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.

I’ve been rewatching those stunt/dare/prank reality shows of my teenage years, like Jackass and Viva la Bam.

I just finished 🍿 “Jackass Forever”. They did introduce a few too many new people and it relied a bit too much on dick jokes, but overall it was better than I remembered. 62/100

🍿 Rewatching “Bullet Train”. It’s a fun popcorn film. 64.

And it’s worth watching just for its array of bad British accents on display. “Wroof”. youtube.com/shorts/li…

I still miss app.net techcrunch.com/2017/01/1…

I don’t know what it is but I can never bring myself to use the 😂 emoji.

I am pleased to report that Uber/Deliveroo now lets you add extra patties to your Five Guys order. About time! 🍔

“More Than This” by Roxy Music is a fantastic song (it’s great for testing out new speakers too). However, it has one of the worst music videos of all time. www.youtube.com/watch

Few feelings are more wonderful than the exciting early stages of a new hobby.

I’m currently reading “English Food: A People’s History” by Diane Purkiss. I thought this passage on Virginia Woolf’s depression treatment interesting:

Virginia Woolf, on the other hand, was in the 1920s treated, if that is the right word, by the then recommended regime of complete rest – not even books were allowed, lest they excite the brain – milk, weight gain, fresh air and early nights. One of her doctors, Sir George Savage, was especially keen to treat neurasthenic women by excessive feeding and complete rest. Woolf was given four or five pints of milk every day, half a pint every two hours. After five days of milk on this scale, she was allowed to add a cutlet, malt extract, cod liver oil and beef tea. The rather brainless thinking behind the regime was that since patients like Woolf stopped eating and lost weight when depressed, they could be forced back into wellness by being made to gain weight.

Imagine having depression and your ‘treatment’ is being forced to do nothing and drink loads of milk.

Side note. I like this picture of her. She looks so very human:

I’m currently reading “English Food: A People’s History” by Diane Purkiss.

There’s a section on the hardships of people during the Great Depression. And after a sad, brief mention of a woman named Annie Weaving who died aged 37° potentially due to not being able to feed both herself and her family there’s a reference to something called “protective foods”.

I’d never heard the term. I thought they might be “protected” as in having their price controlled by the government. But it’s actually the precursor to the food pyramid idea.

One poster I found promoting it suggests this:

PINT MILK, 1 EGG, 1 POTATO AND TWO OTHER VEGETABLES (ONE OF THESE A GREEN LEAFY ONE), 2 SERVINGS OF FRUIT (AT LEAST ONE RAW), 1 SERVING OF MEAT OR FISH, 1 OZ. BUTTER.

And I think it still holds up. Could it be improved? Probably. But it’s simple and realistic. I like it.

People often overthink diet. So I like simplicity. It reminds me of Michael Pollan’s mantra:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Some info on the history of the food pyramid here°.

I began tagging emails as ‘not important,’ but soon realised I was labelling 95% of them that way. Turns out most of the email I get isn’t very important.

Cleaning tip for people with ADHD. Make yourself a coffee and then start cleaning. You will move fast knowing that coffee is getting cold, and will get the task done in no time at all.

I completely misjudged how crowded the train would be and snagged the first available seat, right next to someone. Turns out the train is nearly empty and I now look like a maniac.

I can eat lunch and lose focus and have an energy crash and struggle to get work done.

Or I can skip lunch and have an energy cash and struggle to get work done.

Either way I lose.

But sadly the no lunch approach often works best for me.

I’ve been enjoying a lot of Japanese ambient music recently.

And I just discovered this one and love it. It’s made my train journey into a packed London a peaceful endeavour. Spotify link

I often accidentally type 2014 instead of 2024. And when I do 2014 as a date doesn’t feel that long ago. But then I realise that it is a literal decade ago.

Sorry, I missed that. I was too busy having a crisis over the communal food in the middle of the table, imagining all the microscopic spit showers it’s getting as you talk.

High-end hotels and first class plane tickets are two things I’m always shocked at the price of. Every time.

I’d never been in a proper bookshop nook before. The cosiest part of it is actually how it sounds in there. 360 degrees of books means all sound is absorbed like a lovely sponge.