An obituary for my Mum. www.theguardian.com/society/2025... RIP. I miss her every day.

I wandered along to both the 'Unite the Kingdom' and 'Stop Trump' rallies in London over thr last week. Here are some photos from each...

St Mary's Island, March 2025.

5 years ago today, Covid 19 was declared a pandemic.

Every so often this letter from Alex Ferguson to Eric Cantona goes around. Many years later, Cantona said "Sir Alex Ferguson will be my boss forever."

A nice, annual milestone this week: The point at which the sun starts to rise before 7:30 and sets after 5pm again.

Always nice light this time of year when the sun starts setting a little later.

When you're on the X Factor at 8 but need to get a bag filled with iPhone 16s and Galaxy S24s by 7.

Brexit rules kicking in.

Ran along Irvine beach during the week to have a look at the minke whale that had washed up. Quite a creature and sad to see it in this state. Hoping it died simply of natural causes. #whaleofatime

Theatreland.

Bar Italia.

Sunday morning picnic on someone's grave. Slightly unusual.

Man in a fez. London, December 2024.

100+ Trends & Predictions Reports for 2025: bit.ly/2025trending (from Adobe, McKinsey, Goldman, Meta, PWC, Deloitte, Youtube, Statista, and many more)

Cecil Court, London, December 2024.

I usually ask on Twitter, but thought I'd give it a go here instead: Which good books have you read this year? Which would you recommend wholeheartedly (optionally why)? I'll compile the list if there are enough responses. (feel free to repost for a broader spread of recommendations)

The 2024 Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree has arrived.

Not the most promising sign when Instagram suggests your account is similar to Phillip Schofield and Hannah Ingram-Moore.

Is the Gladiator 2 team faking Google Reviews? These don't really ring true as casual, amateur reviews.

'Grey Friday' today: The day where companies take advantage of the fact loads of people don't actually know whether it's Black Friday or not. Some go out with more 'early deals', some just straight up pretend it's Black Friday today.

A man, taking a picture, in freshly trodden snow.

Bluesky is pretty much like Twitter, but everyone has avatars that are 5 years older.

Odd q: what do you think is missing / wrong about this model, which is supposed to be a guide for 'purpose' in life?

Went for a walk this evening and wandered over to see if the tree was up at Pickering Place. Very pretty.

The Covent Garden tree, in various states of dress. (Trivia: it is actually five trees, all joined together like a beautiful Frankenstein's monster)

The Cenotaph, at night.

Today is the final 'Evening Standard', first published 1859. A weekly replacement - 'The London Standard' - goes live next week. I often picked up the paper from Aristotle, who sang a song while he gave it away, like a carnival barker. He doesn't know if he'll be handing out the weekly version yet