Tag: weeknotes

Week commencing Monday, 15 June 2026

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move 7/7. (81%). Morning walks: 0/3. Office days: 1/4. Total steps: 82,034. 5.5 hours in meetings.

Life

• At last: ninth in the pub quiz. Ben volunteered to step up to do the tie-breaker, where you need to name the song – but not the artist. There were two other teams. One of them was jumping with frustration, unable to bring the name to their lips, but Ben identified Don’t Stop Me Now without saying “Queen”, and now we have a voucher for a round of drinks when we are all together next.
• Tuesday, to Liverpool for a work event. Albert Dock looked lovely lit up. Unfortunately, the hotel bar had closed by the time we returned. I’d already decided to call it a night when the others opted not to head out looking for a late-night drinking place. Given I’d had my first beer on the train just after 1 p.m., I’d been very watchful of my intake and was capable of sensible decisions.
• Thursday’s World Cup Banter: it was a game of two halves; a chaotic, breathless first period in Dallas saw England twice lead through Kane, only to be pegged back by Baturina and then Musa right on the stroke of half-time, before Tuchel’s men came out after the break and were absolutely superb, with Bellingham restoring the lead and Rashford sealing a thoroughly deserved 4–2 victory to send England off to a flier in Group L. (ht: claude.ai)
• Friday, the American Psychological Association says that “extreme heat can make people more depressed or irritable”. That was my experience on the Tube before getting the train down to Festival Island.

Isle of Wight Festival 2026

• There was a big turnout on Friday for Ash. I didn’t think I was familiar with their work, but, surprisingly, I discovered Shining Light and Girl From Mars, which burst that theory.
• Real Dead Ringer, a Meat Loaf tribute act, delivered another energetic set of all the biggest hits in a sweltering ElectroLove tent.
• Saturday began with two renditions of No Scotland, No Party, one from Nathan Evans and the Saint PHNX Band and one from KT Tunstall, just before she introduced a surprise guest, Jack Savoretti.
• 5ive delivered a highly choreographed fifty minutes of nostalgic ’90s pop hits. It might not be cool, but it was unexpectedly polished, and sometimes pop bangers are what you need.
• Sunday, Suzanne Vega ended with Luka because she ran out of time for the song the crowd really wanted, Tom’s Diner. There was clear disappointment and confusion in the crowd as she left the stage.
• Level 42 arrived on stage and commenced a forty-five-minute jazz, funk and pop set that was almost without a gap, and precisely to time. The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up) and Lessons in Love were highlights. They received local support, with the King brothers originally from the island. I’ll be looking to see when they’re next playing nearby because it was a joyous set.
• And, of course, I wrote my Festival Diaries for days one, two and three. I think this was my favourite year at the festival.

Media

• Down Under, Kyle settles with ARN. The Game Changers Radio emergency podcast was activated.
• James O’Brien’s Full Disclosure interview with Russell Kane was a conversation about class, ambition, identity, and the insecurities behind confidence. A lesson that reading is good for you.

Week commencing Monday, 8 June 2026

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 2/7 and Move 4/7. (%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 42,088. 13 hours in meetings.

Life

• A quiet start to my week. My diary for Monday and Tuesday features a coffee pot and a plastic bag.
• But I got out on Wednesday night to meet an ex-boss of mine. We chatted a lot about the product management space at the moment and the relentless pressure to use AI in everything, even if we’re not clear what it will do. There was broad agreement that, in some cases, AI has become a priority for companies, and product teams are being asked to demonstrate usage because leadership wants evidence that the business is becoming more efficient, innovative, and “AI-ready”, even before everyone is clear on where the real value lies. Interesting to get a consensus. A bit deep, but the beer was good.
• Thursday, to The Old Vic for Glengarry Glen Ross, about desperate Chicago real estate agents trying to survive a brutal sales contest, where the best leads are fought over, and morality is the first thing to go to make a commission. The talking point is the gender switch, where characters written as men are played by women.
• Related, I thought the gender switch was intriguing, but it mainly made me realise that anyone can be a ruthless salesperson when there’s money on the line.
• On Friday, we were at a crematorium for a short memorial. It was very nicely done.
• Saturday, a lovely barbecue in the garden. We got the BBQ out of the cupboard, which means it’s out now until the autumn.
• The new Battersea Power Station had a wine festival, but we didn’t go for that; instead, we opted for a nice lunch by the river.

