Tag: weeknotes

Week commencing Monday, 31 March 2025

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 2/7; Exercise 2/7 and Move 2/7. (29%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 30,482

Life

• Dad chased a missing birthday gift for PY that was dropped at a local shop. No luck. We’ll keep chasing.
• I wrote something that reflected on Facebook/Meta’s high standards for product success, which was really reminiscing about the Meta Portal, an excellent photo frame and calling device.
• Workwise, I attended a lengthy work session discussing apprenticeships, which was more interesting than I imagined.
• Wednesday, I caught up with US tariff predictions and ended the day feeling low about the news.
• Thursday was Thirsty Thursday again: an evening out at The White Horse where we tried to chat with ChatGPT about our personas.
• Friday, I woke feeling ill with a persistent cough, so I cancelled next week’s Blood Donor session, but managed to get through the day.
• Saturday: I enjoyed a lazy morning despite feeling under the weather. I called Mum and Dad about their anniversary flowers and booked train tickets for an Easter break trip to Shrewsbury.
• Annoyingly, I discovered that AudioBoom no longer publicly hosts some radio clips I wanted to listen to. It’s time to see if I can recover them from AWS.
• Saturday night, met up with friends in Balham for oysters, sharing plates and garlic prawns.
• Took an afternoon walk on Cannon Hill Common, enjoying a moment watching local wildlife.

Media

• Monday night was quiz night again, with Mastermind, new players for this week’s Chess Masters and UCL vs the Open University on University Challenge taking our evening.
• Later in the week, I was introduced to The Residence, a fantastic whodunnit story on Netflix.

Week commencing Monday, 24 March 2025

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 2/7 and Move 6/7. (71%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 56907

Life

• Monday, attended One Night in Bohemia, a Jonathan Larson tribute concert at the Phoenix Arts Club. An energised performance featuring a standout cast, raising funds for the National AIDS Trust.
• Tuesday, saw My Neighbour Totoro at the Gillian Lynne Theatre. A visually imaginative and whimsical stage adaptation, great puppetry and creative direction.
• Wednesday is a change of office day for me. I had a hectic commute, productive meetings, and evening plans cancelled. Dinner included an inventive fridge-clear-out pasta dish.
• Thursday: I worked from home. It was a quiet day. Mum and Dad arrived. It was strange to communicate with people in the office on the day I would usually be there.
• Related, a large vegetable chilli dinner was created.
• Friday to Sunday, family trip to Paris. Travelled by Eurostar and stayed near the Arc de Triomphe. Enjoyed smooth connections, scenic views, and good food throughout.
• Saturday, took in the sights on a hop-on hop-off bus tour, failed to wander along the Seine, and admired the Eiffel Tower at night during a river cruise.
• Celebrated Mother’s Day with lunch on the Bustronome, a double-decker dining experience offering panoramic views of the city as we ate.

Week commencing Monday, 10 March 2025

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 4/7. (62%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5 Total steps: 44,027

Life

• I am often asked to produce my passport or my driving licence to use as identity, but I have not needed my birth certificate for a long time. Thankfully, I found it.
• I asked Google Gemini to clean up a meeting transcript. It turned a forty-minute meeting into a ten-minute passage and then read it to me. That would have been a great time-saver if I hadn’t had to hear the entire meeting.
• Related: nice though it was, I am glad I heard the original meeting because that allowed me to spot where Gemini had got it wrong. Unsurprisingly, people trust AI a little too much: Would a computer really go on the internet and lie? Well, yes.
• Relatedly, related: Revealed: How the UK tech secretary uses ChatGPT for policy advice.
• Thursday, to the office and met a former colleague in a lovely pub near St Paul’s Cathedral. I walked streets I’d never ventured down before. There are some interesting places in London.
• On Saturday, for PY’s birthday, we saw The World of Tim Burton at London’s Design Museum. It was very busy, but it was really interesting to see the evolution of the Tim Burton look. Lots of films were covered in a small space, so the exhibition was very much focused on how the look evolved rather than on any particular show. Of course, I loved The Nightmare Before Christmas parts.
• Related, the themed afternoon tea, rooftop cocktail bar with a view of St Paul’s Cathedral, and Argentinian steak dinner were all surprises. My timings all worked out, even with a delay on the Circle Line.
• Friends of Sunday Lunch, PY has planned individual beef Wellingtons. After the Argentinian, that was a lot of steak in one weekend.
• This resonated: How Much Do I Really Need to Know?

