Month: September 2026

Weeknotes #192: tunnels, tombs and tangerines

An adventurous week exploring Korea’s remarkable heritage, beautiful scenery and delicious food.

Week commencing Monday, 21 September 2026

A traditional Joseon-era hall at Changgyeonggung Palace in Seoul at dusk, its sweeping tiled roof and richly painted dancheong eaves lit in glowing green and gold, with warm light shining through the lattice windows and a visitor sitting on the stone steps on the right.
Changgyeonggung Palace glows beneath the dusk sky.

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 7/7 and Move 7/7. (100%). Holiday time. Total steps: 123,385.

Life

  • I am in South Korea. It’s really interesting. And very humid.
  • Our first hotel was very strict about check-in, so we went to buy a travel card, lost our way, regrouped in Starbucks, eventually bought the card, saw the Starfield Library and Psy’s hands, and searched the Toys ‘R’ Us Pokémon display. We failed to find what we wanted.
  • In the DMZ, we entered the Third Infiltration Tunnel and ended up underground less than 200 metres from the North.
  • Related: getting out is hard work. It’s back along the tunnel, hunched over to get through it, and then up a very steep incline to the surface in a hot, stuffy environment. I had to stop several times, which definitely made me feel very unfit.
  • Relatedly related, we peered across the border from the lookout. I think we saw people.
  • I unexpectedly saw the changing of the guard ceremony at Deoksugung Palace, which is all very traditional, then saw far too many images of Hechi, Seoul’s official cartoon mascot.
  • At Gwangjang Market, we saw a woman who’d been in a Netflix food series and ate dumplings and octopus. Although the octopus is dead, residual nerve activity makes the tentacles and suction cups squirm, twist, and stick to the plate, triggering a range of reactions. Very odd.
  • Saw the Seoul Millennium Time Capsule, buried in 1994 to commemorate the 600th anniversary of Seoul becoming the capital of Korea and set to be opened 400 years later on 29 November 2394, to mark the 1,000th anniversary of Seoul as the capital.
  • On Thursday, we flew to Jeju during the Chuseok holiday; everything ran smoothly.
  • On Friday, we explored the scenic 1100 Highland and Hallasan Mountain, visited Cheonjeyeon Falls and enjoyed ice lollies after climbing lots of steps; we shared a lively lunch at what could only be described as a service station, and in the evening, we dined at a Japanese restaurant with delicious food and not much English.
  • Saturday: visited Dongmun Market and saw, but didn’t buy, local delicacies; enjoyed coffee and local tangerine juice at the very stylish D&DEPARTMENT café; saw the Dragon Head at Yongduam Rock; and experienced a two-hour flight delay for the journey to Busan.
  • Sunday was a tour from Busan to the UNESCO sites in Gyeongju. We visited the 8th-century Seokguram Grotto and its impressive seated Buddha.
  • Also, we explored the Daereungwon tomb complex, a historic park with 23 grass-covered burial mounds of Silla kings and nobles. One of them, Cheonmachong, was open to visitors, so of course we went in.
  • Before we entered the tomb, we went to find the Cheomseongdae Observatory, which is the oldest surviving astronomical observatory in Asia. It’s fascinating to see how they looked at the stars in the 7th century.
  • Related, we ended the week at Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond. Lovely lighting.
  • The barbecue grills at Daol Charcoal Grilling, on Jeju Black Pork Street and at the unnamed restaurant in Busan were all excellent (even if the latter’s ‘black spaghetti’ dish was way too spicy for me). The Chef’s Table at Kyochon Pilbang in Itaewon is a remarkable multi-course chicken feast.

I added extra photos to a collection on Flickr.

Media

  • Watched Tuner with Leo Woodall on the in-flight entertainment. It’s about a piano tuner who has a hearing condition but perfect pitch. When he needs money, he breaks into safes because he can hear the locks clicking into place. It causes all sorts of trouble in the end. I really enjoyed it, though I was a little unconvinced by the ending.

Weeknotes #191: almost next week

Work, theatre, travel and laughter rounded off a busy week.