Week commencing Monday, 25 May 2026

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move 6/7. (86%). Morning walks: 0/3. Office days: 1/4. Total steps: 54,340. 10.4 hours in meetings.

Life

• Britain experienced its hottest day in May on record on the Bank Holiday, as temperatures reached 34.8°C. And it was hot all week. In my home office, the fan was needed when the room temperature exceeded 30°C.
• Bank Holiday lunch in Seaview. By luck, the table had a direct view out to sea, and we could see all the boats moored by the sailing club and the RIBs shuttling people to and from their vessels. It was quite fascinating to watch the number of people, loaded up, being taken by RIB to their boats.
• Wednesday, I decided to go to the gym. I only did an indoor walk, but it was a start. The gym was nice and air-conditioned, but it was also quite refreshing outside as the air cooled. I’d had the windows open upstairs, so we also had a lovely breeze through the house.
• My memory message celebrating the 50th anniversary of the West Shropshire Talking Newspaper has been published. I must post it here when I get a moment.
• A group of us played shuffleboard in a bar near the office. We didn’t play by the rules, even though they were set out on a board in front of us. We scored every puck; I think only the team with the puck closest to the far end of the board scores points for that round. It was fun.
• Friday, people for dinner, snacks in the garden in the heat. I think they call them picky bits these days.
• Saturday, I ended up going down rabbit holes trying to figure out if I could move all my emails and websites to European-hosted services. It turns out that it is more difficult than I imagined, and more expensive. Perhaps I’ll think about it some more.
• Sunday, Next had a smaller version of the sofa we wanted to look at. The Crazy Coqs did Wicked and The Wizard of Oz, which, in turn, gave us 15% off for a drink afterwards.

Media

• Not much media this week; I’ve been enjoying the sunshine. For some reason, I showed somebody a video of The Chicken Song at work.
• And, in these temperatures, Tom Scott’s misting video looked quite cooling.

Week commencing Monday, 18 May 2026

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move 6/7. (%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 57,681. 14.7 hours in meetings.

Life

• At the start of the week, I noticed the sun, which was a good indication of what was to come by the end of the week. On Monday, I was frustrated that I wasn’t up early enough to get out for a walk and enjoy it, but by the end of the week,I was enjoying the heatwave.
• Andy Burnham, the well-regarded Mayor of Greater Manchester, was, this week, confirmed as the Labour Party’s candidate for the Makerfield by-election, due to be held next month. Why would you want to go from something a lot of people think you’re good at to something nobody will like you for, no matter how good you are?
• The Office for National Statistics confirmed that net migration to the UK fell to 171,000 in the 12 months to the end of December 2025. Despite the figures, research published on the same day found that most of the public believed migration had risen, with only 16% aware that it had, in fact, fallen.
• Friday, I headed to the station for what was supposed to be a straightforward journey to the Isle of Wight: train to Waterloo, onward to Portsmouth Harbour, then the ferry. The train out of Raynes Park was slow through the early stops but picked up speed after Earlsfield, which seemed good.
• Related, London Waterloo was not good. A tree had come down on the line somewhere near Walton-on-Thames, and the knock-on effect was considerable. Everything was delayed, nothing was clear, and the app eventually informed us that our tickets could be used tomorrow instead. We made a quick decision: forget tonight, go tomorrow, do something else this evening. No stress.
• Hence, frozen margaritas in the evening sun on the South Bank. Lovely.
• So, Saturday to the Isle of Wight. The beach was busy. We managed to get a table at The Dell, where we had a few drinks and watched the world – including a couple of cruise ships – go by.
• Sunday, to Osborne House. Although we have visited the house in the last five years, it was subject to COVID restrictions back then, and this time, the upstairs apartments were open, which we’d not been able to see before.
• The weekend highlight was dinner at the Smoking Lobster. We started with a delicious tomato salad and the monkfish bao buns. My sea bass main was seared skin-side, with just the right amount of flake on the fish side; PY’s tuna was cooked to perfection, pink in the middle.

Media

• The final episode of Race Across the World. It makes me want to travel and see more of the world. They did 51 days’ travelling, which is impressive: 12,000 miles from Palermo, Sicily, to Hatgal, by Lake Khövsgöl in Mongolia.

