Today I learned about Chinese Chops.

I love this time of year. The big beech tree in our garden has all its buds ready to go. They all seem to unfurl on the same day in one big explosion of green.

This plane has come from France and is now flying over London in the strangest pattern. Surveillance?

From our walk today. The farmer has erected a helpful sign just in case someone gets a little Theresa May.

Probably still my favourite album.

So sad to hear that Bill Withers has passed. It’s almost impossible to hear Kissing My Love without dancing.

I heard him on this podcast appearance a while ago and it’s well worth some time in your ears to learn a bit about the man.

My genius wife has made a table tennis table for the kids out of a piece of MDF.

Really looking forward to seeing the Smoke Fairies online gig this evening. Thank goodness the band members live in the same house and can do this! It’s on Facebook, but I don’t think you need a Facebook account to view the live stream.

🚨THERE’S A BRAND NEW EPISODE OF COMMON SENSE WITH DAN CARLIN! Turned up in my ears unexpectedly this morning. It’s like Christmas has come early!

It’s not often that you get a flat tyre riding on a turbo trainer. Had to abandon my ride this morning. Inner tube had a puncture but I can’t work out where I picked it up from as the tyre looks fine. 🤷‍♂️

Just realised I haven’t put my watch forward an hour. I thought I was winning today but I’m now an hour behind where I wanted to be. 🤦‍♂️

Another lockdown-related song popped into my head just now. If they haven’t used this in their advertising already, why not‽

Applauding the amazing, brave work of the staff in our National Health Service. Quite moving to hear the clapping and cheering across Berkhamsted.

I never usually struggle with sleep but I keep waking up thinking about the pandemic. Articles like the New Yorker’s fictional account of getting the virus or the NYT’s real account of looking after someone with it at home are important, but don’t help my state of mind.

We’ve taken Album Club online. Currently on Zoom with everyone and we’re all on mute, listening to Mary Coughlan’s Tired and Emotional in our respective houses, with a chat message to say when we’ve finished side one. Not quite the same, but still a lot of fun.

Best thing I’ve seen explaining COVID-19 and what we should do about it. Watched this with the whole family last night. If people still watched domestic TV, this should be broadcast during ad breaks as a public information film.

I’ve had this song going around my head for the past few days and didn’t know why. Then I remembered the name of the album it comes from.

Had our first ‘virtual’ school governor meeting tonight. Impressed that everyone worked out how to use Microsoft Teams. Not quite the same as being there but close enough. Amazing how many actions and concerns we had last time seem trivial given the new context we are living in.

What do other runners use to track their heart rates on iOS now that Strava doesn’t do it? I’ve tried using Wahoo but it’s rubbish — the heart rate gets stuck at the same number for the first part of the run, despite using a Wahoo Kickr monitor. Is there anything better?

Cliveden.