Week commencing Monday, 14 September 2026

A promotional flyer for "Oil & Whiskey, The Country Rock Musical" shows a couple in a tense moment, with text advertising its run at the Old Red Lion pub theatre until 19 September, sold-out notices, and a row of five-star ratings along the bottom.
A flyer for Oil & Whiskey, running at the Old Red Lion.

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 5/7. (62%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 49,925.

Life

  • Somehow I’d missed the email instruction to complete the health questionnaire ahead of my annual flu jab, but I was able to do that online very quickly in the shop.
  • The ‘town hall’ at work was quite predictable, given everything that’s going on. One comment made me wonder why we hadn’t been doing that for the last seven years, but we can’t go back in time, can we?
  • Thursday’s after-work drinks were in a Queens Park Rangers supporters’ pub near Shepherd’s Bush Market, full of football memorabilia and screens showing games. But for a Thursday night, it was very quiet, and we had a lovely time discussing everything from office matters to 80s music playing in the background.
  • Friday, my last day before my holiday, I hadn’t quite finished everything I wanted to do before six o’clock, and we had to grab some food before we dashed out the door to catch a train — not for the holiday, but for a Friday show.
  • The show, Oil & Whisky, is a country-rock musical about former lovers Zelda and Teddy, who reunite in the New York bar where they first met.
  • Related, there are a lot of people on stage, even though there are only four characters, as there is a four-piece band and a couple of backing singers. It’s really well done, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
  • Saturday, I finished some work, packed and waited until it was time to get a taxi.
  • Related, when we arrived at the hotel, we realised we’d come to the wrong branch. It was a bit of a mix-up when we originally booked: the cheaper online offer was for the one a bit further away. It was fine.
  • Sunday’s flight check-in wasn’t as smooth as hoped, and the lounge Wi-Fi isn’t really working for this update.
  • I’m stopping here because, if I move my clocks to Korea time, it’s almost next week.

Weeknotes #190: control and evacuation

Birthday adventures, theatre, music and unexpected detours made everything memorable.

Week commencing Monday, 7 September 2026

Interior of the 1936 Southern Railway electrical control room at Woking, with illuminated railway power diagrams around the curved walls and a large Art Deco uplighter beneath the domed ceiling.
The preserved Southern Railway electrical control room at Woking.

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 4/7. (62%). Morning walks: 0/3. Office days: 2/5. Total steps: 53,592. 18.3 hours in meetings.

Life

  • Sedentary start to the week. At least I had my Tai Chi class on Zoom on Tuesday.
  • I’ve never been a big fan of foldable phones; I’ve always thought they were flimsy, but the promotional video and demo at this week’s launch of the iPhone Duo looked more compelling than I expected. But, at least for now, I don’t think it’s for me. One day?
  • Thursday, I know we need rain, but perhaps not on my head at that time of the night.
  • Related, I stood in the entrance of Wood Lane Tube, talking longer than I should have done, because by the time I’d walked round to Shepherd’s Bush, I was soaked through to the skin, and as I was crossing the bridge towards the platform, I watched the last train of the evening depart.
  • Relatedly related, I ended up in a FreeNow cab, which worked well. Maybe they are my new go-to ride app.
  • Unusually for a Friday, I went into the office. I decided to go in later than normal, assuming Fridays on the trains would be quieter than the rest of the week. That turned out to be a bad assumption. Not only were they much busier, but they were delayed, and we were being shuttled between platforms 1 and 17 at Clapham Junction, waiting for a train up to Shepherd’s Bush.
  • Friday evening, to see Sinatra the Musical: the story of Sinatra from the 1940s to the early 1950s, which opens with his Paramount-era stardom, the Ava Gardner scandal, the resulting commercial collapse, and his comeback. It doesn’t cover the Rat Pack years, and I think that made for a good story. He didn’t come out of it brilliantly, but not as badly as the story might have made him.
  • Also, on Friday, I published a thing about the world’s most preposterous song.
  • Birthday Saturday, a visit to the former Southern Railway electrical control room at a special open day. The control room itself is a large oval room with a white domed ceiling and a small central switchboard/control desk. Poles hold copper dishes that light the room from uplighters, rather than fluorescent tubes. The walls are lined with black control panels, each corresponding to a substation along the line. Everything was left as it was in 1997, but very much disconnected. It was beautifully Art Deco and designed to be looked at, which I guess explains the Grade II listing.
  • Birthday Saturday, lunch at Loft Sky Bar on top of the Hilton in Woking, a place with incredible views over Surrey. We could see one of the roller coasters at Thorpe Park, a tower at Heathrow and some buildings on the Wentworth estate.
  • Related, at the end we were asked to evacuate via 22 flights of stairs. I have no idea what happened, and we could see nothing, but a fire engine greeted us as we left the building.
  • Birthday Saturday, Lil Nashville in Chiswick. BBQ brisket nachos, loaded with hickory-smoked brisket, were a great sharing plate. Kerryl was performing when we arrived, and then The Wranglers took the stage with a mix of covers, including a tribute to Dolly Parton, and their own material. It was a really fun evening, and I’m glad we got to go.

