Week commencing Monday, 18 August 2025
Quantified Self
- This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 5/7. (76%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 61,979
Life
- We left it late for travel vaccinations. After finding and completing a form buried on the NHS website, the surgery called, and I got an appointment within 48 hours, receiving the vaccines on Wednesday morning. Still needed to source some privately: Superdrug does travel clinics. Who knew?
- Then, when attending the clinic on Thursday — chaos: Superdrug had no Yellow Fever jabs and hadn’t contacted me. After a scramble across London, I finally got vaccinated in Earlsfield.
- Monday brought an interesting call with the insurance company. It was helpful but neither clarified nor reassured me.
- Tuesday, went to the Grease-themed Secret Cinema in Battersea Park. Clever mix of film and live performance, complete with fairground, Rydell High sets and a live band — easily one of the best immersive events I’ve done.
- Related, I dressed (almost) appropriately in a white T-shirt and bomber jacket, ate chicken burgers to a ’50s soundtrack and ended the night dancing and singing along to the big numbers in the outdoor finale.
- Wednesday evening, I opened the fridge door to see what fresh ingredients needed using up. I spoke the list into my phone with one of the AI chatbots open and within seconds had a recipe that turned out to be delicious and stopped food waste. We really are living in the future. Hey Siri, where are my jet-boots?
- Related, leftovers went into the freezer. I still can’t get labels to stick to the plastic boxes used. Perhaps we’re not so much in the future after all.
- Thursday, back-to-back meetings all day, including a repeat run-through of an incident fix and a ham sandwich eaten off-camera in yet another planning session.
- Later, we were lucky to find the Portsmouth train on the platform before it was announced, which meant we grabbed a table seat and tucked into meal-deal dinners en route. By the time of the 21:45 crossing it was dark, but the sea was calm and the sailing pleasant.
- Up to 10,000 scooterists on The Island for what’s reportedly the world’s biggest scooter rally. We went to The Star for an evening of appropriately themed music.
- We returned on Saturday night for a different musical vibe, having spent the day walking by the sea.
- We went back again on Sunday lunchtime for even more chilled-out music. Then, to RT Cafe Grill for lunch, where the spiced tempura lobster and prawn burger was delicious — but at those prices, I shouldn’t have to ask twice for mayonnaise.
Media
- Apparently, next year, Uber will have self-driving cars on the streets of London. I’m interested in seeing them, but I’m not sure about riding in one.