— Ashridge

Some photos from my night of Italian food and English theatre.

Morning all ☀️ I don’t know about you lot, but my sun is gorgeous this morning.

Hope everyone’s Saturday’s are going well. I’m just back from a spooky July walk and bean-covered burger 🥾🍔

Sunday so far: a walk, a shop and a burger from a greasy spoon. 🥾🌲🍔

Next: Tour de France and then either Snatch or Hot Fuzz. Steak pie for dinner. 🚵🍿🥧

Post England game. The sun has come out and I’m drinking a Leffe 0% beer 🍺☀️

My second ever non-alcoholic beer. It’s surprisingly nice. Aside from its lack of head and over-sweetness it’s tough to tell it’s non-alcoholic.

Pre England game walk and food. 🥾🍽️

📍 National Trust - Ashridge Estate + The Traveller’s Rest

I recently saw the poet Harry Baker. My girlfriend was the fan and wanted to go, though I had also enjoyed what little I had seen of him.

It was at Saint Saviours Church Hall, St Albans, which is the hippest church I’ve been to. There was kegs of beer, fairy lights and some sofas to the side of the nave. And the vicar had a shaved head, tattoos and wore cargo shorts.

I was a huge poetry nerd in my tormented teen years (14-17). But these days I don’t have much interest – and certainly not in modern poetry. So I wasn’t massively looking forward to a night of non-stop poems.

But the show was great. His poetry is perfect for the modern era. Funny, witty and with a great musicality. The way his voice delivers lines is wonderful. There’s an earnestness to the way he speaks that is enrapturing.

And he didn’t overstay his welcome. I was worried it would be 2 hours+ of non-stop poetry. But it was just the right length, with a break in between where you could buy a book and meet him.

When my girlfriend met him she decided to go down the more casual route. Rather than a “huge fan of your work, you’re my hero”, she went with a simple “hello, how are you?”. He didn’t appear to be expecting such an unassuming greeting and it led to 45 seconds of incredibly uncomfortable awkwardness. The stilted back-and-forth continued painfully as she hurriedly chose a book and he hurriedly got out the card reader. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Playing Battlefield 1. Probably my favourite game of all time. The graphics, soundtrack and ‘feel’ of the game still remain spectacular, eight years on. I’ve written a bit about my love for it before.

🥾 Ashridge Estate

Me and my girlfriend accidentally stumbled upon “Alban Day"¹ in St. Albans² today after our lunch at Wagamama.

We’d gone last year and enjoyed ourselves. So I was happy to coincidentally go again.

Though last year there was medieval battle reattachments which they didn’t have this time. That was a shame.

Good morning all. It’s currently 19°C where I am 🌤️

📖 Morning links:

• “37 (Or So) Lessons From A 37 Year Old” - Ryan Holiday. I love these simple ‘rules for life’ lists. Though this isn’t the best example, I must say.
• “Rejecting GMOs hinders human progress and keeps the poor hungry” - Tom Morley. It’s good to see a strongly worded opinion piece.
• “A beautiful garden” - Rebecca Toh. A nice little article on mental health.
• 🎵 Song of the day: Late for the Sky - Jackson Browne. This song builds so beautifully.

🧍‍♂️Me update:

• 4hr 8m of sleep 🛌
• I broke my no caffeine commitment this morning with around 8mg of coffee beans. Not ideal.
• My energy and motivation has been in the gutter all week due to poor sleep and diet. Today’s aim: at least one fruit and vegetable and no refined sugar.

Have a good day everyone 🤓

The moon is so bright tonight it looks like the sun 📷

Watching Noah Kalina’s “Hotline Show” series on YouTube. I can’t tell if it’s good or not. But it’s cosy, relaxing and weirdly captivating. So let’s say good.

He also described getting sleepy as “sun setting”, which I rather like.

Good morning all. It’s currently 15°C where I am ☀️

📖 Morning reads:

• “Vaccines have saved 150 million children over the last 50 years” - Our World in Data. “Every ten seconds, one child is saved by a vaccine against a fatal disease.”
• “How This Real Image Won an AI Photo Competition” - Scientific American
• “TinyLetter: looking back on the humblest newsletter platform” - The Verge
• “Your brain does not process information and it is not a computer” - Aeon Essays

🧍‍♂️Me update:

• 9hr 22m of sleep 🛌
• I didn’t have dinner last night due to my stomach pains yesterday. That didn’t stop me from having a greasy burger though.
• I lived up to my promise and didn’t have any caffeine yesterday. I shall do the same today.
• My girlfriend has pain at the top of her spine today so will be WFH today with me.

Didn’t realise there was a Five Guys with a glorious view of Tower Bridge. Great place to see outside with a burger.

There’s also Gaucho Tower Bridge next door, which is a bit more upmarket. No idea what their food is like. But the outdoor seats would give you fantastic views on a romantic dinner date.

📌 🍽️ Five Guys Tower Bridge

Good morning all. It’s currently 14°C in London 🌤️

🚆 Trains reads:

• “Another Productivity Hack? Cal Newport thinks working slower could cure your burnout."
• “15 rules for blogging, and my current streak”

🧍‍♂️Me update:

• 4hr 9m of sleep 🛌
• I could really do with my next pay cheque to arrive, I must say.
• I’ve really cut down my caffeine intake these days. But I might try none for a while to see if it helps with my occasional insomnia.
• Had a sore stomach last night that has continued into the morning.
• I have sadly pulled off the mythical upset-your-girlfriend-before-9am 😬

Finally getting around to watching the Apple WWDC keynote. Favourite new thing thus far? You can now finally see everything but screenshots in Photos. I’ve wanted this for so bloody long.

A few weeks ago I did an Iberian trip, visiting Spain and then Portugal. Here’s some photos from the Portugal leg.

Reddit is a much more pleasant place once you start blocking certain words and subreddits.