share the sunny Hawaiian setting and the core premise of a private investigator living on Robin Masters’ estate; the 1980s original and the modern reboot feel different. No thick moustache, and a bit more action, but the reboot remains as pleasingly, comfortably ridiculous as the original.

Pride 2003

For the first time in many, many years, the Pride festival took place in Hyde Park, and I was there.

Well, despite the weather and the somewhat officious woman searching my bag on entry, this year’s Pride in the Park in Hyde Park was fabulous – the best I have been to (probably ever – although my first Pride on Clapham Common was pretty cool too).

After breakfast at a friend’s house, PY and I headed down to Embankment for the parade. This is the first time I’ve ever marched with the crowd, and it was brilliant – the only downside of actually taking part is that you do not get to see it all. In a bid to overcome this, we ran ahead and watched part of the parade (including the fabulous OutEverywhere bus) and then joined in at some point (for a great deal of the time we marched near a float that Josh from a previous Big Brother was prancing about on). The atmosphere was superb, and the crowds watching were huge. Coming up to Piccadilly Circus was just a mass of people – it was quite exciting really.

Then we made the park. We made our way to the main stage and saw Liberty X (who were surprisingly good), Ulta Nate ( who sang a whole stack of songs that I was familiar with) and Blue (who were also very good). Later in the day we caught Tom Robinson and Jimmy Somerville (this after standing on the sidelines singing along to Bananarama – but as nobody has a picture of that, I will deny it at a later date).

At some point in the afternoon – just after it started to rain – we had a wander around the market stalls (which seemed more varied than other times) and had a poke in some of the dance tents (although it’s not really my thing). By late afternoon, the rain was pouring, but spirits were not dampened (and, luckily, for most of the afternoon the ground in Hyde Park held up).

It was an exhausting day, but it was worth it, and it was great to be with a bunch of other homos just having a good time. There will be some pictures in the gallery, eventually.

UPDATE: Other sites: