Gilles Peterson is playing Jonny Mathis, so a good time to re-share the story of taking my mum to see him at the Manchester arena (whatever it's called now) and her nearly getting us kicked out

Loft time

Why is it that I have absolutely no problem travelling from one country to another and finding my way around, but when I have to get a bus or train to meet a friend my stress levels are off the scale? It’s ridiculous and it happens every single time

this exists it is called thinking

Back to London tomorrow. Been travelling for 4 months or thereabouts, with the 30kg case and 10kg rucksack to prove it. Booked a hotel for tonight as it was advertised as convenient for the airport with free shuttle. Listing neglected to mention it’s a 15 min walk up a steep hill from the station

A little thing I like to do when I leave a hotel, as well as leave it generally clean and free of rubbish, etc: tie up all the bin bags and leave them ready to lift out. Might only save a minute or two for whoever comes in to clean but I hope it makes their job a little bit easier.

Dawn run up to the Alhambra (with some photo stops and a cheat walk up the really steep bit)

Got to Granada yesterday evening after nearly two months in the middle of nowhere. I was so tired after a long bus ride I went straight to bed. Been up since 4 impatiently waiting for it to get light so I can go for a run up to the Alhambra

Sometimes I think I should make more of an effort to engage with society instead of watching Golden Girls and listening to disco. And then I engage with society and decide it’s much better to watch Golden Girls and listen to disco.

This is now a Wolf Alice fan account youtu.be/IvSimkFF8e0

Very important info for eg women in violent relationships who maintain a secret phone. Please pass along.

Had an earworm all day of a song I vaguely remember and could only remember a quite fast hook and some harmonies, been driving me insane. Unrelated, went through my Shazams for some new fuel to add to my running playlist - and guess what I found! Anyway it was this youtu.be/HDDmALvLN_4?...

Their fury at Rayner's existence in politics from the start reveals how the Telegraph's glaring hypocrisy here goes beyond partisan opportunism: some dubious "opportunities" were always only supposed to be available to 'people like us' bsky.app/profile/loca...

She showed that a single mum from a council estate can become deputy prime minister, while vaping and going clubbing. She's a threat to their narrow-minded buttoned-up classist bullshit.

Rayner is absolute class. She's been a bit silly in organising her taxes, but that's not why they hate her. They hate her because she did not know her place.

Crowne Plaza Manchester Airport gets it - noon checkout, as it should be. This chain now has my business

My happy place, and the scene of many @almeriamovies.bsky.social

Check out these bad boys: gluten and dairy free chicken croquetas. Massive faff to make but got a friend staying who’s also dietarily challenged so made a big tapas feast. Worth it.

I took a picture of the moon that looks like a film set

Israel has killed more than 18,000 children since the start of its genocidal war on Gaza.

"stick to menswear"

A few views of the village from my morning walk

Another brilliant newsletter from Joshua Coleman on estrangement, this time related to ageism and how societal expectations of parenthood change. joshuacolemanphd.substack.com/p/why-is-age...

A remake of Falling Down set on public transport and everyone is watching videos and having loud personal phone conversations without headphones

My god this photo. It will haunt me. The situation in Gaza is unimaginably horrific

Had the weirdest 24 hour time-lapse flu yesterday. The whole lot: started with hacking cough, could barely move with aches and pains, cold sweats (absolutely drenched), in and out of disturbed sleep all day with weird fever dreams. Fell into a sound sleep around midnight and woke up absolutely fine.

Took strong steroids for 5 days, killed my immune system, then got on a plane. I soaked up every single virus on that flight like a sponge Me, live:

Awwww just got a message from the Airbnb in Germany saying my little friend keeps looking for me 😭

A week in East Grinstead, just because. I liked it, good vibes

Bye forever, WeTransfer.

I'm on a strong course of steroids for my sinuses and I feel 10 years younger, I want to skip everywhere. I didn't realise how much I'd normalised the constant pain and stiffness I have from the fibro. Strict anti-inflammatory diet is non-negotiable from now on, no cheating

Just booked a flight to Brazil 😃 Going to Porto Alegre for a month to see a friend who's going to take me on road trips and to vineyards and to Florianopolis which is the best 'sounds fictional but isn't' place name I've ever heard

Once again, I am spending my morning shouting 'But what does it actually DO' at the screen. I might dust off my website and write something about this. Step 1: Understanding the difference between a mission statement and a press release.

The bond . Thank you @goizane_huarte for today's vixen and cub-based #FoxOfTheDay

Unrelated to the content of the post, but when did compound words become such a big thing (bankcard)? I see it all the time now. When I'm editing I'm very pedantic about putting the spaces back or adding hyphens.

Some photos from my month in a random suburb just outside Düsseldorf

Absolutely haemorrhaging cash on transport in this country. Can’t do anything without spending 50 quid. Cost me a tenner to go 2 stops on the train and that’s with a rail card.

Same. I also recently discovered there are people who have separate clothes for indoors and outdoors, and they take the outdoor clothes off as soon as they get in and freak out if anyone sits down on a chair or bed in outdoor clothes

Its 37 degrees today and there’s no aircon on this train

Went to the Kompakt exhibition, which was a bit underwhelming. Had no idea this wrong ‘un was on this record though

Soooo, came to Cologne for the night. The hotel I'm in is a nudist hotel. No reference to it on the listing. Which sounds like an amusing anecdote, but walking into the bar last night to be confronted by a room full of dicks wasn't fun at all. Not dickheads - actual dicks.

In a less imperfect world, Musk and Trump would be forever cast as killers of children, and this would be front-page news for months and the subject of Sunday sermons in every church.

I was planning on going to Denmark next but this makes me not want to go. Horrific

Attn PRs: Please include a line about what your client actually *does* in your press releases. I REALLY resent having to spend 20 mins searching for a description. Half the press releases I get don't say what the product/service/company does, or include it in their about page on their website

I wrote about parental estrangement a while back, can't share it as my website's offline for now, but one of the things I referred to was how the online narrative is 99% against parents. This is a brilliant piece that totally turns that on its head, and it's so refreshing to see this perspective

@jenniferhershin.bsky.social "We are ghosted in our own family story" is just brilliant. I thought about this a lot early on, about how many of my memories had been stolen. Happy to say I've very much moved on from that now, but every word of your piece resonated.

Campaign to standardise global check-out times to noon, it's so much more civilised. Most of Europe gets it. No idea why UK hotels insist on booting you out at 10am.

Just having a little wine in the hotel bar and processing the fact I saw John Taylor do his sexy Reflex guitar moves in real life. From very far away but there, with my own eyes.