Month: April 2024

Weeknotes #66: productive Friday, immersive theatre

Busy week: St. George’s Day, productive writing, immersive theatre, cancelled boat.

Week commencing Monday, 22 April 2024

Boats, as floating cafe's, at Hackney Wick with the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the background.
The Milk Float, at Hackney Wick

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 6/7 and Move 6/7. (90%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 65,257

Life

  • Tuesday was St George’s Day and also BBC Radio Shropshire’s birthday. I found some tuning guides produced in the 80s by BBC Engineering Information which got posted around. They seem quaint now.
  • The washing machine engineer did not fix the washing machine. Saturday spent, partly, in a launderette. £1 a minute seems to be the going rate for everything.
  • Thursday, farewell drinks with a colleague. Started earlier than usual Thursday drinks and ended later. There were no trains home from Clapham Junction by the time I got there, so a taxi was needed.
  • Related, Friday was my most productive day for weeks. I am not sure how that could be but I powered through quite a lot of writing.
  • Stand, for 2 hours, at The Bridge Theatre to watch Guys and Dolls, they said. It’s immersive theatre par excellence, they said. Get out of the way of the rising and falling platforms (aka stage), said people dressed as NYC cops. Be right up close to the action that the cast talk to you, in full character, as they pass. Join the cast dancing at the end of the show. It’s was a wonderful way to spend a Friday evening and wholeheartedly recommended.
  • Sunday, boat trip cancelled but we went out east anyway. Westfield Stratford was busy, the sun came out for coffee on The Milk Float and The Great British Garden a hidden gem that proved London 2012 keeps on giving.

Media

  • Rory, Alastair and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan spoke for The Rest is Poltics: Leading. Interesting to hear just how much – or little – power the Mayor has?
  • 30 years after Jurassic Park, you’d hope mankind was smart enough to know that, (1) if you work with dinosaurs your facility will be destroyed, and (2) the largest dinosaur will have a its eye right next to you but not see you. Jurassic World Dominion did not understand this. The reprise of every set piece was annoying but, somehow, in a bad movie the cast were terrific. Campbell Scott’s Dr. Lewis Dodgson, played as Tim Cook, genius.
  • A-ha meets Doctor Who in a fabulous version of Take On Me. All the doctors in sequence.
  • For the first fifteen minutes, I thought Dead Boy Detectives was going to annoy me too much to stay with it. And then it didn’t and turned out to be fun.

Elsewhere: BBC Tuning Guides for Shropshire

I don’t know how many people see things posted on Threads, but I did my not-quite-every-year Happy Birthday post to BBC Radio Shropshire there. This year, I discovered some Tuning Guides from BBC Engineering Information that were published sometime after the launch. I thought they should be preserved on the Interweb.

Post by @curns
View on Threads

Every few years, on St George’s Day, I remember to post a Happy Birthday BBC Radio Shropshire: the first broadcast org to actually pay me for work for them! Earlier this month, I found this tuning guide in a pile of paperwork. Put together by BBC Engineering Information, it’s a couple of years post-launch, but it’s still a blast from the past. Pink was for central and south Shropshire, and there was a green one for Ludlow and a white one for north Shrops. 

A few years ago, I added a copy of some of their test transmissions to Soundcloud; it’s still there: https://soundcloud.com/curns/4th-9th-april-1985-test-transmissions-edit

https://www.threads.net/@curns/post/C6GXcouLD8E
BBCRadioShropshireTuningGuide-CentralShropshireDownload

Weeknotes #65: quiz nights and art galleries

Enjoying quiz night, office mishap, pizza, chats, and art gallery.

Week commencing Monday, 15 April 2024

The Ryde Art Trail: a tribute to HoverTravel

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move /57. (76%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 59,328

Life

  • I won’t beat myself up about the last few weeknotes being late. At the start of the year, I told myself completion was better than meeting the self-imposed weekly deadline. But I’m sorry, me.
  • Monday was Quiz night again. This time, we struggled. We lost count of where we were placed. Last time, we started strong with the ‘name the celebrity from their eyes’ round. This time, scoring 7 out of 10 on that round put us on the back foot.
  • Thursday was the first time I’d forgotten my pass when going into the office. It was easy enough to get a temporary replacement, but it was hard to return when reception wasn’t staffed.
  • Friday night was pizza night in Ryde. It was lovely after a few drinks in a pub and sausage crisps. Saturday night was Chicken burger, delicious but not home-cooked.
  • Related, Colin Hall and Bob Harris were in conversation on Saturday night about the songs The Beatles Gave Away—several fascinating stories. However, if you are booked for further tour nights, be warned: these two can keep talking.
  • Relatedly, related. The bar flooded before the break, so interval drinks were in the gallery, where there was exciting art: walking around with a glass of wine made me feel like I was at a preview event.
  • Completed eight out of the nine murals painted for the Ryde Art Trail. The missing one was in a venue that wasn’t open on Sundays. Impressive art.

Media

  • Saturday Night Live sketches have been amusing PY for weeks. I must admit Beavis and Butt-Head is funny.
  • Christian Wolmar, writing for the Irish Independent, on congestion charging, how the argument against the charge was lost in 2003 and why the 21st Century “must be the century of sustainable transport”
  • I could not listen to the related Radio 2 documentary, The Songs The Beatles Gave Away, because it doesn’t appear to be available anymore.