Media

• No pub quiz for us this week, so we had Mastermind, Chess Masters, University Challenge, and then to catch up on Only Connect, The Final. We did get some of the questions right.
• We completed watching Prime Target. I’m glad we stuck with it. I don’t think many of the characters were nice enough to root for, but it was very enjoyable.

Week commencing Monday, 3 March 2025

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 4/7. (71%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 48,172

Life

• I continued to feel unwell for much of the week. Wednesday, I tried to go to my Tai Chi class but my coughing fit on the train to Waterloo persuaded me it would be better to return home.
• I did do Monday’s pub quiz. We were 4th. That might be the best placing for a long time.
• Last week I mentioned that I managed to get a GP appointment on Monday. Not only did I do that, I got a walk-up x-ray appointment on the same day and there was nobody else waiting when I arrived. The NHS worked for me.
• Oh, the excitement: the boiler was serviced. The engineer turned up at just the right moment between two meetings. And tested the carbon monoxide alarm, which, I think, is the first time I’ve ever heard the noise it makes.
• I did go to the office on Thursday. Lots of meetings about the next phase of work. Nothing concrete yet, but progress is being made.
• Thursday evening to The Island. A smaller boat than usual on the crossing to Ryde, which meant the 8:20pm sailing felt very busy.
• Related, we turned-up early for the return voyage on Sunday, and made it on to the boat but it was full.
• On Friday, I succeeded and presenting my ID to the solicitors and failed to get the carpenter to remove the box surrounding the electricity meter.
• Saturday, to Newport to see Out on an Island: Pride In Self, Pride In Place, an exhibition to celebrate 20 years of LGBT History Month in the UK. Fascinating. We ended up buying the book (and the lunch at Quay Arts was good too)
• Sunday, to Hedge End and Sunday lunch with T. The pub he found was excellent and the portions superb.

Media

• The concluding episode of the new Bergerac was good. I didn’t see it all coming together until the end, which I think is the mark of a good detective series.
• We’re sticking with Prime Target on Apple TV, even though Edward belief in the maths in spite of all that is going on around him, is annoying.
• Remember Monday was announced as the UK’s Eurovision entry: What The Hell Just Happened?

Week commencing Monday, 24 February 2025

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 3/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 4/7. (52%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 44,527

Life

• In world news: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told to leave the White House in a bad day for the world.
• So, let’s think about something less important: if you use GitHub’s standard of minima for GitHub Pages, and you want to adjust some of the layout, then layout: default just may be what you’re looking for and not later versions which specify base.
• Weblog was the answer to a question on this week’s Mastermind. I’m glad it wasn’t the only one I knew.
• Thursday, after work, I decided to go home rather than go for drinks. I thought I was just feeling grumpy; turns out I was getting a three-day cold.
• Related, my GP has appointments for next week on the app when I decided to talk to somebody about it.
• It didn’t stop me going for lunch at Rovi on Saturday with family. Good food and very friendly staff. I was glad, however, when I got home for rest.
• Sunday, and unrelated to last week’s announcement that Amazon has got creative control over the franchise, to James Bond night at The Crazy Coqs. Started with Licence to Kill, which is the best Bond theme of all.
• After the show, all the pubs around were busy, so we went to The American Bar and spent too much on two drinks each.

Media

• In my two-day man-flu state, I powered through the last few episodes in Series 1 of The Blacklist. Thoroughly enjoying the nonsense.
• I never watched John Nettles as Jim Bergerac in the 80s TV series. This week, we just started watching Damien Molony playing the same role in the revival on the streaming service that’s bizarrely called U. We’re hooked enough to finish it next week.