Week commencing Monday, 11 May 2026

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 4/7. (57%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 39,620. 17.5 hours in meetings.

Life

• Pub quiz Monday, and we came seventh. PY asked me if I thought all pub quizzes were like the one at The Alexandra. I said that I assumed most British pub quizzes are like ours: mainly social, only partly a trivia contest, and predominantly an excuse to spend two hours in a pub arguing over the name of an actor nobody can quite place.
• I admit I only came up with the last bit of that line while writing my diary this week. It didn’t actually cross my lips when I was asked.
• I watched the Eurovision semi-final live on Tuesday. Of the six songs I thought were the best, San Marino (featuring an appearance by Boy George) and Estonia failed to qualify. We had to watch Thursday’s on catch-up.
• Related, this is the most ‘political’ contest I can remember. I find myself thinking back to chiding Sir Terry Wogan for losing his sense of humour. How quaint that all seems. How I wish that were still the most political thing about it. So, I wrote something about it.
• Relatedly related, to a small party on Saturday to watch the songs. A lovely evening, and what seemed like a nail-biting finish. Bangaranga!
• ChatGPT made me a playlist for the Isle of Wight Festival, uploaded it to Apple Music, and explained why it had selected the songs: “It is less a tasteful critic’s guide than a data-led greatest hits tour of the line-up.”
• Thursday’s dinner was at Six by Nico for the ten-course Seoul tasting menu. Everything was great, but the main courses were fantastic. Black pollock in a Seoul Korean sauce with mussel, clam and ssamjang was outstanding, and the Korean fried chicken — which sounds straightforward enough — was superb. I would happily have eaten considerably more of it.

Media

• Race Across the World, episodes six and seven. At one point, I welled up a bit. Almaty looked very impressive. Mongolia looks deserted.
• There was a lot of chatter in the news about the prime minister and whether he would be challenged. I really liked reading former MP Tom Watson’s take on everything, especially his description of how journalists can get themselves worked up about shenanigans: “You can hear the tremor in journalists’ voices whenever a Prime Minister starts to wobble. Nick Robinson’s voice climbed two semitones this week, and accelerated into that special Today programme register reserved for wars, resignations and arrests.”

Week commencing Monday, 4 May 2026

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 2/7 and Move 4/7. (57%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 0/4. Total steps: 35,862. 14.8 hours in meetings.

Life

• More table tennis volunteering on Bank Holiday Monday. The competition moved into the knockout rounds, but the draw was announced late on Sunday night, so nobody was expecting a big influx of people supporting the teams playing. There were still four tables in play at all times, but there wasn’t a very big crowd, and neither of the positions I was given had much traffic.
• Related, on my way on Monday, I saw a removal van at the Troubadour Theatre, which I assumed was there to pack up Starlight Express, as the show had finished the day before.
• Wednesday, I attended a drinks event with some interesting people, but I really should’ve left after we’d had the drinks and not gone to the pub afterwards. We ended up across the road at Flight Club until midnight.
• Polling day on Thursday brought some good news for PY, but early results pointed to a historic collapse in Labour’s support, so bad news for Keir.
• On Friday, the scale of Labour’s losses became fully apparent. Across England, Labour lost nearly 1,500 local council seats but managed to hold on to my local council, Merton.
• Saturday, back at Wembley. There was a new location, courtside, by the expensive seats. I wasn’t mad keen to spend time right down by the tables because one wrong move could throw somebody’s game, and that would have been bad.
• Finals day opened with a bit of a show. We were in the arena for the rehearsals before the public was let in. There was a lot of pyrotechnics involved. It looked impressive when it was performed in front of what they said was a sell-out crowd. Certainly, the seats around us were very busy, which made the volunteering session go by quickly.
• After the shift, we stayed until we were certain China’s women’s team had it in the bag.
• On the way home, I noticed the graffiti on the Starlight Express signs. I thought it was quite moving.
• Oh, and home for the men’s final. Thrilling game; China won. I can only imagine the noise in the arena. I was disappointed the BBC cut the feed before the medals.

