Day: 1 November 2026

Weeknotes #197: there was one croquette

Oxford Street started going pedestrian while I was away. Meanwhile, an old tweet reminded me that I once appeared to have booked two hotels in two countries for the same nights. I still have no idea how that ended.

Week commencing Monday, 26 October 2026

Sunlit stone arches of Atcham Bridge reflected in the River Severn, with a garden in the foreground.
Autumn sunshine on Atcham Bridge, beside the Mytton and Mermaid.

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 1/7 and Move 3/7. (52%). Morning walks: 0/5. Office days: 0/5. Total steps: 41,046. 13.8 hours in meetings.

Life

  • I was not in London for much of the week, but it’s worth noting that the Oxford Street pedestrianisation scheme started on Monday. When Londoners were asked what they thought, I filled in every survey in support of the scheme. So I ought to take a look when I get back.
  • Previously, I mentioned the app I built to look back on things I’d written on the internet in years gone by. It now imports tweets from my downloaded Twitter archive.
  • Relatedly, this week in 2008 I wrote that @curns “is back in London until he leaves early Tuesday & appears to have 2 hotel reservations in 2 countries for the same nights this week – oops!” I have no memory of this situation at all. I wonder what actually happened to me?
  • Relatedly related, my early tweets were written in the third person, which made sense at the time but is very odd to read now.
  • I introduced myself to Mum and Dad’s window cleaner, who seemed like a really nice man. But when he asked if I was “London or Edinburgh”, I wondered what he’d been told about me and my brother!
  • In real news, kinda, you’ve got to love the Norwegians.
  • NHS appointment one was right on time, at 8.15am. The waiting room was deserted. The hospital corridors, long.
  • Related, appointment two took most of the afternoon, and even the nurses laughed when the consultant referred to himself as the plumber.
  • On Wednesday, everybody else spent the evening watching Liverpool versus Chelsea in the Carabao Cup. I slept through most of it. I was awake for the penalties.
  • Mum and Dad took me to the Mytton and Mermaid for Friday lunch. I had halloumi fries to start and pork belly with apple and parsnip purée and a Stilton croquette. There was only one croquette.
  • Saturday, met the new dog, who is still a bit jumpy, and had a beef burger topped with spicy mac and cheese bites, nacho cheese sauce and jalapeños to celebrate J’s birthday.
  • Returning goods to Next on a Sunday took seconds. They already had the details. It’s remarkable how easy it can be to return something you bought online when a company gets its digital strategy right. And how rarely that happens.

Media

  • We finished The Marble House Mysteries, which was pleasing enough if you like a cosy murder mystery.
  • I never quite caught up on The Celebrity Traitors, so I gave up and read the spoilers.
  • On Sunday, I watched the first episode of the current series of Celebrity Race Across the World because I’d missed it earlier in the week.
  • A couple more episodes of Slow Horses. I think we have just one left, so it’ll be quite interesting to see how everything is resolved.

File in ‘unintended Consequences of a pointless election’

Here’s an interesting snippet about how a wholly unrelated decision in government (Theresa May’s decision to call a snap General Election earlier this year) can add an additional £13 million to a London transport project

For anybody with even a passing interest in how transport infrastructure works and impacts society, London Reconnections is a must-read. Although the articles explore London’s transport, the nuances of transport policy probably apply everywhere in the world. For example, if you really want to understand the complexities of Transport for London’s ban on Uber and don’t want to rely on the social media outrage, then “Understanding Uber: It’s Not About The App” (and related articles) paints a much more complex (and fascinating) picture.

Buried away in a piece published earlier today is an interesting snippet about how a wholly unrelated decision in government (Theresa May’s decision to call a snap General Election earlier this year) can add an additional (unbudgeted) £13 millon pounds to a London transport project (in this case, Crossrail 2),

It is an unfortunate fact that the election and campaign may have only been around six weeks long and have seen the same party returned to government, yet the disruption caused to presenting a Crossrail 2 bill to Parliament has probably put the project back by a full year.

