We’re two weeks out from a general election, but at 6pm, instead of the news, the BBC is showing (wait for it) football. Turkey vs Georgia, to be precise. This country’s obsession with football is something else.
We’re two weeks out from a general election, but at 6pm, instead of the news, the BBC is showing (wait for it) football. Turkey vs Georgia, to be precise. This country’s obsession with football is something else.
📸 Feet up. Time for a quick post-lunch nap. Love my office sofa.
I’ve just been for a lunchtime walk around my office’s neighbourhood in East London.
I was blown away by the number of drivers I saw driving while using their mobile phones. Virtually nobody had eyes on the road and both hands on the steering wheel. Narrow streets, cars parked on both sides. A recipe for an accident - made all the more likely by this kind of bullshit behaviour.
A small milestone, but one that made me smile nonetheless: I finally made it to 500 subscribers on my tiny YouTube channel! 🎉
Thanks to everyone who has subscribed, watched, commented and recommended my videos. I’m aiming to get 1% better with each video I publish, and it’s been an incredibly rewarding process. Plus an excellent way of meeting my needs for creativity at work.
Onwards and upwards! 🚀
🇹🇭 Congrats to Thailand for recognising marriage equality 🏳️🌈
Thailand passes historic bill recognising marriage equality. Country on track to become third in Asia – after Taiwan and Nepal – to legalise same-sex marriage
I’m excited at the very real chance that the Tories will be decimated and kept out of office for the foreseeable. I’m worried that indifference and overconfidence will keep many away from the ballot box, making all this a pipe dream.
Fourteen years of mismanagement, chaos, underinvestment and culture wars have left the UK reeling from crisis to crisis. Schools literally falling apart, an NHS on its knees, isolation from Europe and a carnival of idiots taking turns occupying the most important roles in government. It’s been an absolute shambles and the Tories have most definitely put their party before the country.
Labour aren’t offering us the answers to all the problems, nor are they promising to pay for everything people want. They’re dealing with the mess they anticipate finding on day one. And while I don’t live and breathe what they claim to stand for, I’d take them in a heartbeat over the clowns running the show right now.
The Tories have had fourteen years to show us what they stand for, and they’ve done it with impressive regularity. They stand for rules for others, not them. They stand for making a profit from every possible opportunity. They stand for punching down on the most deprived, while leaving the most wealthy and advantaged free of any taxation burden whatsoever.
Pardon me my schadenfreude, but I’ve booked July 5th off work, so I can stay up all night to watch the results. While some of the biggest cowards (Gove, Leadsome et al) have already indicated they won’t stand, depriving us of the joy of watching them lose their seats, there are enough Tories left to be made unemployed that my night won’t be without some highlights of joy.
But once the excitement of election night is over, Labour will have a mountain to climb. How to address the underinvestment? How to repair relations with the EU? How can they do something about the appalling infrastructure and the state of public transport? Their to do list is incredibly long.
I don’t envy them.
Some of the Tories are already warning against a Labour ‘super-majority’ - which is in itself a nonsense, as the concept doesn’t exist in the UK system of government. But if Labour win a landslide, I hope they get more ambitious with their plans, to speed up turning the ship around and addressing the core issues like child poverty, crime and healthcare.
We’ve had enough culture war nonsense, enough ‘excitement’ and enough emphasis on personality.
I’d opt for stable and boring, morning, noon and night.
Bring on July 4th.
📆 A superb Monday so far!
📸 Waking up to sunshine and blue skies definitely takes the edge off a Monday morning.
📸 Managed to get an hour of uninterrupted sun on the balcony before the dark clouds came back. Definitely better than nothing.
🍾🥂 Just a light bite for brunch this Sunday morning. Out of shot: mimosas.
📺 Finally finished ‘Sugar’ on AppleTV+ last night and I have to say I loved it.
Great story-telling, beautiful visuals, and twist in the tale that left me grinning from ear to ear. Colin Farrell is incredible. Thoroughly recommended. And I really hope they make a second season.
🏃♂️ This morning’s effort. Trying to make it back home before more “summer” rain.
🏃♂️ I don’t want to unduly alarm anyone, but it appears that I’m about to go for a run.
🎥 Watching ‘Godzilla Minus One’ on Netflix, as I missed it when it was in the cinema. Amazing stuff - the special effects are incredible.
🍿Re-watching “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”.
📸 Enjoying the Sitges Pride parade last weekend. I’m missing the sunshine so much right now.
📸 This time last week, I was lying by the pool at my hotel in Sitges, waiting for some pesky clouds to pass.
Aaaargh. My hay fever is off the scale this morning. Feeling utterly miserable and I haven’t even left the apartment yet. Eyes streaming, constant sneezing, itchy all over. Seems my meds aren’t doing a thing today.
📸 The new seating / viewing platform in the dock at Canary Wharf is really coming together. Soon it’ll be the perfect place to enjoy a coffee in the sun. If the sun ever makes an appearance this summer.
📸 London looking golden this evening.
📸 I’ve put a carefully curated (ahem) set of pics from Sitges Pride on Flicker and you can find them here.
Slowly adjusting to life back in London post-holiday.
My first day back at work was made quite amazing by receiving not one, but two incredibly lovely emails from podcast listeners. It makes all the difference to know that episodes are going down well with the audience.
☀️ Let the sunbathing commence!
☀️ Poolside in the sunshine this morning
📅 The plan for today:
🍳 Breakfast ☀️ Sunbathing by the pool 🍻 Beers in town 🥗 Dinner 😍 People-watching 🕺 Dancing in the streets…