Oh no, Anthony Head has died. He always seemed such a lovely man. Cabin Pressure is very dear to my heart, of course, but it's also hard to underestimate the massive cultural behemoth that the Gold Blend ads were when we were teenagers, quoted constantly. "You're late, we're ON the coffee."

Can't bear to leave the house today? BBC I-Player is showing LIVE cheese-rolling from Gloucester. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

What's your favourite South Downs view? 📍Long Man of Wilmington 📸: Guy Edwardes

As usual, I have managed to not hear or read anything about the UK entry in the run up to #Eurovision, so am seeing it live for the first time. Turns out it's so annoying it's the first song of the night I've had to mute.

The only thing I'm sad about not being on Twitter anymore is Eurovision. Used to be the best night of the year on the other place, everyone live tweeting jokes and cartoons. No fun on Bluesky. 😔

Waitrose has a The Rivals Series 2-themed tie-in range, and the 80s-style packaging design is *chef's kiss*: www.waitrose.com//ecom/shop/b...

NEWS: Two more William Mitchell murals in South London have been restored following a campaign led by local residents, support from C20 Society, and crucial funding and project management from the Heritage of London Trust and the Pilgrim Trust. 🧵 ➡️ c20society.org.uk/news/three-m...

Last month in Paris there were glorious flowering red chestnut trees everywhere - I didn't know what they were before but now I keep seeing them everywhere. Mostly white, but sometimes pink. This magnificent specimen is in Crystal Palace Park.

Absolutely gonna start saying this in a Dorothy Parker voice while waving an imaginary cigarette holder. The comments are *chef's kiss* too.

Researching my local election candidates for Thursday. Under 'About' for one of the candidates it merely says 'Favourite Biscuit: Bourbon'.

The Blue Room, 1923 by French painter Suzanne Valadon #WomensArt1

Sir, a second bird is at the feeder

Global temperature raised 1 degree due to tsunami of terrible, lame, and deeply unfunny AI-generated April Fools pics.

Potoooooooo was an 18th-century British racehorse whose name was pronounced like “Potatoes” (Pot-eight-Os). [en.wikipedia.org]

Big fish, serious man — one of Marcus Selmer’s wonderful photographs of 19th-century Norwegians. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/marcus-selmer-s-photographs-of-19th-century-norwegians

It’s a little known fact that St George and the Dragon were originally flatmates, and their dispute started when the Dragon decided he couldn’t stand listening to George’s shitty banjo-playing for another second.

Spring doing its best to sprung in Southwark Park today.

Instant mash. Bog standard supermarket own brand. Boiling water, bit of margarine (not sure I'd even tasted real butter until adulthood), stir in some cheddar cheese so it melts into the mash. Be liberal with the ketchup. Quicker than toast and you don't even need to chew.

Gonna need a new hobby on Monday to replace 24/7 watching curling. 😭

Curling boys into the final! 🙌 What a tight match. Love how emotional Bruce is now that it's over. What am I going to do with myself on Monday when the i Olympics is over? I guess just count down the days to the Winter Paralympics start on 6th March.

My answer to this will *always* be Titanic. Hugely popular, much-garlanded, absolutely toss. And soooo long....

Genuinely laughed out loud at 'dinner trainers'.

Is this in the rules? Do the International Skating Union pick a different era of musical cheese out of a hat every Olympics? "For Milan 2026... 1990s wedding music! For Vancouver 2030... mid-1960s bubblegum pop!"

I'm Too Sexy, Everybody Dance Now, Men In Black, Pretty Fly For a White Guy... the #WinterOlympics Figure Skating qualifiers are being soundtracked by a 1990s wedding DJ. Just need the American pair to come out to Let's Get Ready To Rhumble by PJ & Duncan.

Show me the most French accessory you have for the new electric Renault 5 No, that's too French

#5thofFebruary #JFSP youtube.com/watch?v=WJBr...