Media

• On the way to and from Wembley, lots more Game Changers on the Kyle & Jackie O saga: The ARN AGM: The Kyle & Jackie O fallout ARN can’t hide, Inside the new Kyle and Jackie O court filings with Michael Byrnes, and Is Kris coming to KIIS?.
• YouTube: lighthouses are getting brighter, The Energy Market Is Rigged. And EVs Expose It, and When Oil Gets Expensive, Cities Get Better.

Week commencing Monday, 27 April 2026

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 4/7. (62%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 46,862. 17 hours in meetings.

Life

• I tried batch cooking on Monday. Unfortunately, my timings all went wonky. We ended up eating a pasta dish while some aubergine slices were cooking in the oven, and I spent most of the evening doing Tuesday’s dinner.
• It’s a nogalia-fest this week. In Shrewsbury last weekend, I found a plastic bag marked ‘radio autograph cards’ containing about 100 DJ promotional cards from various radio stations in the 1980s, many from broadcasters I would never have heard. I thought they were an interesting time capsule, so I wrote about them.
• Then there’s the Television and Radio 1983 book: a snapshot of an era when the UK had just launched a fourth television channel and breakfast telly was heralded as the next exciting development.
• Relatedly, the book mentions a television relay near Tintagel in Cornwall that was built using wind, solar, and batteries as an experiment, which struck me as a green agenda way ahead of its time.
• Thursday, I avoided one work-related drink to attend another: the usual mixture of putting the world to rights and losing track of how many pints of lager had gone by.
• It’s 100 years since a table tennis federation was formed. On Saturday, it was my first volunteer shift at ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals, London 2026 at Wembley. I was initially positioned far in the corner, near the practice courts, with a lady who knew all about the Chinese team, the world leaders in the sport, and was very excited whenever she saw one of their players. In fact, most of the crowd around me was.
• Dinner with friends on Saturday night meant I was happy for the slightly later start for volunteers on Sunday. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I don’t know any of the big stars who are getting all the fan attention, so if they came to sit where I was on the door, everybody got the same “hello”.

Media

• Game Changers are doing a great job of pumping out episodes chronicling the Kyle and Jackie O saga. This week, a view from all sides and Kyle and Jackie’s not so happy anniversary.
• Tom Scott on YouTube: These people walk towards mining disasters and I feel like I’ve just destroyed evidence!.
• Zoe on YouTube: 6 Weeks To Fix Their Gut Health!.

Week commencing Monday, 20 April 2026

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move 6/7. (86%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 37,451. 17.3 hours in meetings.

Life

• Out of a job (kind of): Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO of Apple. “Here’s to the mild-mannered, responsible and rapacious ones”
• Into a job: Sara Cox getting the slot she had been “waiting in the wings” for on Radio 2 Breakfast.
• Quiz time. We took a gamble on the wipeout round, which didn’t pay off. That meant we were lower down the rankings than we should have been, but I think if you want to come in the top half of the standings, you absolutely have to take a bit of a risk on that round.
• I’ve started photographing meals so that AI can work out my calories. I don’t think the numbers are accurate, but it’s much easier than logging everything.
• Wednesday, to see Ancient Grease at The Vaults — an unofficial parody musical that mashes Grease with Ancient Greek mythology: sounds utterly ridiculous, and it is: Zeus and Hera doing the hand jive at Olympus Academy, the three Fates dressed in gold playing chaos merchants, and an evening’s worth of toga-related innuendo. No John Travolta, but some strong Australian accents!
• I felt bad for the organisers of an internal work event this week; it would have been too much to rearrange due to transport strikes in London, so many seats remained empty.
• Friday, I managed to secure an upgrade through the SeatFrog auction app, so I travelled to Wolverhampton with Avanti in Standard Premier. Gone are the days when you get a proper upgrade to first class for not a lot of money.
• Saturday, from Shrewsbury to the Chainbridge Hotel in Llangollen. It was a beautiful sunny day for most of the journey, which is relatively straightforward until the very last stretch, where the road effectively becomes the canal towpath. I was entirely convinced we had taken a wrong turn until a small car park appeared at the end of it.

Media

• Trying to stay up to date with Race Across the World. Don’t tell me.
• A couple more episodes of series 1 of The Newsreader. I am enjoying it because I think they’ve captured the era very well.

Week commencing Monday, 13 April 2026

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

• This week, The Newsreader episodes I watched used Halley’s Comet and Lindy Chamberlain as their real-world grounding.

