Month: April 2026

Weeknotes #169: update my brush

Spring sunshine, seaside walks, better pubs, and small modern absurdities.

Week commencing Monday, 13 April 2026

A hand holding a chilled glass of lager in bright sunshine outside The Fisherman’s Cottage pub in Shanklin, Isle of Wight, with fishing boats, the sea, and a clear blue sky in the background.
Lager and sunshine at the seaside

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 6/7 and Move 6/7. (90%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 63,071. 14.8 hours in meetings.

Life

  • Thanks to Stonewall campaigning, the law is changing to equalise the treatment of hate crimes for LGBTQ+ people, making them aggravated offences.
  • Related, although anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes are recognised in law, hate crimes based on race and/or religion can carry higher maximum penalties because they are classified as aggravated offences. When a crime is considered an ‘aggravated offence’, the victim has longer to access justice, and the perpetrator will receive a stronger sentence.
  • Of all the things to happen in the modern world (1), I never really expected it would be my toothbrush that wouldn’t work until it had some software updated.
  • The Church in Wales’ governing body has approved a bill making blessings of same-sex marriages permanent.
  • Of all the things to happen in the modern world (2), it was inevitable that somebody would make a convincing AI radio presenter. I think a Top 40 countdown was an obvious place to start; the ‘chat’ is already formulaic. “Nexus James” is your AI host. I wonder how many options were presented before a human picked that one?
  • Related, within the first three songs I heard, I could already hear repeated production elements on Olivia Dean’s two songs in the top five. They need to work on that. Regardless, it has more depth than any Top 40 playlist on a music service.
  • Since our regular after-work place closed, we have a new go-to pub that we visited on Thursday. It’s a proper pub, it feels better, and it is less expensive. It has a range of areas where people can book a table. The covered bit at the back is only marginally open to the elements, but it seems to be the first part of the pub that closes at 11 p.m. Which is great news, because previously we have been in the pub when they have not called last orders until midnight or even 1 a.m., and both of those mean we all miss our transport home.
  • A beautiful day on Saturday saw a trip to Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight, and then a walk to Yarmouth.
  • Sunday, lunch by the sea in Shanklin and ice creams by Ryde Marina. Maybe summer is here?

Media

Weeknotes #168: 17 years to fix

Busy travel, volunteering, and finally fixing a long-standing website issue.

Week commencing Monday, 6 April, 2026

Exterior of The Crabtree pub on a rainy day, showing a red brick building with a covered outdoor terrace, decorative iron columns, rattan garden furniture, and signage reading 'Craft Beer, Food, Coffee, Ales'.
Rain or Shine, It’s Roast Dinner Time

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move 5/7. (81%). Morning walks: 0/3. Office days: 1/4. Total steps: 55,303. 10 hours in meetings.

Life

  • The engineering works meant that trains returning from Shrewsbury were very busy. I am glad that I got to Moor Street early, as that enabled me to secure a seat. I would not have been able to sit in the aisle all the way to London, as some people did.
  • Tuesday, an after-work dash to the Co-op for a pizza for dinner because I had my first volunteer training session for the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals, which come to London later this month.
  • Then, on Saturday, to the Copper Box Arena in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for more volunteer training. We got a tour of the venue with some of the championship organisers; it was impressive how much detail they had already worked through—where walls would go up, how people would move around—and it was fascinating to hear.
  • Almost five years ago, in my second-ever weeknote, I wrote that I had a website that broke my rules about sustainable URL schemas. Somewhere around 2009, I’d upgraded musak.org and, in the process, broken most of the links within the site. I fixed this 17-year-old task on Friday, with guidance from ChatGPT. The task was simply waiting for the right moment to be resolved, and that moment needed AI to balance effort and output.
  • Related, this dead link, http://www.musak.org/entries/2003/07/another_russian_birthday.shtml, will now resolve to the right place.
  • My dentist now recommends Netflix shows as part of the service. Will I ever watch Younger or Jane the Virgin?
  • Sunday, for a “trio of meats” lunch: gammon, turkey and beef, Yorkshire pudding with stuffing. Delicious.

Media

  • The new Race Across the World has started, but it’s too early to have picked my winners.
  • I watched the first episode of The Newsreader, a critically acclaimed Australian drama set in a commercial television newsroom. It took me a while to get into the rhythm, but the major news event of the first episode is the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in January 1986. Using that real event as its backdrop made the tension feel believable.
  • On Channel 5, Jane McDonald went to Nashville across two evenings, where she dives into the world of country music—without the cruise ship, for once. Part of the premise is that she’s in a Nashville studio recording tracks for her new album, Living the Dream, claiming she’s always been a bit country because her songs tell stories. It’s arguably one long advert for the album, but fun.

Weeknotes #167: Shrewsbury and Easter

Easter travels, good food, nostalgia, and small wins along the way.

Week commencing Monday, 30th March 2026

Birmingham Moor Street railway station, a red-brick building with arched windows and period details, seen on a bright day with people walking past and gathering near the entrance; the station served as a key part of Easter weekend travel.
Moor Street: essential stop on Easter weekend journey

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 3/7. (52%). Morning walks: 0/3. Office days: 1/4. Total steps: 39,476. 13.4 hours in meetings.

Life

  • Middling at the pub quiz this month. Let’s move on.
  • Recording a message for the West Shropshire Talking Newspaper took me a lot longer than I anticipated because every room echoed too much.
  • After-work beers were nice on Thursday, but it was also nice that they finished early and I could get home to pack.
  • If you don’t ask, and because I did, they let me on an earlier train than the one I’d booked on Good Friday. Engineering works meant I had to go via Birmingham Moor Street station.
  • Friday, Saturday, and Sunday lunches were all in restaurants around Shrewsbury. All different and all very good.
  • I found things in the loft that I had not looked at for more than thirty years. Fascinating.
  • On Easter Sunday, an egg hunt around the garden, and then the Easter trail around Attingham Park.
  • Exciting: Artemis II launched successfully, sending astronauts on a crewed flyby of the Moon for the first time in decades.

Media