Friends visiting from America next week, when the forecast is for solid rain the whole time. 🌧️🌧️🌧️ Can anyone suggest things in London people can do when they're not interested in art galleries and museums? Because that's what I'd be doing, so I'm at a loss. It can't just be pubs and John Lewis. 🤷‍♀️

@redscharlach.bsky.social On til early March if you fancy checking it out.

I love Stephen. The face of a doomed WW1 officer and the wardrobe of John Travolta. #thetraitors

Absolutely brilliant telly. I whooped! The BEST possible outcome, that the best players won. So well played and deserved by both of them. 👏👏👏 #TheTraitors #TheTraitorsUK

Based on what we've learned from previous series of #TheTraitors - that the dumbest Faithful always makes it to the endgame - surely Roxy is a dead cert to think she's won and then be shocked that her best mate's a Traitor.

Harriet's whole plan seems to have been 'go big and sell a lot of books'. I bet she had no intention of trying to make it to the end. #TheTraitors #TheTraitorsUK

Vera looked around the room. Not another chicken anywhere. And then it struck her—this was a hay bar.

Ah, 7 January – or as it’s otherwise known, 88th anniversary of the time Samuel Beckett was stabbed by a pimp on the streets of Paris in the small hours, causing him to meet his soulmate and giving rise to the phrase (and recipe) ‘assassination custard’ 🧵

I've now fallen into an inevitable music videos wormhole. It would be easy to share more of the best from their 80s heyday, but instead here's some 21st century music videos I enjoyed, also sorry for the ear worm: Metronomy/ Salted Caramel Ice Cream: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBRD...

Same year, 1987, a VERY different music video: Fight For Your Right by Beastie Boys. Nowhere close to the genius of their later videos (Sabotage! Intergalactic! Body Movin'!), but for me and my friend Julia they were our first musical love. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBSh...

Impossible to narrow down to just one favourite music video, but one of the earliest I remember watching aged 12 or 13 is True Faith by New Order. Imagine seeing this madness on TOTP between all the big-shouldered pop stars of the day. New Order/ True Faith: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfI1...

NYE suggestion: In memory of the great and beloved Rob Reiner (and his wife Michele, his meeting of whom forced him to change the end of the movie) we're watching When Harry Met Sally this evening, starting the film at 10:30:27 so that the chime of the New Year bells line up exactly with tonight's.

If you're looking for a last minute present, I just bought one of these delightful things from Muji: it's a Fortune Can! Celebrating the Year of the Horse, it costs £20.26 and you get a £20 gift card and one of seven different lucky charms handmade in Japan. uk.muji.eu/pages/fukuka...

Not a word, but I still recall with an icy shudder the time I made a new cool arty friend at sixth form college and responded to a mention of Joan Miro with "Oh yeah, I really like her stuff!"

Job interview

Really sad about Martin Parr. My friend and I discovered his photography via the early 90s TV series Signs of the Times and Tales of Modern Motoring when we were teenagers. Have loved him and his work ever since. Clearly a mensch too, judging by the huge outpouring of love for him today.

Someone posted this 1910s bat brooch on Tumblr, and since I love a blingy little guy, I had to draw him.

Textile artist Britta Marakatt-Labba's embroidery of Sami culture, Indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting the Arctic #womensart

Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...

156 years ago #onthisday, Top the wombat died. He was the pet of the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti who, upon Top's passing, created this self-portrait in mourning. More on Rossetti and co’s curious but longstanding fixation with the #wombat here: publicdomainreview.org/essay/o...

Attention, Finnefans! There's a lovely interview with Roger Allam in The Guardian today: www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

I keep seeing adverts for the new Tom Daley knitting show 'Game of Wool' and I realise this must be some sort of pun but my meno-brain just can't figure it out. It's been weeks now, somebody help.

If Jonathan Ross and his gigantic fucking ego survive into a third week, I swear... 🥾📺 #CelebrityTraitors