Day: 24 August 2025

Weeknotes #135: jabs, Grease and a sunny beach

Vaccinations, scooters, cinema and sunshine — chaos turns into calm joy.

Week commencing Monday, 18 August 2025

A large cruise ship passes through the Solent waterway with Portsmouth's skyline visible in the background, including the distinctive Spinnaker Tower. The view is captured from Ryde beach at low tide, with wet sand in the foreground and calm blue waters separating the Isle of Wight from the mainland.
Cruise ship passes through the Solent with Portsmouth’s skyline in the background

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 5/7. (76%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 61,979

Life

  • We left it late for travel vaccinations. After finding and completing a form buried on the NHS website, the surgery called, and I got an appointment within 48 hours, receiving the vaccines on Wednesday morning. Still needed to source some privately: Superdrug does travel clinics. Who knew?
  • Then, when attending the clinic on Thursday — chaos: Superdrug had no Yellow Fever jabs and hadn’t contacted me. After a scramble across London, I finally got vaccinated in Earlsfield.
  • Monday brought an interesting call with the insurance company. It was helpful but neither clarified nor reassured me.
  • Tuesday, went to the Grease-themed Secret Cinema in Battersea Park. Clever mix of film and live performance, complete with fairground, Rydell High sets and a live band — easily one of the best immersive events I’ve done.
  • Related, I dressed (almost) appropriately in a white T-shirt and bomber jacket, ate chicken burgers to a ’50s soundtrack and ended the night dancing and singing along to the big numbers in the outdoor finale.
  • Wednesday evening, I opened the fridge door to see what fresh ingredients needed using up. I spoke the list into my phone with one of the AI chatbots open and within seconds had a recipe that turned out to be delicious and stopped food waste. We really are living in the future. Hey Siri, where are my jet-boots?
  • Related, leftovers went into the freezer. I still can’t get labels to stick to the plastic boxes used. Perhaps we’re not so much in the future after all.
  • Thursday, back-to-back meetings all day, including a repeat run-through of an incident fix and a ham sandwich eaten off-camera in yet another planning session.
  • Later, we were lucky to find the Portsmouth train on the platform before it was announced, which meant we grabbed a table seat and tucked into meal-deal dinners en route. By the time of the 21:45 crossing it was dark, but the sea was calm and the sailing pleasant.
  • Up to 10,000 scooterists on The Island for what’s reportedly the world’s biggest scooter rally. We went to The Star for an evening of appropriately themed music.
  • We returned on Saturday night for a different musical vibe, having spent the day walking by the sea.
  • We went back again on Sunday lunchtime for even more chilled-out music. Then, to RT Cafe Grill for lunch, where the spiced tempura lobster and prawn burger was delicious — but at those prices, I shouldn’t have to ask twice for mayonnaise.

Media

Hidden London: Clapham South Deep Level Shelter

Going down 180 steps at Clapham South was hard on the knees, but it was a fascinating glimpse of the London hidden below ground.

Each morning as I walk across the Thames, I look to my left and see the sights of St Paul’s Cathedral, the gherkin and Canary Wharf. It’s an amazing – almost iconic – skyline.  Although radically changed with the modern skyscrapers, can you imagine what it must have been like just over 70 years ago when a hundred or more doodlebugs, or the V-1 flying bombs as they were more officially known, could be filling the sky and you didn’t know what their target was.1

Early in the second world war, London had been bombed by the German Luftwaffe – a period known as The Blitz. In spite of early attempts by the government to lock them, Londoners took shelter in many of the city’s Underground stations. In addition, parts of the Underground were used to store national treasures.  Today it’s on an unused branch line, but in the 1940s Aldwych tube station, that I visited once before, protected artefacts from the British Museum from the damage aerial bombing could inflict.

At the height of the bombing, there were demands from the public for the government to provide more shelters. The government turned to the London transport authorities – who had the technical experience building below ground – to build new shelters. And, even though the bombing raids over London had subsided, a total of 8 deep-level shelters we’re built (although 10 had been commissioned). All the new deep shelters were built near existing tube stations: the unrealised dream being to bring them into service as railways post-war.

The shelters were eventually used for their intended purpose in the latter years of the war when, in June 1944, the flying bombs were sent to attack the city.

Last Sunday, as part of London Transport Museum’s Hidden London series,2 I visited the deep-level shelter at Clapham South. The above-ground pillar box can still be seen just around the corner from the existing tube entrance. The shelter is connected to the station but the walls have long-since been sealed forcing visitors to descend (and return later) via a 180-step spiral staircase. The lift, it appears, either not in working order or no longer fit for public use. It’s not easy on the knees but, somehow, not quite as many steps as it sounds.

Clapham South Deep Level ShelterBelow ground is a fascinating place. Wartime pictures of the shelter show the kind of Blitz-spirited Londoners that only seem to appear on old newsreel films.3 In reality, the space built for almost 8,000 people, must have been cramped, crowded, smelly and – probably – very loud. Even with the welcome addition of the canteen-served jam tarts that were not subject to the ration book, I can’t imagine it was the nicest of places. Admittedly, the feeling of 120 feet of earth above you probably went a long way to making it a sanctuary from the horrors above the ground.

DSCN0755-7The tunnels through which you are escorted on the tour are astonishingly clean & tidy – having been most recently used as a secure archive storage facility – but it’s clear from the remaining bunk beds that life would have been cramped. Row, upon row, of the stacked bunk beds could have given almost 8,000 people safety in the Clapham South shelter; your particular bunk marked on the ticket required to access the shelter. Most people would have to bring their belongings down in to the shelter each time they went; exceptions were made for people whose houses had been destroyed by the war. That’s 180 steps with mattresses and other personal items that you wanted to keep with you.