Week commencing Monday, 17 February 2025

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 5/7. (71%). Morning walks: 0/3 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 2/5. Total steps: 53,600

Life

• It’s been a year since I decided to remove trackers and other logging from this website. It’s not big enough for me to worry about the stats. I wanted to check nothing had crept in. Still not tracking you.
• Two days in the office this week. It’s happening more and more but not enough to become a trend. It was nice in the office; the commute home remains frustrating. A minor issue with our software on Wednesday evening kept me later than I intended. We had a Chinese takeaway rather than a Tai Chi lesson.
• Apple removed their most secure privacy capability from the UK. Nice explanation from Ian Betteridge. This is not a good look for our government, but I suspect there just aren’t enough people who think it’s important to make enough noise to change their stance.
• Friday was an evening of dance seeing Birdboy at Sadler’s Wells East: It’s a lot less ‘dancy’ than I imagined, but the physical contortions and movement are mesmerising. The soundscape ranges from birdsong, through the child’s voice talking about life, to a fast-paced montage of sound snippets of the world: David Attenborough nature shows, weather forecasts, and music. Later, I saw it described as “dark and shadowy”, but I didn’t experience that at all; it was wonderful.
• Saturday was the final night of Battersea Power Station’s Light Festival 2025. My favourite was the first installation we encountered, Spin Me a Yarn by Studio Vertigo: the pink neon worked well in the twilight and, later, after it got appropriately dark.
• Related: on the way back, I bought two coffees and two cakes from Black Sheep, totalling £15, which I thought was a bit much given we had to order via screen and there was almost no interaction.
• St Paul’s Cathedral is currently running a sound and light show, Luminous, which we saw on Sunday evening. It’s very impressive.
• And, own your garbage. The world thanks you. (Via Kottke).

This week’s rabbit hole

• When he was inaugurated, the President of the Twelve United English Colonies of North America decided to rename the Gulf between the US and Mexico. Most of the world, like Hillary, chuckled. This week, the providers of the maps most of us use daily—the big American tech giants—updated their maps. Gruber wrote a long thing about what places are called. But the map on my phone now says Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America). We don’t all have to subscribe to this nonsense, so I tried to find out how this is done, because you’d imagine the British, with their history of colonisation, might have something to say about it. Turns out, I can’t find much. Let me know if there’s an organisation I haven’t consulted.
• First stop: Great Britain’s national mapping service—you’d think Ordnance Survey might do official naming for the UK? Nope. It does maintain a Geographic Database, but that’s only for Great Britain. It contains over half a billion features, all in the UK.
• Ah, second stop: the UK government’s Permanent Committee on Geographical Names. Quite a bit to say on English conventional names—recognised English-language forms of foreign geographical names, such as Moscow, Cologne or Rome. It has a nice list of country names, which comes close to saying this is how the UK sees the world. But I can’t find anything about the seas.
• Official Government advice seems to suggest that, for the names of places and features worldwide, I should consult the United States Board on Geographic Names. And that’s returning the new name. So, is that what we should call it now from here?

Media

• Stylish, absurd yet entertaining: we started watching Prime Target on Apple TV+—a brilliant Cambridge mathematician becomes a target for shadowy forces. A fun way to spend an evening.
• I’ve been rewatching The Blacklist from the beginning. Still on series 1 and still enjoying James Spader. There are maybe too many crime thrillers on my watch list, this one featuring a lot of high-stakes deception on all sides.

Week commencing Monday, 10 February 2025

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move 14/7. (66%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 50,828

Life

• It was pub quiz again. One of the rounds was really tough for us, but it turned out that it was tough for everybody. Mid-table seems to be our position.
• Food that was batch-cooked last Sunday lasted the week. And it was very useful. Also, tasty.
• We had an impromptu dinner at Mora Meza on Thursday night, and it was delicious.
• If I wrote that we went to see a play that dramatises the 1997 climate change treaty negotiations in Kyoto, it would sound a bit dry. If I added that a big scene featured arguments over the placement of a comma, you might think to avoid it. In fact, the high stakes of the event – and the politics for the ten years leading up to the Kyoto summit – were gripping. A fantastic piece of theatre at Sohoplace.
• Related, it was the first legally binding agreement to commit industrialised countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The US never ratified it. The UK met its obligations for the first commitment period, to 2012.
• Our Valentine’s dinner was post-theatre. The later hour meant we were the only ones in the restaurant. They were packing up around us. The food was delicious, but the ambience was – perhaps – not so romantic.
• Saturday, to see Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy at the Odeon in Streatham (£7 seems like a bargain ticket). I’m not sure I’ve seen any of the movies since the original. It’s always best to have low expectations because I came out having thoroughly enjoyed it. Bridget is now a single mother and navigating life once again looking for love, but older, if not wiser. Surrounded by the consistent group of friends (including Hugh Grant, Sally Phillips and Emma Thompson) that helped make previous films. No spoilers, but is Roxster even a name?
• Relatedly, related. I never read film reviews until after I have seen the movie and have my own opinion. But I love how The Guardian’s website can simultaneously have a poor review (2 stars, Peter Bradshaw) and a much more positive one (4 stars, Wendy Ide). I am not sure who that’s trying to help. My review: engaging, funny and not as clichéd as imagined. Probably 4 stars.
• We saw Patti LuPone at the Coliseum on Sunday night. As PY quipped, Old Compton Street must have been deserted. The show is just Patti and two on-stage musicians. It had ballads and musical showstoppers, and the music spans her life, woven into her story. I think it was supposed to appear unscripted, but it was a bit too slick into and out of songs to be anything other than pre-written. There was a lack of personal showbiz anecdotes and not much spontaneity, but it was a wonderful evening of song. Did we just see an icon of stage? I think we did.