£13m sounds like a lot, but it isn’t in the case of these multi-billion-pound projects. It still has to come from unplanned budget, which must frustrate planners … but pushing the whole project back by a year? Wow.

I wonder how many other projects and plans across the country saw similar issues and what they cost.

Related:

Occasionally I write, not as well as London Reconnections, about transport issues that I see. Why not take a moment to have a look?

The Whispering Years

It’s not dull or bland in any way, but perhaps because there’s a little of the 60s hippie left in Bob Harris, you feel the measured approach is entirely appropriate.

You really do get to appreciate ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris’ love of music through his autobiography, ‘The Whispering Years’. You’ll read in the blurb that he’s been married three times, has had to restart his career from scratch several times, and almost lost his record collection to a fellow Radio 1 disc jockey. What you may not get from reviews is a feeling of the genuine passion he has for the music and how big a role some of the greatest musicians of the last thirty years have played in his life. You feel as uneasy as Bob appeared to be over the fame that The Old Grey Whistle Test brought him, and you will feel somewhat betrayed when Radio One removed him (I’d forgotten he was the voice launched round-the-clock Radio One in August 1990). Throughout his career he stuck to his passion – the music – and shunned the computer-generated radio that dominates the airwaves today. His interview technique was considered ‘less than penetrating’ in the past, but that gentle approach serves him well in book form. It’s not dull or bland in any way but, perhaps because there’s a little of the 60s hippy left in Bob Harris, you feel the measured approach is entirely appropriate. If you love music (and not just progressive rock) or enjoy his radio programmes, then The Whispering Years will be engaging, fascinating and inspiring.

Buy Bob Harris’ The Whispering Years

Is Email Bad?

In 1999, after six years of using email, I was beginning to think it wasn’t as great as it could be. Ping, here comes another one.

Note: This article is dated 1 November – although the exact date of writing can’t be determined. It was retrieved from the archive and posted in March 2003.

The internet is the most wonderful tool of recent history. It’s fun, factual, interesting and full of fascinating creatures. It’s strange and freakish: at the same time useful and useless. I am thankful that it filled my night shifts and unhappy that it takes over my time. Thank goodness for the internet.

Of all the components that make up the ‘net (Archie, anyone?), email is – probably – the greatest invention. Fast and functional, it has revolutionised my working life. Back in ’93, when I got my first real-world-connected email address, apart from those people in the same office, I knew one other person. Friends of mine couldn’t see the point. However, once I was able to communicate with my Dad in Thailand at a reasonable hour without staying awake to call him, other people saw there may be uses. Then, they connected, and suddenly they sent me emails telling me how great it was to be part of this connected universe.

Now, after six years, I think I may be turning into one of the non-believers. That’s not wholly true, but nevertheless, I’ve decided email is not as great as it could be. Sure, the power to communicate is still fantastic, and the informal nature is wonderful. The ability to time-shift conversations is useful, but it gets in the way of my working day, and I haven’t the strength to do anything about it.

If you can’t put a finger on why email doesn’t always work, ask yourself these questions:

  1. How much unrelated junk do you sift through daily?
  2. How many times have you stopped working to answer the “ping” of the email to read some nonsense?
  3. How many times has your concentration been broken by the “You Have Mail” screen?
  4. When did you last get copied in on an email that was only of peripheral interest to your work because somebody felt the need to “share” or “justify”?
  5. How many times have you felt the need to copy people on an email who, if you’d conducted the communication by phone, wouldn’t have been included?
  6. How many times have you been misunderstood because you typed in a hurried, informal manner to somebody who doesn’t see email as less formal?
  7. When you last answered the phone, did the caller say, “Have you got my mail?” and they’d only just sent it?
  8. When you last met a colleague in the corridor, did they ask you what you’d thought of their email? When you said you hadn’t got round to reading it, did they look like they’d been snubbed? Did you feel bad for not having read it?

I could go on, but my day is like this. I have to get disciplined and stop interrupting myself. But I can’t. Ping, here comes another one.