Post-war, the shelters have been used as a hostel for visitors to the great exhibitions of the Festival of Britain in 1951, places for incoming migrants to stay until they found permanent accommodation or as army barracks. In later years, the Clapham South shelters were the aforementioned storage facility while a nearby tunnel, that you don’t visit, is today used to grow salads under LED lighting.4

Walking across the Thames bridges in the August sunshine is a world away from the realities of wartime in the city: the Hidden London deep-level shelter tour a small, but important, reminder of what people went through and a fascinating insight into the ingenuity of the city to protect citizens in more difficult times.

Hidden London

If you’re interested in the Hidden London series of tours, visit the London Transport Museum site to see when the next series is scheduled.

About BEWA 2016

BEWA (Blog Every Wednesday in August) is a project aimed to get me writing in a blog style again. I wrote an introduction to kick the series off while the first proper entry championed an Olympic legacy.  The third discussed my fascination with location data while what should have been the fourth entry was more of an Oops. There is a page with the #bewa collection (including those from last year).  Fingers crossed I am back next week. I’m sure @curns will mention it.

Footnotes

1 V-1 flying bomb, Wikipedia
2 Hidden London, London Transport Museum
3 Clapham South Deep Level Air-Raid Shelter, Subterranea Britannica
4 Growing Underground: A Visit To Clapham’s Deep Level Farm, Londonist

BEWA Unstuck

In my head I am imagining the thousands who rose early to read a thrilling, pithy and insightful page of words from me over their morning coffee and artisan baked breakfast product.

Oops. My Blog Every Wednesday in August project (#BEWA) came slightly unstuck last week, didn’t it? In my head I am imagining the thousands who rose early to read a thrilling, pithy and insightful page of words from me over their morning coffee and artisan baked breakfast product. Each and every one of their days spent constantly f5-ing (for the PC nerds) to no avail.

The real world caught up with me and events on the first three nights of the week transpired to keep me away from the keyboard. I, of course, could have simply promoted the current BEWA series and pretended that was a worthy entry. It could have featured a handy numbered list something like this:

  1. Blimey, BEWA’s Back!
  2. Handed Down from 2012
  3. Right Place, Right Time

Alternatively, I could have waxed lyrical about the tremendous performance Team GB had put at the Rio Olympics. That would have been topical and might have scored some hits.

I did neither, choosing instead, to have another beer and then by the weekend, it seemed ridiculous to write an almost week-late entry. But the BEWA project has not lapsed. It’s back with a suitably stunning entry that might start with a reference to the London skyline (although perhaps not the one used here).

Stay tuned.

Curns’ Ad Links for 24 August 2010

Curns’ ad links is a collection of links about the digital advertising industry; generally focussed on the display advertising market with an emphasis on the technology to deliver great advertising experiences.

The Hottest State

As a reader you will observe William but you will not become emotionally attached.

Ethan Hawke’s Hottest State is a tale of obsessive love set in New York (and Paris) when William (’20 sexy, confident’) meets Sarah and they embark on a relationship which really is roller-coaster like. Through it we explore William’s relationship with his mother, absent-father and with himself. It’s clever yet not distant, sensitive but not sentimental but, ironically given the title, left this reader a little cold. The Hottest State is entertaining and well-written but capturing that painful, gut-wrenching emotion that is obsessive first love must be hard for any novelist and Hawke doesn’t quite pull the reader in. As a reader you will observe William but you will not become emotionally attached and Sarah’s quirkiness – which initially seems endeering – eventually distances you from her leaving William’s obsessive feelings a mystery. Despite those reservations, Ethan Hawke’s first novel suggests a promising career as novelist.

Get Yer Kit Off …

Gary Lucy in football gear – on TV no less.

gary lucy in football kitI don’t watch much reality television but Digital Spy is telling me that Gary Lucy has signed up for The Match, an upcoming reality show which is set to start on Sky One in October. What fun. I will be tuning it – it makes owning a Sky dish all the more worthwhile. Maybe I should make Gary a future Man of the Moment.

Summer Listening

I invested in a Pure Evoke 1 earlier this year and it has shaped my radio listening this summer.

This has certainly been a long hot summer. I have thoroughly enjoyed the ability to sit outside in my garden and enjoy pleasant summer evenings and baking weekend afternoons. Despite the fact I have been unable to keep the garden in check (and it’s looking desperately in need of a make-over) it’s been wonderful.

At the start of the summer I invested in a Pure Evoke 1 digital radio. The sheer range of stations is fantastic and I, for one, welcome the introduction of Digital Radio to the UK. The irony of the purchase is that I’ve spent most of the evenings listening to the relaxed sounds of Jazz FM (which is perfectly clear across London on a regular radio set). At least my second favourite (and superb on summer Sunday afternoons) is The Groove which is only available on DAB in London and on the web.

No wonder I haven’t wanted to do much to this site.

Around The World

A colleague of mine left work yesterday to go travelling and I was sad to see him go. He’s joining an ever growing list of people I know who are purchasing a back-pack and buying a ticket for six months. Three of my friends/acquaintances are in Australia travelling. One of my clients is off travelling.

What am I doing wrong?

Is it a coincidence that they all work in new media environments? And this morning I find that over at Jase’s homepage he links to this great travelling blog. The world is trying to tell me something!