Media

• More crime drama. This week it was the turn of Netflix’s Swedish drama, “The Åre Murders”. I was expecting subtitles but got the dubbed version. It was only on episode 4 I realised I could have the original Swedish audio; by then, I opted not to. It’s good, but the underlying reason for the show – detective Hanna Ahlander retreats to Åre after facing suspension in Stockholm – is somewhat glossed over. Be prepared for a lot of snow.
• While watching another video about Dutch transit, I discovered a new word for the bricks used in road building. Technically, it’s a Dutch word: klinkers. See also this video.
• Jon Stewart & John Oliver Welcome America to Its Trump Monarchy Era went on a bit. The monarchy bit was funny.
• More YouTube rabbit holes: it’s been seventeen months since I worked in Staines. But I think it now has TFL contactless payments; no promotion: Gen-Z are saying they have ‘no interest’ in middle management; James May admits he ‘weeps’ about Brexit’s impact on television.

Week commencing Monday, 3 February 2025

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 4/7. (57%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 46,616

Life

• To prove that I am nothing if not a mass of contradictions. After last week’s dive into, perhaps, useful AI, this: “The LAST thing we needed was a better way to generate plausible-looking horse shit for random gullible people to consume unwittingly, but here we are, and it’s only going to get worse.” Rachel By The Bay is also spot on. What a world.
• Relatedly related. It was announced that Google’s Gemini assistant is being enabled at work. That would allow me to add material to the notebook service I talked about last week. I am not expecting hitherto unnoticed insights. Yet.
• Thursday was too cold to sit out for drinks for our usual Thirst Thursday, so we moved to Mildreds, where I continued my rule of not ordering anything “chick+n” but broke my rule of avoiding tofu. The kimchi bokkeumbap, which contained salt and pepper tofu, was delicious.
• Saturday, to the RHS gardens at Wisley. The Orchid House had colour, and there were snowdrops in bloom. I bet it’s even more impressive in summer.
• Sunday to a crowded Ikea to buy a light. And then a tram and bus to Lower Morden Garden Centre, where we bought some new plants. To avoid carrying it, potting compost was ordered from Amazon for delivery tomorrow.
• Note to future self: parsnip gnocchi was a lot of work, but delicious.

Media

• Fascinating read: Are we prioritising global events over personal pursuits and social connections?
• We finished White Lotus. After previous comments, I’m pleased it became engrossing enough to make us want to watch the next one.

Week commencing Monday, 20 January 2025

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 5/7. (71%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 2/5. Total steps: 49,575

