Month: December 2023

Weeknotes #49: Ho Ho Ho

Week commencing Monday, 25 December 2023

London's Christmas Lights: Regent Street - a winged angel above the traffic

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 2/7 and Move 3/7. (57%, blame festivities). Plant diversity: 21. Total steps: 45,792

Life

  • Merry Christmas. I hope your festivities were fun. I got a negative COVID test on Christmas Day. Lovely present that meant Christmas visits happened on Boxing Day.
  • Will Doctor Who’s The Goblin Song become a thing? I fear it might.
  • Took Mum & Dad to see the London Christmas Lights. Like us, lots of people thought the 139 a better option than the expensive open-top tour. Carnaby Street was rammed.
  • Tonight we are having people for a New Year party. I’m hoping that it’s not too late to bed. Happy New Year!

Media

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. YouTube and Instagram links don’t seem to archive well so I don’t list them. If the source above no longer works, these should.

Weeknotes #48: Am I allowed out?

Week commencing Monday, 18 December 2023

Christmas wrapping paper

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 3/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 4/7. (52%, I was ill). Morning walks: 0/5. Plant diversity: 19. Total steps: 47,242

Life

  • Made it to Christmas Eve. Not the Christmas we were planning. But, we’re ready for tomorrow and, in the end, I watched a lot of excellent stuff on screens which I’ve documented below.
  • I now know why I was exhausted yesterday. Less about the late nights last week more about COVID. Not good this close to Christmas. Monday afternoon and Tuesday were the worst days, but there was light at the end of the week. I checked, there are no rules only recommendations now.
  • Related, nobody wants to see me sneeze on conference calls. Camera off.
  • Related, all my social events cancelled. A lot of time at home. The room in which I work is very warm compared to the rest of the house.
  • I was well enough to finish the shopping on Saturday and Sunday. Turkey acquired (too big for two).
  • Administration 1: I had the wrong dates on weeknotes #46. The error lives on with The Wayback machine.
  • Administration 2: Re-reading my 2020 Instagram retrospective I had a wrong date in the text for the 2019 entry. Corrected; this mistake also lives on.

Media

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. YouTube links don’t seem to archive well so I don’t list them. If the source above no longer works, these should.

Weeknotes #47: Christmas dinner idea: Octopus

Week commencing Monday, 11 December 2023

A view of the Thames from Blackfriars Bridge
View from Blackfriars Bridge

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 6/7 and Move 6/7. (90%, Sunday was a let down). Morning walks: 1/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Plant diversity: 45 Total steps: 73,718

Life

  • Fewer Christmas lights up on the streets immediately around us than I would have hoped. Another week, another sad-Christmas-face-emoji needed.
  • I didn’t do my walk on Monday morning but I did rush around to tidy the house ahead of the electrician’s visit. The bulb that won’t turn off is safe.
  • I am amused that ChatGPT is getting lazy at this time of year. I hope somebody’s bought it a Secret Santa.
  • Nice message from former colleagues on Wednesday would have lead to a Thursday meet-up if it hadn’t been for the office Christmas party.
  • Related, on the party food menu, octopus. Also, too many drinks and a walk from Farringdon.
  • Saturday: a birthday lunch for a friend and an evening of party games with another group. Oven-glove pass-the-parcel remains one of my favourites.
  • Sunday, recovering.

Media

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. YouTube links don’t seem to archive well so I don’t list them. If the source above no longer works, these should.

Weeknotes #46: 30 plants and a wonderful Christmastime

Week commencing Monday, 4 December 2023

Singers at TheCrazy Coqs annual Christmas songs night, 2023
Festive tunes

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 7/7 and Move 7/7. (95%, happy with that). Morning walks: 3/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Plant diversity: 30. Total steps: 73,718

Life

  • My app tells me how many plants I have eaten in a week. The theory is that more diversity is better for you. I need to aim for 30. I’ve added it to the quantified self check list.
  • Finished work early on Monday. Decided the tree decorations needed tweaking. Flying Santa doesn’t fly on this tree. Sad-face emoji needed.
  • Tuesday to King’s Cross to meet Florent for a quick drink. He was at a drinks reception and it took me a while to find him.
  • Interesting thoughts about using AI to write: Why should someone bother to read what you didn’t bother to write?
  • Thursday, the decorations outside the office was nice. There was a meeting where the basic discussion has been happening for years. I believe we will solve it eventually.
  • Train disruption on Thursday evening: I wonder if it’s possible to solve these issues on the railway network or will it be like this forever?
  • Merry and Bright was a wonderful community lantern parade which, thankfully, happened between the light rain showers.
  • Heavy rain showers on Sunday meant I was soaked walking down Ryde Pier. Dried out by the time the train got us home.
  • The West End singers who perform at The Crazy Coqs each month are great. The annual Christmas-themed evening was wonderful. The homemade kebab I made when we got home, delicious.

Media

  • Monday, E4 started Modern Family from the pilot episode. Amazing how many of the characters were well-formed from the beginning.
  • Why Benedict Evans is Leaving Twitter. Whatever you think of the ‘blue bird’ site today, this is worth a read.
  • Crunch and Roll: Jo Russell sold insurance by day, played music on the radio by night.
  • The giggle was an amazing episode of Dr Who. So much to process.

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. YouTube links don’t seem to archive well so I don’t list them. If the source above no longer works, these should.

Weeknotes #45: internet writing

Week commencing Monday, 27 November 2023

London is all decorated for Christmas
London is all decorated for Christmas

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move 6/7. (86%). Morning walks: 3/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 72,752

Life

  • I spent a long time this week going through my blog archives. A blog from the early 2000s is fascinating: mainly a collection of links to interesting things happening at that point in time (with little commentary) and of its time, sometimes more thoughtful and sometimes a personal journal.
  • Related: I’ve probably forgotten more plays and films that I’ve seen than I remember. Shame I didn’t diary/blog for my whole life.
  • Relatedly related: I’ve been looking for ways to combine my internet writings – and maybe pictures – in a single place. There’s no obvious solution.
  • Rooting for Matty in the Bake Off final because he seemed like the underdog and, if you’re not following it too closely, why not cheer the underdog? Also, nice smile.
  • Thursday night couldn’t do Nando’s with the team as we did The Real Greek instead of Thirsty Thursday. Behind me in the queue, “I thought the Elgin marbles were marbles: the round things”. Then I read this. Smiling all evening.
  • London is all decorated for Christmas (see photo)

Media

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. YouTube links don’t seem to archive well so I don’t list them. If the source above no longer works, these should.