Busy busy at work, which has dominated most thoughts this week.
Vera MOT passed thanks to my father-in-law having the tools, know how, and bloody mindedness to replace the failed headlamp unit. What a faff, but what a hero!
Friday I picked Jack up from nursery, and he and I headed to Blair Drummond campsite for two nights. Just the boys! (Well, minus Dave, bit too warm to leave him in the camper van during the day). What a great time I had, completely switched off from everything, played games, ate lots of snacks, had a fun (if aborted) ride on our bikes on Saturday, and today spent the entire day (again) at the Safari Park. Jack loves it there. It was busy but still big enough to get away to a quiet corner if needs must.
I did manage to watch some of the World Cup on a badly buffering stream —1 bar of 4G was just good enough— and my goodness Spain are a boring team. At least the England game was a little more interesting at times. Couple of great semi-finals lined up but I still can’t see beyond France to win it all.
Tour de France – Stage 6 was ridiculous. There are two riders who are a league above everyone else, and even then Tadej Pogacar is in a league of his own. It’s hard to sum up just how dominate a stage win it was. The climb up the Tourmalet is 17km long, with an average gradient of 7.5%, around 1.3km of elevation, and his average speed was 23.61km/h. He did that in just over 43 minutes. That’s a shade over my fastest average cycling speed ON THE FLAT. He’s an utter machine.
📚 Books
Imperfect Women by Araminta Hall – was ok, but did seem to dwell on certain topics/moments overly long. I’d class it as a holiday book, great for skimming through on your sun lounger.
The Perfect Cripple: A User Guide to Being Palatable — “There is a correct way to be disabled. No one tells you outright. There’s no handbook, no neat list of expectations. But people recognize it instinctively—and, more importantly, they recognize when you fall short.”
An Age-Gated Internet Is an Admission of Defeat – Pixel Envy — “Instead of reining in whatever broader risks may be invented or exacerbated by these companies’ products … we are throwing up our hands and pretending it is all too complicated.” A topic that is more and more on my mind as Jack is already approaching an age of understanding tablets and phones.
Why The Best Player Alive Barely Runs — “So when Messi walks, he’s not resting. He’s chunking the entire field. Every position, every shift, every gap in the backline is feeding a pattern library that he’s been building since he was 5 years old. By the time he decides to move, the map is already drawn.”
The Inner Ring | Longer, Hotter Summers — Climate change has such a myriad of impacts, articles like this are great to get a sense of all the little decisions that may need to be addressed, and this is just about one event.
Not watched a thing that isn’t World Cup, Tour de France, or Ted Lasso (the current comfort TV re-watch for Becca and I).
🎧 Music
Not listened to anything new, for same reasons as above.
🫀 Health
Current Weight: 108.1kg. Almost 3kg lost from last week, which is good because I was eating and moving with purpose! On track for my goal by early Sept, just (0.1kg behind!).
Avg. Sleep: 7h 15mins. Up a smidge from last week, all the extra exercise is helping me sleep soundly.
🗓️ Next Week
Jack has swimming lessons all of next week, I’ve got the dentist on Wednesday, and the small matter of concluding the World Cup. Will England beat Argentina to get into the final? Will be a close game I think.
What are your thoughts?