Back into my London office for the day again today. One week on from my last trip in and there are noticeably more people with noticeably fewer masks.

Mrs D prepped lunch for us both last night. Giant couscous, mango, halloumi, leaves. Beautiful. Had my half from the fridge at lunchtime and thought ‘that was a bit heavy’. Went back to the fridge later and found my portion in a bowl. I’d eaten everything else. So stuffed.

🎶 Listening to the Bill Evans Trio play Porgy (I Loves You Porgy) at the Village Vanguard. I know that hearing the chatter from the crowd is part of the recording’s charm, but who the heck were these people, laughing while the magic was being created in front of their ears‽

📚 Looking forward to getting my hands on the new Readwise reading app. I’m slightly ashamed to say that I have 8,500 unread articles in Instapaper alongside an unfathomable stack of unread PDFs. They are certainly thinking deeply about the problem.

📚 I’m glad I wasn’t wandering the city streets in the early days of motorised transport.

Does Unilever have a graduate programme where they welcome new joiners as Unilever’s uni leavers?

Bought my train ticket for a visit to the office tomorrow, my first in 18 months. I know how privileged I’ve been to have worked from home all this time, and I have mixed emotions about going back. It’ll be interesting to see how I feel about it 24 hours from now.

🎙I’ve had so much value out of the WB-40 podcast and the wonderful community that they’ve built over the past few years. Looking forward to the next set of interesting guests and conversations they have lined up when they return this month.

📺 Still thinking about Lovers Rock (2020) today. I can’t put my finger on why it was so magical, so have been looking at reviews. This one nails it.

It’s a scene of such intense communal joy that watching it alone on your couch during this time almost feels like a betrayal.

📺 Thoroughly enjoying the Small Axe anthology of films. Just watched Lovers Rock (2020) and now I have this amazing song stuck in my head. I can’t remember having heard it before. Amazing cinematography that made me feel as though I was at the house party. I really wish I was there.

File under ‘I had no idea this was still a thing’.

Toxic leaded fuel production finally ends worldwide as last refinery shuts down

🍺 Really enjoying these two new alcohol-free discoveries.

🚴‍♀️ Signed up to cycle around Silverstone on Sunday with my son. The rider registration form is quite something.

🎶 It’s still exciting to get music turning up in the mail, especially when it has travelled from a long way away.

Sad to hear that I am losing an excellent colleague, but I’m so glad that he has already found his next gig. If you are interested in running, agile software development, or perhaps even both, Stuart Mann’s blog is a must-read. Great posts that always make me chuckle.

📚 You couldn’t make it up.

Worthwhile charity appeal in this week’s newsletter from our local council, to support arrivals and refugees from Afghanistan in Hertfordshire, UK.

📷 Just how far is it, Roughlee?

📷 Just a regular old day, taking some alpacas out for a walk.