After 25 years of marriage Mr P knows exactly what I mean when I say Tesco chicken rose and purchases same. Which is kind of comforting, and about as romantic as it gets.

Just found the perfect admin task to do in this heat - deleting all the email addresses from my database that have bounced. 🧠💀🥵

Jatco, a Nissan subsidiary, will withdraw plans to build a factory in Sunderland to produce e-axles -- a core EV component integrating motors, inverters and gears. Was due for completion this year. Further specifics on global powertrain production due spring 2027. asia.nikkei.com/business/aut...

Slumming it with son as Mr P is in the King Billy with his bestie. Watching episode 1 season 2 of The Pitt and discovering the joy of Prawn Cocktail flavoured Pringles. 100% bank holiday vibes.

Japanese garden designer Kazuyuki Ishihara won a silver-gilt medal — the second-highest honor in the main Show Garden category — at the Chelsea Flower Show that opened in London on Tuesday.

The fearless Omoto continues to wire walk her way across Britain with the Great Dragon Troupe, even after burying her 15 month old son and becoming pregnant again. open.substack.com/pub/pernille...

Hitachi Information Control Systems Europe based in UK has gone into voluntary liquidation. It was formed after the acquisition of The Railway Engineering Company in 2012. It may just be being folded into Hitachi Rail - no announcement yet. 64 employees - 1/2 of 2019. Shift from UK to Italy?

My next post on Omoto - where she goes on maternity leave, but who is the father of the baby? A row, a court case and a tense Christmas dinner ensue. pernillerudlin.substack.com/p/6-omoto-on...

Let nobody say there isn't a plan in place

There has been a complaint about a social sciences professor at my local university rejecting a researcher because they are Israeli. I looked at the staff listing of the social sciences department (which includes law + international relations) 1/5

Regent Street https://www.wikiart.org/en/william-orpen/regent-street-1910

101. Asakusa Ricefields and Torinomachi Festival https://www.wikiart.org/en/hiroshige/101-asakusa-ricefields-and-torinomachi-festival-1857

funniest thing i’ve ever seen

Must say I prefer cute to the sinister Labubus - Mirumi plush robots from Yukai Engineering going on sale in Harrods from July and KaDeWe in Germany. asia.nikkei.com/business/con...

Around 900 office jobs to go at Nissan in UK and rest of Europe. There will be no cuts at the factory in Sunderland, despite combinin 2 production lines, but the parts warehouse in Barcelona will be downsized + Nordic distribution operations will be restructured. asia.nikkei.com/business/aut...

Mannie has some questions about the weather

Vanessa Stockard (Australian, b.1975) "Satan Taking a Break from Hate Crimes," 2022 Oil on dibond #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt #catlover

'The Dusk in Bethnal Green' (2014) by Noriko Michigami norikomichigami.com

My latest Substack post - on the Great Dragon Troupe of Japanese acrobats' first visit to Britain in 1867 - Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle. open.substack.com/pub/pernille...

Panama flagged tanker Idemitsu Maru, carrying crude oil + managed by Japanese oil firm Idemitsu makes it through the Straits of Hormuz, after gaining a permit from the Iranian authorities www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...

If anyone's missing #TOTP tonight, I've just discovered Guy Garvey is doing From the Vaults on Sky Arts

Brilliant explanation of the Japanese concept of sontaku (忖度) Crucially, what the word responds to is a void. By definition, a command has not been directly uttered. It thrives in silence or innuendo... www.ft.com/content/2fca...

It's the same when translating. Yes the AI translations from English to Japanese are getting better all the time, but I only know that because I am good enough at Japanese that I can tell. But it would only take one mistake to really wreck my business credibility. Would you take that risk?

EU-Japan defence push. Japan side: Subaru, Hitachi, IHI, Mitsubishi Corp, Sumitomo Corp, Fujitsu and drone maker start up ACSL. EU side: Airbus, France's Thales and Dassault Systemes, Italy's Leonardo, and Sweden's Saab and Polish company PGZ. asia.nikkei.com/business/aer...

