2026 weeknotes

Week note — week commencing Monday 21 September 2026

Simon Morgan-Wilson

• 4 min read
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What is this?

A weekly note on what I've been up to. Last week's is here.

tldr

Dublin for a belated anniversary meal and Saint Etienne. Freo lose the grand final, Town lose at Newport, Erol Alkan in Todmorden. Rehab plan written up.

Health and running

Two runs: 5.21km on Thursday and 4.34km on Saturday morning, the second squeezed in early in the second half of the grand final. 9.55km for the week.

The view on Thursday morning's run along the canal.

Year to date: 970.3km. 29.7km to 1,000km.

The TFL feels like it's going OK, so I've written up a proper four-week rehab plan with the physio's input, running from today to Sunday 25 October:

  • physio exercises every day, morning and evening
  • runs every other day, 30 to 40 minutes, alternating steady runs (about 6:30/km) and progression runs
  • gym on the days in between, lower body and core one day, upper body and core the next; two sets to start, three from mid-October
  • 14 runs, 14 gym sessions, 56 physio sessions; somewhere between 66km and 87km of running

The change from run to run is effort and speed, not time. No full rest day in four weeks, which is on the list of questions for the physio.

Out and about

Whiskey. Ireland does some lovely stuff.

Tuesday: early flight to Dublin. Some R and R in the afternoon, heading to EPIC, the Irish emigration museum, then oysters and whiskeys at the Temple Bar. Dinner at Pichet, one of my favourite restaurants, where they helped Kristin and me celebrate our anniversary, a little later than planned. Then Saint Etienne at the 3Olympia. Home first thing Wednesday.

Saint Etienne at the very lovely Olympia in Dublin.

Saturday: up at 5:15am for Freo in the AFL grand final. Heartbreaking. Fremantle led by 17 points with under five minutes left, and Brisbane kicked the last four goals to win by seven. So, so close to a first flag. Calling Wharfie Time inspired Brisbane, not us. Gah. Brisbane's third flag in a row. Fremantle's second grand final defeat, after 2013 against Hawthorn.

It's nearly done! Nearly!

Then the train to Newport. Managed to have a stopover in Leeds for a look at the nearly-done new front to the train station.

The transporter bridge in Newport.

Grabbed a taxi out to the Transporter Bridge and back, and the driver gave me a running commentary on Newport and life in Newport the whole way. Best £15 I spent all week. It's one of only six working transporter bridges in the world, and it's shut for restoration work, due to reopen late this year. Still great to stand by and see. The display of other transporter bridges around the world was missing Bilbao's Vizcaya Bridge. HOW.

Town weren't great. We missed a couple of sitters, and Doidge and Gwengwe scored in the second half to give Newport a 2-1 win: Town's first defeat of the season. It's saying something that we played badly and still could have won, and gone top. Tony's match report on Cod Almighty has the rest.

Sitting in the away end at Rodney Parade on a lovely sunny afternoon.

Rodney Parade ticked off the grounds list: 43 of the 93 grounds visited with Town playing, and 72 of the 93 clubs seen play Town.

An hour to kill after the game, so Ian Street invited me to join him in the pub where they were recording a post-match episode of the 1912 Exiles podcast. I ended up chatting with them. Guess this season is turning into my return to football media duties.

The train home went through Ludlow, so I hopped off long enough to finally set foot in the old home of Newsfield, publishers of Zzap!64.

Then on to the Golden Lion in Todmorden for Erol Alkan. Photos of the night are on the pub's Instagram. In bed at 2am. What a long day.

Culture etc

Got through the second series/season of og Ghosts. It's very very good.

House and home

There's a crack in the kitchen sink I need to fix. Also: Some planning for DIY in the coming weeks. Going to finish stripping the doorframes, at last (he says).

Work

Last full week at NHS England. We were told the work the team is doing isn't continuing. Proud of what we did: the booking patterns work and the relationships built with Humber and North Yorkshire in particular. I'll write something longer about it separately. Means this coming Tuesday is my last day at NHSE. Available for new work from October, if you're looking.

Go, sports team!

  • Athletic Club: International break. Back on 10 October at Rayo.
  • FC Porto: International break. Still seven from seven, five clear.
  • FC Dallas: Beat LAFC 1-0. Unbeaten in six.
  • Brooklyn Nets: Off-season. Still silence.
  • Dallas Cowboys: Lost 34-31 to the Ravens in Rio. 1-2.
  • Texas Rangers: Season over. 80-82, one game behind Houston.

Coming up

Tuesday: last day at NHS England.

Wednesday and Thursday: Agile Cambridge. Say hi if you're there and see me!

Saturday: to Cleethorpes for the day. Steels for lunch. Town v Shrewsbury.

Sunday: Bill Callahan at the Leeds Irish Centre, have mercy.