Life Notes
A two hour cycle (a very long lunch) on Wednesday, ostensibly to go and pick up our dog’s medication from the vet, but also an excuse to get out on my bike in the sunshine. Zwift (indoor) is fine but nothing beats moving!
Dropped car off at the garage on Thursday morning to get a ‘clunk’ fixed. They replaced a corroded plate but they are baffled. It’s not affecting the driving, and they’ve said it’s safe so, we wait and see what happens.
The Cairngorm wildfire still burns, two weeks and counting. My family in Nethybridge were evacuated for a night, but thankfully things seem to have moved away from their house which is a croft on the outskirts of the town. Still terrible, and no doubt by someone not paying attention to all the NO FIRES OR BBQs posters EVERYWHERE.
And a lovely weekend is drawing to a close, Saturday with Jack at the Transport Museum, and today we cycled to Bowling and back (10km). Our last Saturday like this as Becca stops working at the weekends now, yay!
Articles Read
- Japan’s Design for Humans — “Japanese technology and design seemed in greater service to humans, their journeys, and enterprises.”
- The Lost Joy of Music Piracy: WhatCD, Oink, and Spotify | Pigeons and Planes — I was a Napster and Limewire user, heavily BitTorrenting music and movies for a few years. Streaming made it kinda pointless. I don’t miss it.
- The closing montage for the BBC’s coverage of the 2026 Fifa World Cup – BBC Sport — Goddamn the BBC are good at producing things like this. Lovely recap of the World Cup.
- Listening to Cassandra: Misogyny, Classical and Modern — “she’s pointing out that previous translators have added misogynistic layers to the texts, and not doing so can be seen as feminist when it’s mostly accurate translation.” Wonderful, if horrifying, essay by Rebecca Solnit.
- Mary Beard · The Public Voice of Women — “For a start it doesn’t much matter what line you take as a woman, if you venture into traditional male territory, the abuse comes anyway. It’s not what you say that prompts it, it’s the fact you’re saying it.” Found via the above essay, another useful and terrible read. This was from 2012 but not much has changed (and it is still slow progress).
- LeBron James signs with Philadelphia 76ers — Sad to see him leave the Lakers. A generational talent, the best ever. Still not sure he is the reason the 76ers could win the title, other deals make that more likely, but it sure won’t hurt them.
- Ted Lasso Returns: Jason Sudeikis on Fresh Season 4 Story, New Team — We are rewatching the first three seasons in preparation. It’s such a good show. You laugh, you cry, and I’m curious to see how they land the new team.
Things Consumed
📺 Sugar and Lucky continue to be entertaining enough. Not yet returned fully to Silo, nor Cape Fear.
📚 The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller – was excellent, not just the writing, but the depth of the characters
🎶 Music wise, just the radio. 6Music, via my own little ‘vibe coded’ app.
Tech
Does a new bike count? Eyeing up some cheapish mountain bikes as my old hybrid is still squeaking like a banshee despite having new disc pads and new discs. I don’t treat it well but then it’s 15 years old (at least) and no doubt will do someone a turn when I donate it.
🫀 Health
Current Weight: 108.0kg. Exactly the same as last week. No surprise, still moving but it’s lessened, still eating mindfully just not as well.
Avg. Sleep: 6h 4mins. Need more! Some car alarms last night were the main reason.
🗓️ Next Week
Jack’s last week at nursery, and I’m heading up to Blairgowrie on Friday for work, then we are up to Nethybridge for a few days (I’ll work from there) although it’s all dependant on the wildfire status.
What are your thoughts?