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Monday morning mail delivers the goods. Signed paperback copy of @markabowles.bsky.social's new book, How Do People Stay the Same. Absolutely loved All My Precious Madness, so looking forward to this.

Just finished reading On the Calculation of Volume Book 1. It's obviously a really good novel, and I got a lot out of it, but (and I'm sure I'm not the first person to think or say this) the heavy repetition of the phrase, "No one had died," just made me think of this every single time...

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Mini Stag assemble! Fun day w/ best man, brother-in-law & nephew (who's too young for the whisky tasting lined up for the main stag do). Ice-free curling (!), electric darts & mini golf, followed by pizza & some cold drinks. 👍🙏🎉 (Bold move to have a stag do before the invitations have gone out?!)

I'm not a Capital 'R' Runner, merely Someone Who Runs, but today I did my first ever race, running the Birmingham 10k with @stephthorpe.bsky.social in the year we're getting married. I'm now quite tired & achey but I might have... enjoyed it? Yeah, I'm disturbed by that as well. Playlist helped. 🏃‍♂️🎧

Top weekend with @stephthorpe.bsky.social. Yesterday: lunch in the sun, visited Bodleian Library for the Tradecraft exhibition from the John le Carré archive, conversation between John Finnemore & Mick Herron at Oxford Literary Festival. Today: afternoon walk followed by Tim Key at Birmingham Rep. 🙏

This is superb. Beautiful and essential.

I'm genuinely impressed at how Evernote continues, against all odds, to somehow find ways to keep getting even worse. Superb commitment to the bit. Imagine thinking that forcing ads into a *note-taking app* will make people pay you rather than, say, lead to them binning off using your app entirely.

Listening to some jams while writing. Loving the new Wet Tuna track. Tune in!

Some 2025 favourites... Album: Gwenifer Raymond - Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark Fiction: Mark Bowles - All My Precious Madness Non-fiction: John Higgs - Exterminate/Regenerate Film: Ballad of Wallis Island Cinema experience: Hundreds of Beavers, GoldenEye Podcast: A Wheezing Groaning Sound

The new Papir record, 'IX', sounded fantastic on my run this morning. 👍