Weeknotes #157: enjoyed, bought book

Thoughtful culture, good conversation, strong performances, and quietly satisfying social moments.

Week commencing Monday, 19 January 2026

Illuminated poster for the Into the Woods musical at The Bridge Theatre, showing a stylised illustration of a figure in a bright coral-red hooded cloak against a teal-blue background with falling snowflakes. The figure has pale skin, blue eyes, and curled hair, gazing to the side. The poster displays the tagline 'and happy ever after' beneath the title, with credits showing music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine, directed by Jordan Fein, and set and costume design by Tom Scutt. The Bridge Theatre logo appears at the bottom. The poster is mounted on a dark column in an evening street scene with trees and pedestrians visible in the background.
Sondheim’s twisted fairy tale magic illuminates The Bridge Theatre.

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move 6/7. (86%). Morning walks: 0/3. Office days 2/5. Total steps: 56,651. 16.5 hours in meetings.

Life

  • I think this is the new world: The only way to counter “move fast and break things” is to move fast and fix things, and I don’t think enough people realise it.
  • Do you know your Iceland from your Greenland? If you are trying to get your hands on land, it would be sensible to know which land you are getting.
  • Monday, to the Bridge Theatre to see Into the Woods: visually impressive, with great performances. A revival that balanced the wit and the dark themes. Kate Fleetwood as the Witch is a joy. Delightful.
  • Wednesday, to see Jake Humphrey and Damien Hughes talk about High Performance. Essentially, it was an interesting 75-minute discussion trying to flog you a book. And it worked.
  • Thursday, to drink Beamish with people in central London. They served Irish crisps. Huw tried to say something in Welsh, but I didn’t understand.
  • Related: before we met in Covent Garden, we discovered the bowling alley near work has a bar that, it seems, nobody knows about.
  • Saturday, fixing email issues. And then to The Ivy Tower Bridge for their £19.17 two-course menu. Naturally, we didn’t just stick to that and ended up with a bigger bill. There’s a certain irony in going for the cheap menu and spending considerably more.
  • Sunday, to The Crazy Coqs for Behind the Mask, their Phantom of the Opera event. Quite different from the other events we’ve been to. We really enjoyed it. There were some incredible voices performing. Greg Castiglioni, who is playing in The Phantom of the Opera in Vienna, sang “Music of the Night” in German.

Media

  • With appropriately planned catch-ups, we were only one episode of The Traitors behind on Friday night, so we watched through to the end. The people I wanted to win, won.