Life

• Monday, a new fridge freezer was installed. Feels bigger but is the same size. Unlike the one that disappeared in the van, the fridge bit works as expected. Now, we can shop properly again.
• Same day, I cracked and started doom-scrolling the news. Then I remembered, and I went back to being calm again.
• We got another door quote. £4,000 cheaper than the last one. Then we got references because we’ve never used the second quote company. Came back good.
• I had two office days this week. Tuesday ended with more leaving drinks for Andy. This time I made the train home.
• Related, tired by the end of Wednesday meant I skipped my Tai Chi class. That’s a non-resolution broken.
• Getting home after being in the office on Thursday, a day with no evening work social event, was nice. But I am reminded how short evenings are after I have commuted and opened the door.
• I thought I might check up on my pension transfers. This is a blood pressure-raising moment as money has gone from one provider, but the new one says it’s waiting. They told me not to do it, but I did it anyway.
• I am consolidating a number of providers with one of my existing ones. They sent a note to say it was going ahead because they’d detected the new provider wasn’t a scam. It’s the same company; good to know they consider themselves safe.
• Winter Light at Canary Wharf is always interesting. But, goodness, a lot of people.
• We made a Burns Night dinner and watched a related BBC Scotland show. It included whisky, and it didn’t give me indigestion.
• A dinner for Chinese New Year in Covent Garden on Sunday evening. Lots of steamed dumplings.

Media

• Trying to avoid inauguration doom-scrolling by watching a super energy-efficient Victorian home, another off-grid house, and the launch of the new Tesla, which I won’t buy.
• Nostalgia-wise, I got ready for 1989 ITV.
• A BBC correspondent caught up in the LA Wildfires.
• A couple more episodes of The White Lotus S1, where nothing much happens and the characters become more infuriating.

Week commencing Monday, 13 January 2025

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 4/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 4/7. (57%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 38,460

Life

• Got the quote from one of the big London firms to fix the rotten wood around the door. I am not sure what else we can do with £5,000, but it won’t be this. I assume they don’t want the work. Alternatives are being searched for.
• Pub quiz is back. It was great fun, as always. Most frustrated I could not remember Carl Douglas’ name (the singer of Kung Fu Fighting). Somewhere in the middle again!
• Big corporate thing on Wednesday. I watched it remotely. It was very well done, but it took most of the afternoon.
• Thursday to the office, followed by a leaving do. Fun evening that ended up in a pub where the karaoke accompaniment was a live guitarist. We watched. Nice to see MB over from Japan.
• Related, a very jolly member of Shepherd’s Bush station staff told me I’d missed the last train. I don’t think the big smiles were due to my predicament. Uber to the rescue.
• Relatedly related, talked football all the way home. Felt vaguely knowledgeable because the family WhatsApp keeps me up to date on events at Goodison Park.
• Relatedly, the Christmas tree is still up— and illuminated— in the middle of Shepherd’s Bush Green. Do they need to leave it up all year now?
• A mainly quiet weekend, a decluttering of books went to charity. The weather has been terrible. Sunday, friends for dinner. A lovely afternoon.

Media

• Watched the first episode of The White Lotus. The plot is based on new guests arriving at the White Lotus resort, bringing their own set of problems. They felt disconnected. But not a lot happens, and it’s slow going and felt like hard work. The characters, however, are fascinating but not likeable at all.
• Randomly watched a YouTube video about the end of Southern Television, the ITV franchise for the south of England, and one about a man who lives in a tiny house on wheels, hidden inside a truck. It looked quite smart.
• Also went back to one of my pre-pandemic favourite channels, The Endless Adventure, and discovered I’m five years behind on their adventures.
• Tried to listen to Tim Cook on the Table Manners podcast, but found I couldn’t quite stick with it. I think it was too long for my liking.

Week commencing Monday, 6 January 2025

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 6/7 and Move 6/7. (86%). Morning walks: 1/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 67,017

Life

• I guess we are fully in 2025. Can I keep this going for another year? I’d like to think so.
• The first day back at work was hard. Although I did get out for a walk beforehand – and afterwards – so the week started well.
• Watching TV one evening, I wondered what is the point of saying they are ‘live’ when BBC One continuity announcers introduce themselves in the early evening? Do any viewers care (I understand TV people might)?
• Tuesday, to Robin Hood, this year’s Palladium Pantomime. Julian Clary starred as the titular character, with Jane McDonald as Maid Marian, and a supporting cast of panto regulars. All in all, a spectacle of extravagant costumes, celebrity cameos, and a thin plot. Absolutely brilliant.
• Saturday, first delayed train of the year to Birmingham, primarily to see the Ikon Gallery’s partnership with macLYON: Friends in Love and War; works by over twenty artists from the British Council Collection and macLYON that explore the theme of friendship. I’m trying to see more art because I don’t understand it. This was wonderful, but I am sure I didn’t appreciate it properly.
• Later, the Cuban afternoon tea was great, but there’d been a mix-up and we’d been booked in when the main service finished. The Sri Lankan dinner was excellent, and we’re on the hunt for a local equivalent.
• In between, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra: CBSO Explores: Friends in Love and War, featuring the world premiere of Héloïse Werner’s siren suite for soprano and orchestra. Not the usual type of performance we’d see, but really interesting to experience.
• Sunday, to see the National Trust’s Birmingham Back to Backs. It’s the last surviving court of back-to-back houses in the city. The houses, built back-to-back with shared courtyards, offer insights into the lives of ordinary people in the 19th and 20th centuries. A really well-done and recommended tour.

