Week commencing Monday, 11 August 2025
Quantified Self
- This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 6/7 and Move 6/7. (90%). Morning walks: 3/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 67,665
Life
- The past weekend really felt like an extension of our Spanish holidays, which made it hard to get back into work mode.
- There wasn’t as much work to catch up on as I’d imagined, although I did let it drag into Tuesday before finishing reviewing all my messages.
- I managed to get out for my morning walk on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday — the last one amongst the trees on Cannon Hill Common. It really is a better way to start the day.
- Another pub quiz to start the week with B&A joining us again. B was our nominee for the ninth-place tie-breaker. Sadly, we didn’t identify the song, but it was a remarkable recovery considering how poor our first round was. I made more contributions to the music round than usual: Three Degrees, Hues Corporation and Jimmy Ruffin.
- Later in the week, we learned A-level results were in and B&A both got what they needed for university. Congratulations.
- I did my Tai Chi class without leaving the house.
- Thursday to the bar in the Young Vic to meet friends. Another great evening, although we should all learn to leave before closing.
- Saturday, with P&W to visit Kenwood House, an English Heritage neoclassical mansion on Hampstead Heath that we’d not visited before. It houses a small art collection that includes a Turner and a Rembrandt self-portrait. And, wonderfully, it’s free to visit.
- Later, dinner was at Kitty Hawk, on top of the Page 8 Hotel, with views over Trafalgar Square. It seems uncertain whether it should be a restaurant or a bar. The terraces were full of drinkers, the music was loud and, unfortunately for us, service was poor. They were having an off-evening.
- Sunday, lunch with M&R. I forgot my hat, and the walk there was in the sun. I should remember. Food and company, as always, were great. When the conversation moved onto funerals, we knew we ought to call it a night.
Media
- Finished Christopher Fowler’s On the Loose; number 7 in the Bryant & May series and the one I have read out of sequence. Now I understand more about book 8.
- Our new favourite Sunday night thing plays underplayed and almost completely forgotten hits of the 80s: Forgotten 80s on Absolute 80s. This week’s show featured Bow Wow Wow’s C30 C60 C90 Go!, which I have definitely not heard since the 80s.