Media

  • Finished Ride or Die. It’s very much set up for the next series. I hope they make it.

Freeze, I’m Ma Baker

On the eve of my seventh birthday, Boney M’s Ma Baker was slipping out of the UK singles chart. Nearly fifty years later, the preposterous disco gangster story is still the record I call my favourite. Probably.

7-inch vinyl single of Boney M’s “Ma Baker” on Atlantic/Hansa Records, photographed in a white paper sleeve.
My 7-inch vinyl copy of Boney M’s “Ma Baker”, released on Atlantic/Hansa Records.

11 September 1977 was the last day I was six years old. I have no idea what I got for my 7th birthday. It was a Sunday, so it would have been the day the week’s new singles chart was announced. I can’t tell you if I paid any attention to that broadcast; I would have been birthday-excited, but school was the next day, so no doubt I had an early night. I imagine that, by this point in my life, I was starting to be interested in music. However, the following year I was still searching for children’s records, or specifically the theme song from The Famous Five television show, and getting my mum to use her shorthand skills to transcribe the lyrics to Brian and Michael’s Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs. So, who knows what I thought about music? I guess musical taste evolves; maybe it never stops. 

But back to the singles. At chart position 34, and about to spend its very last week on the chart until some remix appeared for a couple of weeks in the late 90s, was a single that I often cite as my favourite record: Boney M’s Ma Baker. 

I don’t think it’s really possible to pick a favourite record; it’s so much a matter of mood and moment. But Ma Baker has stuck with me since I first heard it, and it’s the song I’ll probably tell people is the best when they ask, maybe because it’s been in my memory longer than any other song. 

In many ways, I should really be calling it the world’s most preposterous song, and it was, at least until the Vengabus came along. The opening “freeze I’m ma baker”, the FBI’s most wanted woman, the whole call-and-response format, the news bulletin: there’s a lot of novelty production going on there. The German Europop disco beat might have been fashionable, but the sound was more studio than stadium rock. Still, it resonated with enough people to reach number two. 

Boney M had already had top-five hits with Daddy Cool and Sunny, and had established themselves across Europe as purveyors of disco hits. But by September 1977, Ma Baker was their biggest hit to date. Sure, a few months later they’d top the charts with Rivers of Babylon, and by the end of 1978, Mary’s Boy Child. But in September 1977, this was considered one of the best in the country.

Yet  Ma Baker is highly questionable. It’s apparently based on the real Kate ‘Ma’ Barker, whose sons were associated with a Depression-era American criminal gang. But the song takes liberties with the story. These days we know many of the faces who appeared as ‘Boney M’ on television and in magazines were, shall we say, adjacent to the singing (and even the speaking) that you hear from the speakers. No one has credibility when citing this as a favourite song, because no reputable musician or critic can find redeeming features. Even the tune is derived from something else, the traditional Tunisian song “Sidi Mansour”. 

I often wonder if that little spoken section, “here is a special bulletin…” was the real start of my love affair with radio. And if the whole gangster tale was the start of my preference for songs that tell a real story as opposed to singing about umbrellas. But, I’m not searching for credibility. Ma Baker is my favourite song. Probably.

Weeknotes #189: quizzes, trains and tapas

Bank holidays, reunions, journeys, tapas and Rioja brighten busy week.