Media

• More ‘talking shop’ about radio, as Dermot called it. Paul Gambaccini, broadcasting for 50 years, has a neat story about Sir Elton, also Scott Mills and Rev Kate Bottley. Lovely listening on BBC Sounds.
• More “lovely listening”: The Shipping Forecast: A Beginner’s Guide, beautifully celebrating one hundred years of the Shipping Forecast on the BBC. It made me look for a map of sea areas.

Week commencing Monday, 30 December 2024

Quantified Self

• This week: I blame the holidays: Stand 5/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 3/7. 52%. Office days 0/3. Total steps: 33,288

Life

• The last one with a 2024 start date. I am filing it under 2025, regardless.
• I worked Monday and Tuesday. Not many people in: quiet. Thursday was busier, but I got away for the first train south of the year.
• Tuesday, while in my study, I switched on Radio 2 where it was Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco, which seemed a bit too much of a party for me starting at a screen for work. I let it play into Tony Blackburn and then into Bob Harris’ Sounds of the 70s, opening the show with the very sad news that DJ legend Johnnie Walker had died. JW had a remarkable presenting career spanning almost 60 years, from the pirates to today. While not the 70s party playlist scheduled, it was a show full of music and memories and seemed very fitting.
• New Year’s Eve was with friends and a lovely evening was had. Somehow, the clock jumped from 1am to 3am remarkably quickly.
• Queer (at the BFI) on New Year’s Day. Daniel Craig’s portrayal of a 1950s gay man grappling with loneliness and addiction is really good – different from Bond – but the ending confuses. PY found an explanation.
• Friday we had an aborted walk on the Isle of Wight: the narrow country lane we needed to start the journey was busy with cars going too fast.
• Sunday, it rained a lot. Just in case parts of Ryde flooded we left a bit earlier than planned.

Media

• Radio 2 All Stars: Mark Goodier, Owain Wyn Evans, and Angela Griffin. She still worked in Burger King whilst starring in Coronation Street.
• “The left’s greatest sin seems to be, and I speak as a sort of leftist, is that it would rather be right than effective”, Stephen Fry guesting on Triggernometry

Week commencing Monday, 23 December 2024

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 6/7. (76%). Total steps: 57,603

Life

• Christmas break all week. Monday, flying to Edinburgh via London City Airport. It was remarkably quick to get to LCY.
• Driven through Edinburgh to my brother’s house. The city looked lovely after dark.
• Three relaxing days with family. The Christmas dinner was fantastic. There was a lot of food.
• On Christmas Eve I wouldn’t go on the Star Flyer with my niece. Spinning 85m above the city does not appeal. She loved it.
• A couple of good walks along the waterfront at Portobello didn’t keep my monitored exercise streak going. I don’t mind; it’s the holidays.
• Low cloud over the south of England meant over an hour sat on the runway in Edinburgh waiting for a slot to get home. The staff were lovely.
• At Heathrow, we bumped into friends who were returning from Madrid. Catching up on the tube ride home made up for the lack of speedier trains.
• Saturday night Mexican in Wimbledon with more friends was a lovely way to spend the Twixtmas.
• A walk to Cannizaro Park on Sunday ended the week well.

Media

• Family wanted to watch Call The Midwife and I unexpectedly enjoyed both episodes.
• There was a lot of coverage of the Gavin and Stacey: The Finale special. It was nice Christmas viewing.
• Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl was much funnier than I thought it would be. Flipping Nora.
• Christmas Doctor Who, Joy to the World, was fun but, for me, didn’t feel like Doctor Who.