Week note — week commencing Monday 23 March 2026

Back to the grind after a fabulous time in wonderful Seville — arriving home on the Sunday, straight into it on Monday.

Health and body

Face-to-face diabetes appointment on Monday at Saltaire Medical Practice. Blood sugar at 51mmol/mol — just above the threshold of "well managed", 48, but not alarming. Hoping some gradual weight loss will help nudge that number down. Weight holding at 87.5kg.

Advised to keep an eye on my blood pressure. Readings across the week were consistently in the 142–146 / 93–105 range — broadly in line with what the monitor has been showing for the last six years or so. Keeping an eye on it.

Tired and low energy for most of the working week. Hard to know how much was just getting back to sitting at desk most of the day, how much was the weather, how much was the final-stretch grind of the discovery. Possibly all three.

If you're interested in how wearing slippers about the house because your doctor said you should is going — it's going just fine. Might get a matching tartan robe next.

Running

Five runs, 46.75km. A strong week given the conditions — the low energy didn't stop the legs working.

Monday 6.35km, Tuesday 8.72km, Wednesday 6.14km, Thursday 10.37km, Saturday 15.17km. Friday and Sunday were rest days. The weather was not on anyone's side — cold, wet, grey, usually two of those, sometimes all three at once — had to get a new underlayer.

Year to date: 368.68km. Month to date: 157.96km going into Monday — needing just over 12km across the final two days of March to clear 170km, which is very much on.

Work-y

The current NHS discovery work wraps up on Tuesday, the final push — squeezing in as much as possible and trying to tie things together. The shape of the work is pretty clear, some worthwhile avenues to delve deeper into with some lean thinking. But at the mo it is about making sure everything is properly captured to set up that next phase of work neatly.

This coming week also has an Assembly assembly on Wednesday — a lunchtime gathering for a few of the people who work there. Product in the {A}ether remotely on Tuesday, then Product Assembly lunchtime lean coffee in Leeds on Thursday.

House and home

The boiler had its annual check on Thursday. Verdict: "in great nick — and one of the best you can get." Mildly satisfying given what it cost to fix a year ago.

Sunday morning tip run to finally get rid of some large boards that have been sitting in the back yard since we moved in. Had hoped to repurpose them as planters but they were too far gone.

Sunday afternoon involved getting a lot more seeds into trays for the garden. Progress, though more tomatoes are needed — we don't have enough on the go yet.

No progress on the inside doorframes.

Mind and culture

Three blog posts out this week:

• The Seville travel note
• Notes from the C20 Society's Concorde design and lifestyle talk with Lawrence Azerrad on Tuesday evening — a genuinely excellent hour on ambition, possibility, and what gets lost when you optimise purely for volume
• A piece on pedestrian rights at road junctions that had been sitting half-finished for a while. The sign mock-up that went with it took about 15 minutes — but took a few months of ideas swilling round to be done that quickly.

Kristin and I went to Pictureville on Saturday evening for Project Hail Mary on the IMAX screen — really entertaining. Support your local cinemas.

TV:

• Finally finished season 4 of Yellowstone. I get Beth has gone through a lot, but she's written (and acted by Kelly Reilly) like a pantomime villain in this season. Bit of a letdown after the immense seasons 2 and 3. Still, season 4 done after something like five years getting this far.
• Watched Romesh Ranganathan's Just Another Immigrant, as some easier, lighter watching.
• Had a look at the opening episodes of Bait and Mr and Mrs Smith. Both got potential, to slightly misquote the Killers.
• The Bear season 3 is next before heading back for the final season of Yellowstone.

Reading: Chief Engineer is still at page 151. Need to find a couple of half-hours for it this week.

As promised last week: olive oil, tomatoes, cheese, meats, garlic, more olive oil on bread for every lunch Monday through Saturday. A "vow" kept.

Finished off the last of the Big Man coffee and popped into Village General Store in Saltaire to restock, a couple of bags from there: a bag of Atkinsons and a surprise finding of some Swerl.

This coming week

• The discovery wraps on Tuesday.
• Assembly assembly at lunchtime on Wednesday.
• Running plan in place.
• Easter Friday: see my mum on the way to Cleethorpes. Home town, home ground, Blundell Park for Town v Harrogate, with fish and chips first. It is the law.
• After the match, heading down towards Crawley for the long weekend. Fingers crossed for a trip to Brighton on Saturday. And more fingers crossed the Grimsby Town promotion train is still on the rails for Easter Monday's game at Crawley. How convenient.
• Gym trip Monday or Tuesday.
• Running month note on Wednesday.

tldr

Final push on the NHS discovery, three blog posts out the door, a strong 46.75km week in truly miserable weather and low energy, Project Hail Mary on the big screen is very good, finally done with season 4 of Yellowstone – and the boiler has the seal of approval.