Weeknotes #64: two hours in a theatrical loo

Home comfort, financial review, office camaraderie, tasty meals, fun events.

Week commencing Monday, 8 April 2024

Alex Lodge and Jessica Cervi performing Up Where We Belong
Alex Lodge and Jessica Cervi performing Up Where We Belong

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 3/7. (57%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 39,179

Life

  • A week where my shoulder continued to give discomfort, I stayed at home for much of it. Friday brought news of the scan in a few weeks.
  • I had the first of what will become a series of financial pension reviews. Would my pensions work better for me if they were consolidated? This question remains to be answered.
  • Avanti West Coast has queried my Delay Repay request, stating they want more information. They keep asking for a copy of the ticket even though the machine at Shrewsbury ate it, and the website says a Collection Receipt is sufficient. Grumble.
  • I wish I had said I was going to Shrewsbury rather than asking. In the end, all was well, but for 24 hours, I was annoyed with myself.
  • Seeing people in the office is always lovely, but I had quite a gap in the afternoon where I had no meetings. I used the time to walk around and chat with people. It felt simultaneously productive and unproductive.
  • Lots of bowls of Vietnamese pho made from the chicken stock we got from last weekend’s roast. Endless nighttime loo visits.
  • Related, Boys on the Verge of Tears at The Soho Theatre: a one-act, almost two-hour performance with five actors playing all the parts, entirely set in a men’s toilet. Lots to think about.
  • Post-show French onion soup with gruyere cheese croutons was everything I wanted: very thick and rich.
  • Three Sundays in a row: tonight, an 80s party night at The Crazy Coqs with a bunch of great songs.

Media

  • All Of Us Strangers: After watching it last week it’s been on my mind all week. Friday, I watched the excellent “Behind-The-Scenes Broadcast Special” on YouTube. It’s such an interesting film to think about. And it was filmed in the director’s childhood home, which makes it even more fascinating. The YouTube algorithm served up an interesting collection of clips featuring the film’s stars appearing on The Graham Norton Show.
  • Sunday night was the Olivier Awards on ITV. Lots of exciting musicals won, but Sunset Boulevard won the most awards. Tom Francis reprised Sunset Boulevard, starting outside the Royal Albert Hall and walking into the main auditorium (a version of how it was staged at The Savoy, even down to the cardboard Andrew Lloyd Webber. It’s very impressive).
  • Apple Music has a new personalised play list: Heavy Rotation and I am loving it.

Weeknotes #63: A musical weekend

Airport time change, events, food quest, rail chaos, family celebration, musical, Bananarama.

Week commencing Monday, 1 April 2024

Bananarama on stage at The Palladium
Bananarama at The Palladium

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 3/7. (57%). Total steps: 64,405

Life

  • Last week’s notes were written in a departure lounge. This week’s in my lounge. Mine does not operate a one-out, one-in policy.
  • Never arrive at an airport at the precise moment the clocks go forward. The loss of an hour on the way home was unnerving.
  • I was a day out of sequence. Last Sunday was Esther’s birthday lunch and a Beatles night at The Crazy Coqs.
  • The quest for a ‘hot cross Bunettone’ (Panettone meets a hot cross bun in a spiced Italian cake) took us to Wimbledon. We are still looking for one.
  • There was nothing but rail chaos on Tuesday at Euston. We ended up taking the longer route from Marylebone, but it wasn’t much fun arriving over two hours late. The return train on Thursday was swift and efficient.
  • Mum and Dad’s Diamond Wedding lunch was great, and I made a short speech that got laughs in the right places. I’m glad I prepared something; nobody was expecting it. The card from the King and Queen had pride of place. I’m so happy that it worked out.
  • Related, I didn’t need the loaded fries in the bar in the evening. They were delicious.
  • Back at work on Friday. I don’t think people realised I’d be back before Monday. It gave me some time to go through everything that happened while we were away. The project I’m working on deployed our software, and everything ran smoothly.
  • Frank has a collection of dresses from divas across the years—think Judy, Dusty, Julie, and Agnetha (with a dash of Ethel Merman and Karen Carpenter thrown in)—which he is forced to give to a museum so that he can marry Alan. That’s the plot of Frank’s Closet, a musical we saw on Friday night. It was fun.
  • Saturday at The Palladium: Bananarama. The show ran continually for the allotted time, so Karen and Sarah did not chat. That’s sad, as they can be funny, and some stories from their 40 years in the business would have been interesting.
  • Related, there’s never enough time for all the hits, but the show was built around their greatest hits album, and I am not sure why they skipped some big numbers to play covers that are not part of their catalogue: Atomic, Lost in Music, and You Spin Me Round.
  • For the second week running, we went to The Crazy Coqs presents. Tonight, the songs of Disney and Pixar were performed. Eleanor Hudson also performed a medley of the big tunes from Frozen dressed as Elsa. I don’t think I have seen a costume at one of these nights previously.

Media

  • All of Us Strangers: It takes some time to work out the timeline of the characters and that they are being presented at different points along that line. And I am still trying to figure out what to make of the ending. I’ve been thinking about it since Thursday.
  • Radio Geek Out with three episodes of Crunch and roll: Dirk Anthony, Dave Kelly and Ben Jones. All wonderful but Ben’s story about leaving Absolute Radio and the subsequent dark times is really interesting to hear. People on the radio are not always upbeat.