Week commencing Monday, 31 August 2026

Rows of vines cascading down a hillside at Hencote Vineyard near Shrewsbury, seen from the winery's terrace, with guests seated at a table in the foreground and Shrewsbury's church spires and the distant Shropshire hills visible on the horizon under a partly cloudy sky.
Hencote’s vineyard rolls down towards Shrewsbury in the distance.

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 2/7 and Move 5/7. (%). Morning walks: 0/3. Office days: 1/4. Total steps: 42,930. 16.1 hours in meetings.

Life

  • Started the week with a bank holiday. We pottered around and pub quizzed. Finishing 5th was a great result, and we used the voucher from last time, when 9th got us a free round.
  • At work, we are incorporating AI properly and formally. I was a little dismissive, despite my own successes with personal AI projects. But then we started doing it, and I became fascinated to see the outcomes.
  • Was Sir Keir’s resignation as an MP, triggering a by-election, in the best interests of anybody but Sir Keir?
  • Thursday night was both a leaving drink and a reunion. I took MB out for lunch for the former, which enabled me to go to the latter.
  • Related, the reunion was in a pub with a division bell. I think it’s more than an eight-minute walk from there to vote.
  • The note from the neighbours meant we had to figure out what to do next, and there was no obvious answer.
  • Friday, all the seats in my train carriage appeared to be booked, but in reality, most of them were never used. The journey ran on time.
  • Saturday, I had to drive to lunch, so it was a non-alcoholic drink at the vineyard we visited next.
  • To compensate, I overconsumed Rioja with the delicious Spanish tapas that we had for dinner.
  • Related, the Wetherspoons afterwards was very busy.
  • Sunday, lunch was large and a good cure for the previous day’s overindulgence.
  • Related, I slept for a lot of the train journey home.

Media

  • Almost finished Ride or Die. I’m really enjoying it, and I think not binge-watching it was a good idea.

A book on the pavement

A discarded book on the pavement sent me back to the days when pop trivia was harder to find.

A worn paperback copy of the "Guinness British Hit Singles" 12th edition, propped at an angle against a weathered stone gatepost, lying on damp ground scattered with fallen leaves.
A discarded copy of the Guinness Hit Singles book

A few weeks ago, in one of my weeknotes, I wrote that I had, for the first time, heard Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In. At that point, it had spent 18 weeks at No. 1, equalling the all-time UK record set by Frankie Laine’s I Believe in 1953. Sorry, but it hasn’t stuck in my head so I can’t hum it for you. 

James Masterton, of chart commentary fame, says that I Believe subsequently returned to Number 1 in a version by Robson & Jerome for another four weeks in 1995. So, the song accumulated 22 weeks as the UK’s Number 1.

This week is the 23rd non-consecutive week at the top for Rein Me In, beating any other combination of Frankie Laine and Robson & Jerome. While looking up these facts, I learned that Rein Me In has now triggered something called the Accelerated Chart Ratio, which seems to be a fancy term for some rule that requires a song’s streams to work harder before they count toward a chart position. There is a trigger when a song starts to move down the charts after 10 weeks, and another trigger if something has been at number one for 20 weeks. So, Sam and Olivia have triggered it, although they might wish they hadn’t. Or, they may have gone all Wet Wet Wet, who famously stopped pressing any more copies of the single version of their long-running number one, Love Is All Around, after 15 weeks at the top. There are so many facts that date that last sentence! Much harder to stop pressing a stream. All these rules seem incredibly complicated, but I guess they stop some 80s classic from ruining the charts for kids these days.

Back in the 80s, of course, I could not have looked up the official Chart Company website or the chart commentary. We learned these facts only from Bruno Brooks, who hosted the Top 40 show on Radio 1 on Sunday nights, or, for a bit of pop trivia, from the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles. I think any serious music lover in the 80s had a copy. There were 19 editions of that book published under the name Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, and then a couple under the name Virgin Book of British Hit Singles. I don’t think it’s around anymore. 

The 12th edition of the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles was released in 1999, and somehow, on my walk to the supermarket this evening, a copy appeared dumped on the pavement. I did not bend down to pick it up or examine it. I don’t know why it was there, but it intrigued me and reminded me of the days when you had to look up music facts. Rein Me In might not appear in that copy, but I bet it is full of useless, quiz-winning pop trivia. Maybe I should have picked it up.