Week commencing Monday, 29 June 2026
Quantified Self
- This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move 4/7. (71%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 55,794. 20.5 hours in meetings.
Life
- For the avoidance of doubt, the World Cup banter bits are entirely written by Claude AI. I thought it would be amusing to get it to start match summaries with the cliché ‘it was a game of two halves’. The remainder of these weeknotes remains hand-carved, using a chisel and some stone.
- With that in mind, here’s this week’s World Cup instalment: COMMENTATOR: It was a game of two halves — England were rocked by a DR Congo side who took the lead inside seven minutes and looked for long stretches as though they might pull off the upset of the tournament, before Kane, who else, dragged Tuchel’s men back level in the 75th minute and then rifled home the winner four minutes from time — both goals assisted by Gordon — to seal a 2–1 victory and a date with Mexico at the Azteca in the last 16. (ht: claude.ai)
- Monday night theatre: Beetlejuice The Musical. It’s a funny show that breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience, with plenty of contemporary references and a Radio 2 tote bag. Having a demon offer the tote bag as a symbol of the underworld to middle-class theatregoers is a fun poke at the stalls; it stands out as both ridiculous and charming, much like the whole show.
- I’ve posted five years’ worth of pictures on Blipfoto. It’s not a continuous streak. I celebrated five days late.
- Relatedly, ChatGPT gave me a great title for a post, Amazon Prime Suspect.
- My grandad would have been 122 years old on 1 July. What would the UK have been writing about in its weeknotes this week in the year he was born? The 1904 Summer Olympics?
- There are moments during Pride that still make me stop and think. As a teenager growing up under Section 28, I could never have imagined that one day I’d be standing in central London, officially volunteering at one of the country’s biggest LGBTQ+ events.
- In other Pride news, the UK’s gayest street had ‘worst Pride ever’, apparently.
- Nile Rodgers wrote and produced for Duran Duran. The Scissor Sisters toured with Duran Duran. Today, we were all there for Duran Duran.
Media
- We started the second series of Bergerac: a murder at a Jersey wedding. Who else would investigate?