Bi-monthly note — July and August 2025
Lyf
Had a wedding, got married to my foxy bestie. We kept it small. We did a Google Doc to help people coming along, you might want to borrow from too (you might not).
We’ve combined our surnames so I am now Simon Morgan-Wilson. I’ll start the aggro of getting my name changed on my passport and driving licence when I know I’ve a little break from travelling. I’ll probably document it because sErViCe DeSiGn.
The boy got his A level results (dead proud) and got his place at Warwick Uni. He also got his first album out there (Spotify, Apple Music).
Culture, out and about etc
Went to Portugal (a honeymoon), time split between Lisbon and Porto. Maybe there’s a bigger post in that sometime. Portugal is just great, innit. I love both those cities so so much.
Had a long weekend in Paris with the daughter and Kristin. Still not been to the Louis Vuitton Foundation. Still.
Had a weekend day trip to London to see the Gorillaz exhibition in Hackney Wick. Great, immersive but at time felt not quite enough time to take it in. Nice to spend some wallowing time in London, not just darting down and back up because of work.
Watched
- the second season of The Sandman (3.5-to-4 out of 5)
- Sinners (4.5/5)
- The new Naked Gun (3.5/5)
- Heads of State (3/5)
- Fantastic Four: First Steps (4/5)
- Superman (3.5/5)
- Fountain of Youth (2.5/5) (why oh why).
Not been a great year for watching films. Not to worry: According to Letterboxd I have 619 films on my watch list.
Reading
Finally finished reading Broad Band, which has taken months. Lots of interesting stories. Especially want to learn more about San Francisco’s use of Resource One, when Charlie Bolton observed “social services agencies in the Bay Area didn’t share a citywide database for referral information; he’d personally observed how social workers at different agencies relied on their own Rolodexes”.
Spent a Sunday afternoon sat out front, reading a book — Peter Segal’s The Incomplete Book of Running — from start to finish, which I’ve not done for a long long time. Was great, apart from the weird dude coming over to the front gate to accuse me of being a white supremecist. O. K.
Sports
Football season got under way. First game of the season away at Accrington (one hour drive), League Cup game at home to Man Utd, then a league game at home to Bristol Rovers (which had a bizarre ref but anyway...). I managed to break my glasses celebrating the final penalty miss in the Man U game. The price.
Quite like the Fitness Chef’s thoughts/videos on the ‘gram.
Running
Ran 200km in July and 162km in August. Year so far, to start of September, is 1034km. That’s alright.
- Finally did the Ilkley half marathon, days before the wedding. Enjoyed it!
- Did an after-work summer evening half along the canal.
- Tried a running club run.
- Lisbon’s riverfront is great. And the other way too. Also had the chance to get the metro out to Estadio de Luz and run back into the city centre. Running round football grounds might be the new Running Over Bridges.
- And Porto, running along the Douro still is grand, even if you do the same route twice (although technically the third time I've done that route).
- Managed an early morning last day at NHSE along the canal and back through the nature reserve.
- Paris. Still great for runs and seeing (Olympic) sights.
Got the Royal Parks half marathon in London on Sunday 11 October to build up towards.
Work
Finished up my inside IR35 role at NHS England, gone back to running my consultancy company. Really enjoyed my first month or so back doing little things, bigger things and varied things. Let's leave it at that for now.
Fin
That reads like some very high-level list. I've probably missed a load of stuff. You don't need to read it all. But not many deeper vibes. Maybe that's what I need to work on, get back to that.
Ever think where else in the world is good to live? Y’know, away from all the rightists?