Week commencing Monday, 6 April, 2026

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.

Week commencing Monday, 30th March 2026

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

• Of interest: Can Europe’s public service media survive attacks by the far right?
• Full Disclosure: The live edition in which James O’Brien charts Gary Lineker’s extraordinary career.
• Game Changers Radio: A life on the air, the Kyle Sandilands story and Inside the breakdown of Kyle and Jackie O
• YouTube: Why Waterstones Chose the Customer & Won and Tom Scott’s I helped break a 142-year-old bell, and that’s okay.

Week commencing Monday, 23rd March 2026

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 5/7. (71%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 51,141. 16 hours in meetings.

Life

• Third time to the Starlight Auditorium: the biggest change from the previous visits was the audience. With the show closing on 3 May, many fans are clearly doing what we did and coming back for one more go. This was the busiest and most enthusiastic crowd we have been part of there.
• The cassette digitisation project continues. The little tape machine records directly onto a USB drive, which is convenient. The alternative, recording directly to the computer, requires a special cable, which arrived but does not work with my cassette player.
• Friday, I saw an advertisement for Duran Duran at BST Hyde Park, headlining the Great Oak Stage on 5 July with the Scissor Sisters as special guests. Another thing booked.
• Saturday, brunch at OXBO Bankside offered a lot of food choices. Later, the Backstage restaurant at the Old Vic, the theatre’s new annex that opened a few months ago, had fewer choices. Both were delicious.
• Then to Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola’s Tony Award-winning dark comedy, which reimagines Mary Todd Lincoln as a miserable, alcohol-dependent would-be cabaret star in the weeks before her husband’s assassination. I know it gets strong reviews, but I did not really take to it. The overall conceit is interesting, but the execution is the broadest, most unrelenting kind of farce — not a trace of subtlety anywhere.
• Sunday, BFI Flare: Madfabulous follows the true story of the flamboyant and rebellious life of Henry Paget, the 5th Marquess of Anglesey, as he squanders his massive fortune on lavish theatrical productions and gender-defying fashion. Mad and fabulous.
• Then a visit to the Handel Hendrix House. The museum brings together the former homes of George Frideric Handel, who lived at 25 Brook Street from 1723 until his death in 1759, and Jimi Hendrix, who occupied a flat next door in 1968 and 1969. Two buildings and about two centuries of musical history are separated by a wall (which has been knocked through to create the museum).
• The weekend ended with a visit to The Crazy Coqs for The Bells and the Barricades, an evening of songs from Les Misérables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and other French-themed musicals.

Media

• Obviously more Game Changers Radio this week. Kyle filed a claim in the Australian Federal Court, arguing that his termination is invalid. And the episodes kept coming.
• We started watching Loot on Apple TV+, the Maya Rudolph comedy about a newly divorced billionaire who finds herself running the charitable foundation she had apparently forgotten she founded. Early days, but it seems decent enough.

Week commencing Monday, 16 March 2026

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 5/7 (71%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 48,912. 21.5 hours in meetings.

Life

• Diamond Geezer’s been to Shrewsbury, and likes it. Man of taste. I learned that there was supposed to be a roof garden and restaurant on top of the market hall.
• I watched one of those videos where someone has used AI to place famous people next to their younger selves. There is a great one for Duran Duran, except they used the wrong Roger Taylor. Oops.
• Monday, finally, to the barricades! We saw Les Misérables. I’m glad I finally went. It’s a great show, and I can’t quite account for why it took me this long, nor why I got a bit emotional at the end. I bet anybody reading this has seen it.
• Thursday afternoon’s work outing was to the Museum of Brands. I have always meant to go and never quite got around to it — which made it slightly amusing that PY and I already have tickets booked for next Sunday.
• What struck me most was how many brands simply endured: HP Sauce and Daddies Sauce, both still on shelves today; Ty-Phoo Tea, still familiar; Coleman’s Mustard, Cadbury’s, etc., etc.
• Friday evening, I updated my blog-checking software, built using AI. Should I find it reassuring that it continues to find spelling errors in past weeknotes?
• For the second Saturday in a row, we were at the Design Museum — this time for Blitz: the club that shaped the 80s, the exhibition about Blitz, the Covent Garden club in a wine bar that ran on Tuesday nights between 1979 and 1980 and, in doing so, generated the entire New Romantic movement. Perhaps a bit too fashion-focused for my liking.
• At one point, a large screen showed footage of Spandau Ballet performing at the club — playing To Cut a Long Story Short, which was the first record I ever bought myself.
• Sunday’s second visit of the week to the Museum of Brands taught me that the phrase “keen as mustard” actually predates the brand; it was the popularity of Keen’s Mustard in the 18th and 19th centuries that is thought to have cemented the idiom in everyday English usage, rather than the other way around.
• I found myself puzzling over a box of “toilet pins” until I looked it up: they are dressmaking pins used for sewing or securing garments during fitting, and the word “toilet” here is from the French toilette, meaning personal grooming or dressing, with no connection to the room. Perfectly ordinary, once you know.
• Sunday evening to the BFI on the South Bank, and a screening as part of BFI Flare, the LGBTQ+ film festival. The Last Guest of the Holloway Motel, a documentary portrait of Tony Powell, a former Norwich City defender and 1979 Player of the Year, who effectively vanished after his playing career ended. It turns out he moved to West Hollywood rather than face the consequences of coming out as gay at the height of his career. The documentary is more moving than I think the filmmakers originally set out to make. Recommended.