Nissan Sunderland utilisation rate up to 50% from 30% since launch of new Leaf but clearly still problems. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

It does look a bit like Trump's trying to bring @jonstewart2028.bsky.social back to life.

One of the deepest Noguchi cuts

We might have to go back to how I used to get to and from Japan cheaply as a child/student - via Anchorage. Although not the Aeroflot route via Moscow I guess. Scary air hostesses yelling at me to sit down + handing out disgusting toffees for blocked ears asia.nikkei.com/business/tra...

Alfred Munnings's 'Tendring Hall, Suffolk,' (1930) typifies his big skies. He lived long enough to see his work go comprehensively out of fashion; his reputation has re-flowered as much for his lyrical landscapes of East Anglia as for his depiction of horseflesh.

Campbell Archibald Mellon captured the fleeting glories of the English seaside summer, the escape for many thousands to Gorleston in Norfolk. His paintings (this is c1930) often stressed a celebratory brightness or as here, a typically grey day on the coast.

Good news timeline cleanse.

Where is the alt text explaining what this is?

As a foodie, i consider this impeachable.

If the UK was behaving like Japan, which it often does (island nation, imperial past, very indirect way of expressing opinion etc), I would expect a statement any day now that the King is feeling indisposed and has been advised not to travel for the forseeable.

Having just read a scathing account of the Commons defence committee and delays in the Defence Investment Plan in Private Eye, relieved to see at least some progress on this. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

I had to check what a triple Lindy was. Not sure if that means I'm too young or too old. But anyway, turns out to be a fictional dive performed by Rodney Dangerfield in a film.

Two things that are simultaneously true. 1. Pam Bondi & Kristi Noem are evildoers who deserved to be fired. 2. The only high-profile cabinet members to be fired, in a cabinet filled with incompetent evildoers (such as Pete Hegseth), are women. Trump is the triple-lindy of putrescence.

A series of agreements between France and Japan on space-defense collaboration, artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, economic security and military ties as the two countries took their “exceptional partnership” to new heights. www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/04...

The Brexit slow puncture strikes again - Vantec Europe (automotive logistics), which is based in the UK, employing over 1,000 people. spun off from Nissan, then owned by Hitachi now by KKR, has been renamed Logisteed UK. Logisteed Europe is based in the Netherlands. eu.logisteed.com/our-european...

Direct container shipping between Japan + Europe narrowly avoided vanishing this spring when Japan's Ocean Network Express announced it would stop its direct route due to delays shipping via Cape of Good Hope to avoid Houthi attacks. France's CMA CGM has stepped in asia.nikkei.com/business/tra...

Although if it's the morning, they should be saying "ohayougozaimasu" www.efinancialcareers.co.uk/news/jefferi...

Japanese style convenience stores may be coming to Europe. "Consumer sentiment in Europe approaches that of Japanese, with a strong focus on food quality," said 7-Eleven CEO Dacus + "there is a strong demand to purchase high-quality food at affordable prices" asia.nikkei.com/editor-s-pic...

Japanese financial group SMFG considering acquiring US investment bank Jefferies - which has over 1200 employees in London. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

If you've wondered why the UK government continues to have contracts with Fujitsu, despite Horizon, defence is one reason - and looks to continue to be one thanks to the search for alternatives to US companies + need to increase defence spending across Europe. asia.nikkei.com/business/aer...

Debt brings down another Japanese acquisition of a British company. After National Car Parks (owned by Park24) went bust last week, this week Nippon Sheet Glass are in talks to be acquired by US fund Apollo, due to debt burden of acquiring Pilkington in 2006. asia.nikkei.com/business/bus...

Good morning to the best place to live #Norwich 🥰😎 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Had a conversation last night with a fellow 1/2 Dane who has managed to get Danish citizenship. Seems the main things I have to do are learn Danish + live in Denmark for at least 3 months. Was hoping my Danish grandpa's record as saboteur in WWII might help giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Oh my. And Pearl Harbour turned out so well for everyone too. Makes Johnson quoting Kipling in Burma/Myanmar look like the height of diplomacy and tact.

"most allied leaders have stopped trying to find the hidden logic behind Trump’s actions, and they understand that any contribution they make will count for nothing" www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...