Landed at Heathrow after a wonderful flight from KL.

I slept most of the way, except when I was eating delicious food and chatting with the cabin crew. Though I do wonder why so many of my fellow passengers think it’s okay to be so rude and dismissive to the crew. Blows my mind.

And now… a 25mins wait for a train into London. Because god forbid there would be public transport available from when the first flights arrive in the morning.

Mission: stay awake until Canary Wharf!

I’ve had quite a fun and productive day!

I started my morning by editing a podcast episode and then edited the video version of the same. I’m now using Descript for the podcast and I’m loving it. It’s the perfect, pragmatic solution for a non-techie like me. Although I noticed quite a few glitches in the video, courtesy of my Elgato webcam, but after lots of back and forth, I decided to publish it anyway and let the audience be the judge of how annoying it is. The stats will tell me all, I’m sure, in time.

I had a couple of client calls and some writing time for a new project, then headed back to Canary Wharf to meet an old friend visiting from Bath. He was in town for business, but had a gap in his schedule to come see me. We had time for a quick coffee and catch-up before he had to go catch his train home.

And I found a whole new (new to me!) floor and coffee shop in the local ‘Market Halls’. It was great and I can definitely see myself heading there at the weekend with my laptop if I wanted to do a bit of writing in a different environment.

I then headed to the gym, caught up on my podcasts while on the elliptical machine, while also capturing some ideas for future podcast episodes of my own.

I know I’m not the only person who gets inspired while exercising, right?

Now it’s time for a chicken salad and something good on TV. I’m filing today under ‘mission accomplished’.

Despite being on holiday today, my brain woke me up bright and early at 0645 this morning. There’s just no need for that.

Old habits die hard, I guess.

I stayed in bed with a coffee and did some Japanese practice on Duolingo, caught up on the news on Threads and watched some YouTube videos about NotePlan, my newest favourite app.

Since showering and getting dressed, I’ve actually been 100% relaxing!

There are no remaining Christmas errands - which is quite the surprise. I’m normally frantic at this point, but everything has been bought, gifts wrapped and food organised. So I’m going to have an early lunch, then catch up with a local friend and have a couple of leisurely pints.

I’ve also scheduled beers with another friend this evening - but it’s at the local Brewdog, where there will be burgers to soak up some of that beer. I’ve got parties on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve to enjoy, so I don’t want to peak too soon this Christmas season.

And then we enter January - or as I’m terming it, The Month of Deprivation. Based on recent feedback and gentle nudging from my GP, it’s time to up the exercise, down the pint glass, and lose some of the weight I accumulated since the summer. He’s going to check in on my weight and cholesterol in March, so I have a couple of months to make a dent in it all.

But before then, there’s a full fridge and far too much rich food to ignore. Weight loss is next year’s problem.

We have convened the Council of the Gays™️!

Our pre-Christmas open house starts at 4pm and will go on until the last person leaves (or falls asleep). I’ve been awake since before 6am due to the wind and rain battering our apartment building. So it’s going to be a toss-up as to whether I’ll make it to midnight.

I also have a ton of tasks that overspilled from yesterday due to intensely annoying work events. So I’m scrambling to get organised before the first of our friends arrives later. And if I’m honest, I’m going to need a power nap before 4pm, and then just one or two Diet Cokes to keep some kind of focus.

Anyway.

Based on previous years, it’s going to be a really fun night. I just need to remember to take more photos. I always seem to forget and then have to rely on a substantially degraded memory of the evening.

First up: have a shower. And then another coffee… ☕️