Day: 3 September 2023

Weeknotes #32: vineyards, wine with a view

Week commencing Monday, 28 August 2023

View from the hotel restaurant at Denbies Vineyard, Dorking.
Denbies Vineyard, Dorking

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 5/7. (66%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 0/4. Total steps: 58,802

Life

  • Holiday Monday train to Dorking for Denbies Vineyard Restaurant Food & Wine Matching Experience. Beautiful views with perfect food and wine matching.
  • Would you Adam & Eve it? I met up with an ex-boss and JB for beers and Bone Daddies. Hiccups after food spoiled the evening. Debate later in the week about having visited Bone Daddies before or not. Pork Chilli Broth is recommended. Adam & Eve? A reference to the pub we met in.
  • Train strike: walked to Curzon Wimbledon to see Barbie as National Cinema day got me a £3 ticket. I wasn’t wowed, as the plot is too clearly signalled and there are some strange set pieces. What on earth is that office-based chase scene about? Barbieland is impressively brought to life. I am not as bought into Ken as a lot of people seem to be. Sorry Ryan. Are those abs real? We know the tan isn’t.
  • Then a walk from Wimbledon to Streatham via the M&S Cafe at the Collier’s Wood branch: not really up to M&S standards.
  • Dinner with friends at the Streatham Kitchen: Prawns & Spanish Chorizo and Aubergine and Halloumi Burger were both delicious. Recommended. Too much wine was consumed, and for some reason, I stayed up drinking tea when we got back.
  • Sunday, train to Shropshire with an early start because yesterday’s train strike messes up the next day too. Not helped by yesterday’s wine and late-night tea consumption. Tried hard to stay awake on the train north (succeeded). Carriage much emptier than suggested when I booked a seat.
  • End the week as I started it: wine and beautiful views. Lunch at Hencote Vineyard with panoramic vista overlooking Shrewsbury and the Shropshire Hills in glorious sunshine. My choices of, to start, chalk stream trout tartare and, for the main, crispy Gloucester old spot pork belly were delicious, but Dad’s Pim Hill Farm wholemeal flour crumpet (36-month aged parmesan custard, ricotta-stuffed tempura courgette flower, piperade & poached Legbar egg) was the most unusual. Glad I made the trip.

Media

  • It was podcast week for me, starting with The High Performance Podcast: Emily Maitlis: How I Approached THAT Prince Andrew Interview. Interesting insight into how the big interviews have elements of careful planning and luck.
  • James O’Brien’s Podcast, Full Disclosure with Mark Gatiss
  • Another journalism interview on The News Agents: David Dimbleby was an enjoyable discussion about the state of TV political journalism, mourning the loss of the long-form political interview.
  • Reading, not listening: has the rain put the fire out at Burning Man?

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the source above no longer works, these should.

Curns’ Ad Links for 3 September 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.

  • Moving Beyond Behavioural Ads
    Good post from ClickZ on the positive effects behavioural targeting can have on understanding audiences & qualified customers.
  • Transparency is key driver of mobile ad spend
    Adfonic have an interesting take on the mobile advertising business with a blog post about data transparency in the mobile advertising sector. Can anybody validate the argument that mobile advertising has less detailed reporting than the online display business?
  • Google rallies publishers with display ad strategy
    StrategyEye is reviewing the recent Google Blog post on the publisher display advertising business. To be honest, I am not sure what the line ‘as it tries to challenge Yahoo!’s dominant position in the market’ refers to in the context of this post. Yes, Yahoo!’s display business may be bigger than Google’s, but the blog post is about the publisher business, and Google’s DoubleClick has an enormous market share.

No Steroids Near Me

Don’t stop me now we are doing so well.

Since February, I have maintained regular gym training sessions and have found myself pleasantly surprised by my own enthusiasm for pounding a treadmill or rowing nowhere several times a week. I always return from the gym energetic and enthusiastic, but I am starting to note a worrying trend in myself in attempting to rationalise avoidance. So far I have not stopped myself from going, but my head keeps thinking that I could just miss this one and have a rest. It would be good to rest. I think this is a worrying trend, so, my gym buddy, time to put those motivational techniques to the test.

I do have to say that if, like yesterday, Thursday turns out to be a designated gym day, then it’s not too bad, as the cute aquarobics instructor is marching up and down the poolside, encouraging a bunch of ladies to float better (or something). You get a nice view from the third exercise cycle from the entrance.

I am fairly certain that my gym is not full of gay men. Firstly, there is far too much sport on the television screens (although I did watch a football match earlier this week – Hull v Bradford, if you’re interested. Bradford won). Secondly, there are no signs of the steroid problem amongst gay men identified by the NHS – although there are a worrying number of overweight middle-aged men wearing those head/sweat bands that used to be popular with tennis players. It’s not a good look – even in a gym.