Week note — week commencing Monday 5 October 2026

What is this?

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

tldr

Within touching distance of running 1,000km for the year. Time out on Tuesday with the bestie. Digitalism two nights running, Manchester then Hackney. Sunday funday. Doorframes stripped. Town lose again.

Ticking over

Only two runs in the week, for 10.34km. Still cautious, with the TFL rehab in mind. The left knee felt wobbly a kilometre into the first one, so I stretched it off and stayed on laps of the park. The second was half an hour in the drizzle before a train to London. Not as much as I would have liked but caution after Monday until my knee felt settled.

Year to date: 996.6km. 3.4km short of 1,000km. Next run will do it. Going to see if I can push it a bit this week.

Second Wegovy dose done. Is it helping my appetite? Possibly. Unless there's cornbread about.

Stripping back

The doorframes in the airlock (what I call the entrance to our house) got three afternoons. Four layers of paint, nearly all gone. Sanding this week.

Upgrading

New desktop Mac and iPhone. The old iPhone lasted four years and had 128GB of storage. That meant in the last year constantly deleting apps to make room for other apps, because so many services now demand you have their app. A form of digital poverty? Strange not having to do that any more. Haven't been arsed about reconnecting/logging into all the accounts I had. Also nice not having things like Slack on my phone at the moment.

Working

A good breadth of stuff this week. Some in-between bits: a closing retro for the create/change NHS England team, helping a consultancy think about its "pre briefing" approach, and some social impact strategy and actions. Then chats about things which would take up more of my time.

And Kristin is doing some Saltaire community and local bits, which she seems to be energised by, which is fab to see.

Out and about

Great to spend some time off with Kristin on Tuesday afternoon. Skeeball at Lane7 in Leeds (the game of champions, although too too easy to spend £30 on two player games), then cocktails at the Turk’s Head, Tabula Rasa (finally managed to get a seat there, by rolling up before 5pm midweek) and Smokestack.

Caught up with Russ for a coffee and a gas. We think we last did that ten years ago, a blink of the eye!

Saw Digitalism twice, both great, in quite different spaces. On Friday, a beer at The Exchange (one of the best pubs in Bradford city centre, along with Boar & Fable and the Corn Dolly) on the walk from Forster Square to the Interchange for the train to Manchester. Then a tight, low-roofed and very sweaty room at YES. On Saturday, EartH in Hackney, what was an old 1930s cinema.

We stayed in Angel rather than King's Cross for a change, which was great. I'd definitely dump the Barbican dream to live round there. Dinner before the gig at Plaquemine Lock by the canal, which was a bit disappointing. Digitalism finished too late to get to a watch party for the Red River Rivalry, so we watched it at the hotel. Oklahoma 27, Texas 24, last seconds winner, gah.

Sunday started with a Scottish breakfast roll at The Shoap, Auld Hag's café-deli on St John Street. Grand!

Then the Postal Museum and a ride on Mail Rail. Great. The Post Office Railway ran 6.5 miles of tunnels, 70 feet under London, from 1927 to 2003. Driverless trains, 22 hours a day, about four million letters a day. I loved the tale of finding/hearing live bees posted in tubes. Plenty of ex-workers on the commentary said it was the best job they ever had. Also, ahem, the strategy is delivery, ahem. What postbox is near you?

Then a sunny Sunday stroll round house-spotting and into some pubs: the George IV (was The Angelic), The Albion and the Hemingford Arms. Albion and Hemmy were great contrasting places.

Watching

Finished series 2 of Daredevil: Born Again. Supreme.

Lined up for this week: Coyote vs. Acme, Tony and series 4 of Ghosts.

Go, sports team!

• Grimsby Town: Didn't go. Lost 1–0 at Port Vale, terrible first half. Three league defeats in a row, not enough consistency. Four games to the end of October should show how this team will do. Northampton at home on Saturday.
• Athletic Club: At Rayo, abandoned after Rayo fans protested by throwing paper aeroplanes onto the pitch.
• FC Porto: Won at Marítimo. Top of the table.
• FC Dallas: Lost 3–2 at Charlotte. Third in the West, 11 points clear of ninth, the last playoff place, with six games left. Seattle at home midweek, at Houston on Saturday.
• Dallas Cowboys: Lost 24–16 to the Buccaneers, who hadn't won any of their first four games. 2–3. At Green Bay on Sunday night.
• Texas Longhorns: Lost 27–24 to Oklahoma. Florida at home on Saturday.
• Brooklyn Nets: Opening night is 21 October, at home to Charlotte.
• Fremantle Dockers: AFL season over.
• Texas Rangers: Season over for them, MLB playoffs are down to the semifinals. Be nice if the Guardians make it to the final, unfancied and that.

Coming up

Sheffield on Wednesday, with NUX Sheffield in the evening. Beth Orton at the Howard Assembly Room on Friday. Town v Northampton on Saturday. DOORFRAMES. Running. More chats about work, including a several in government. Get tickets for the next Belwarp night. Book the car's MOT.

This weeknote brought to you by

Never Ever by Röyksopp, featuring Susanne Sundfør.