Week note — week commencing Monday 14 September 2026
What is this?
Every week I (try to) look back at the previous seven-or-so days – and forwards to the next week. Running and health, culture, home improvements, work and adjacent things. You can read none, some or all. Sharing in case it helps someone else out there.
Three in a row. Getting back into the swing of it.
tldr
A short midweek post; three slow 5ks; Freo into a grand final; a night and morning in Knaresborough; Town win again and fish and chips in Cleethorpes; a tomato harvest; Ghosts.
Health and running
Three runs: Monday, Wednesday and Sunday. All 5km, all slow, between 6:05 and 6:35 a kilometre. 15.7km for the week. Steady away is what matters at the moment.
960.7km for the year. 39.3km short of 1,000km. Not chasing it, it'll come.
The important bits (not work)
Wednesday: published Weapons, a short one about workplace tools that get turned on the people they're supposed to help.
After Man United's 3-2 defeat to Brighton I enjoyed the Michael Carrick meme, inspired by Ruben Amorim's tactical clipboard moment at Blundell Park last season.
Friday: Kristin's last day in her job. Life's too short to spend it working with people who make it harder than it needs to be. Onwards. (If anyone is looking for a marketing whizz, give Kristin a shout.)
While the boss was counting down her last day I was sat on the sofa at lunch watching Freo's preliminary final (no pub in Borough like last week). Down by 28 points in the third quarter, then five unanswered goals in the last to win by 12 at the SCG. Only the second grand final in the club's history. Not good for my heart.
Friday evening: over to Knaresborough for Lloyd's show at the Frazer Theatre. Very much a work in progress, but good fun. Tidy little theatre too. Resisted the urge for a Friday night drink afterwards. We were spent. Earlyish bedtime.
Saturday. Morning, a lovely walk round Knaresborough, out to Mother Shipton's Cave and along the Nidd.
Drove over to Cleethorpes for the Town game, a 2-0 win against Crawley. Vernam had a penalty saved on 13 minutes, then Iwan Morgan scored his first goal for the club from a second penno on the half hour. The second was a delicious header from Kieran Green, steered in from a cross. Could have had more, but for some great saves from their keeper and some desperate Crawley defending. There was a spell in the first half where Town sat back and Crawley showed what they could do. Two home wins on the bounce. Lots of 2s in the scoreline so far this season. Fish and chips at Ocean in Cleethorpes before heading home – but only because the queue at Steels was too slow.
Sunday: the second weekend of the Saltaire Festival, which means all the food trucks. Le sigh. I guess other people like that sort of thing. Bonus: nobody seemed to piss on our back gate this year.
Through the week: watched the first series of Ghosts, the BBC one. Fantastic fun. Yes, I am that behind on TV. Creeping through my umpteenth viewing of the Americans too.
Also managed to weave a couple of jars at the Exchange and the Boar & Fable in Bradford across the week. Good pubs are good – especially when you can get some reading in too.
House, home, maintenance
A bit of gardening on Sunday, pulling off all the ripe and nearly ripe tomatoes. Kristin made some delicious tacos and the two daughters came round too.
Go, (other) sports teams!
- Athletic Club: 0-0 with Alavés. Levante game postponed, pitch waterlogged after some C R A Z Y rain.
- FC Porto: Impressively beat Benfica 3-1. Seven wins from seven, five clear.
- FC Dallas: Useful 0-0 with Austin. Unbeaten in five, fourth in the West, eight games left.
- Dallas Cowboys: Beat Washington 37-20. Dak! Season level at 1-1.
- Texas Rangers: Two of three off Toronto. AL West leaders by one.
- Brooklyn Nets: Off-season.
Work
Two more calls with a community provider in Hull, following on from the intro conversations the week before. A lot learned about how community services actually hold their data. Community nursing, for one, lives in visits rather than appointments: generated from care plans, planned day to day, often with no reliable time attached. Why does this matter? Switching ownership of time around from the system to you as a patient – or knowing as a carer.
Phlebotomy and community diagnostic centres feel they're firming up as the place to start.
A planning playback for what comes next, and a fair bit of careful writing about what "proof of concept" does and doesn't mean.
Looking increasingly like my engagement at NHS England will finish at the end of this month.
Coming up
Big week.
Tuesday: popping away for the day.
Thursday: to Newcastle for Saint Etienne.
Saturday: up early for Freo in the AFL grand final on TV, then the train down to Newport for Town at Rodney Parade. Then legging it back up to Todmorden for Erol Alkan and Infrared Beam at the Golden Lion in the evening. Something like nine hours on trains.
Sunday: possible DIY day. The Cowboys in the evening.
Running: aim for four 5km runs, travel permitting.
That really doesn't get across the biggyness of big week.
This weeknote brought to you by
- The Perfect Kiss, New Order (the Substance version, pretty much the one in the Jonathan Demme video) – good luck, Gillian
- These Wooden Ideas, Idlewild (and the whole of 100 Broken Windows)