Media

• Episodes of the podcast, Game Changers Radio, keep coming as ARN, the radio network, officially terminated Kyle’s contract and cancelled the show, tearing up the record-breaking 10-year deal (valued at a reported $100 million each) that both hosts had signed in late 2023 to run through 2034. So far away. So gripping.
• Friday evening was spent with old episodes of Yes, Prime Minister, and I still laughed.
• The final two episodes of Heated Rivalry. Now I understand all the references to The Cottage. The series is positive in a way that sets it apart from many gay love stories, which is genuinely refreshing. It does teeter on being too nice at times. The ending, predictably, is set up for a second series.

Week commencing Monday, 9 March 2026

Quantified Self

• This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 6/7 and Move 5/7. (81%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days: 1/5. Total steps: 56,584. 13.8 hours in meetings.

Life

• I wonder if I will live to see the proposed Heathrow Southern Rail. One day, I may step onto a Heathrow-bound train from Clapham Junction. The idea is back in the news again.
• Monday, we did the quiz as a threesome and fared much better than we thought we would. Tonight it was Edison Lighthouse’s Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) that I pulled from the back of my brain.
• I am using a free trial of the food app Mob. Wednesday’s aubergine & chickpea zaalouk was delicious, but Thursday’s za’atar chicken, olive rice & whipped feta tasted like something from a restaurant. I am very impressed.
• A generous and very unexpected gift from PY’s boss on Thursday. I shall enjoy learning to cook something new.
• Friday afternoon, I listened to an AI-generated audio file about my 2025 diary, where the machine-generated hosts talked about whether they were human or not. I cannot describe how bizarre I find this. And fascinating.
• Also, these AI-generated nobodies criticise my claim that “Licence to Kill” is the greatest Bond theme. Really? Of course it is. Who do they think they are?
• Saturday started at the Design Museum for Wes Anderson: The Archives, the first retrospective devoted to his films, drawing on three decades of his personal archives. There is a display case containing a lot of notebooks!
• Relatedly, the candy-pink model of The Grand Budapest Hotel and the original puppets from Fantastic Mr Fox were on show. There were some fantastic graphics from The French Dispatch and more Asteroid City material, including the vending machines, which we had seen in a previous exhibition devoted to that film. The amount of detail in Anderson’s work that passes by in a moment on screen is quite something when you see how much goes into it.
• Also on Saturday, to the BFI IMAX to see a preview of Project Hail Mary, the new space-adventure film directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and starring Ryan Gosling. The directors appear briefly on screen to introduce the film and explain that it was specifically optimised for IMAX, using the 1.43:1 aspect ratio to fill the full height of the screen. Utterly remarkable. It reminded me how extraordinary cinema can be when you see a film the way it was meant to be seen.

Media

• Finished Blue Lights, series 2. Now we can really catch up with the latest series.
• Discovered more detective stuff: Ellis on Channel 5. Watched the first two episodes of the current series as they were broadcast, then went back to the first season and watched one of those.
• I am very glad we have reopened the doors to Ted Lasso this week. A couple of series to catch up on.