[Saturday 29th October 2022]
I went to meet Chie and Erika at the end of Erika's Japanese school and we went for lunch together at the udon place in Brent Cross.
Later on I snuck out for a bit to make a Negroni on Hampstead Heath, and made a quick silly video while I was at it:
[Tuesday 25th October 2022]
Spent the morning with Alex and Alice, who were also visiting Devon this week, then did the long drive back to London after lunch.
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[Monday 24th October 2022]
I woke up early and drove to Dawlish so I could have a coffee on the beach around sunrise. Later on we headed to Teignmouth and got the ferry over to Shaldon, where Erika and I collected sea snails on the beach there. In the evening we headed into Exeter for Chinese food.
I made a video out of this morning's coffee on the beach:
[Sunday 23rd October 2022]
The weather forecast predicted fairly heavy rain later in the afternoon, so we tried to fit all our outdoor activities into the morning / early afternoon. So it made sense to stay fairly local to Dad's house, and we decided to go foraging for chestnuts and mushrooms in the woods nearby. A late Sunday lunch at the Ley Arms after that, then a bit later on after the rain stopped Chie and I ventured out for a walk to the Anchor Inn in Cockwood.
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[Saturday 22nd October 2022]
Spent most of the daytime driving down to Devon, including a return visit to the Lazy Lobster in Chew Magna for lunch.
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[Friday 21st October 2022]
Did some science experiments with Erika in the evening with a Japanese kit she has that recreates weather phenomena.
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[Thursday 20th October 2022]
Got a new phone today - having used the previous one for three years i thought it was ready for an upgrade. In the evening met up with Benoit who I used to work with over a decade ago, and now lives in Paris.
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[Tuesday 18th October 2022]
I actually went to my office today, for the first time since I think January 2020. Can't say I particularly enjoyed the experience.
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[Saturday 15th October 2022]
Started using a Japanese style oven toaster today (we'd had it for a while but hadn't used it as it was technically for Chie's job), partly as we assumed it would be a bit cheaper to run than the main oven.
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[Thursday 13th October 2022]
Walked down off the Hampshire Downs after my wild camp the previous night, and headed to Bedwyn to get the train back to London.
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[Wednesday 12th October 2022]
I took the day off work and went for a walk and a wild camp on the Hampshire Downs.
I made two videos as a result of this outing, the first of the afternoon's walk, with some musings about ancient tracks etc:
...and the second one has the wild camping bit, plus the walk to the station the next morning in the midst:
Somehow the wild camping one must have got the attention of YouTube's recommendation algorithm because it really took off - prior to this none of my videos had reached more than about 200 videos, but at time of writing this (the end of October), this video had been viewed 2654 times and had received 100 likes. Plus I went from 50 or 60 subscribers to getting close to 200 now. So that was really gratifying to see, including all the nice comments it received.
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[Tuesday 11th October 2022]
Chie and I went out for dinner in the evening, to a restaurant called Anima e Cuore which we had been meaning to try for some time.
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[Sunday 9th October 2022]
Having stayed the night at the hotel we had more time with family in the morning, then lunch together before we said our goodbyes and headed off back to London.
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[Saturday 8th October 2022]
Drove up to the East Midlands in the afternoon for Mum's birthday party, with afternoon tea on arrival, some nice glimpses of the sun setting over the River Trent (and a good opportunity for family photos!) followed by a barbecue buffet dinner and lots of rose Nyetimber.
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[Wednesday 5th October 2022]
Went for another extended stroll on the heath this evening, and made a YouTube video while I was at it. Nice sunset this evening.
[Sunday 2nd October 2022]
Quiet day at home. Did some pruning in the afternoon (the vines had taken over the garden a bit over the summer). In the evening a (vegetarian approximation of) a Sunday roast.
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[Saturday 1st October 2022]
Chie's university friend Hiromu was visiting London this week with her husband, so we met them this afternoon for a sort of afternoon tea picnic on Hampstead Heath.
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[Friday 30th September 2022]
Took the afternoon off work to go for a strange walk, starting and ending at Uxbridge, and with the main goal being the junction between the M40 and the M25. I thought this would make for a fun and quirky walk (and as a by product a fun and quirky YouTube video) but it was mostly actually a bit grim.
[Monday 26th September 2022]
Ate the first apple from our tree today. They're really small this year - I think because of the drought over the summer - but there's a good number of them and this one at least was quite tasty.
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[Saturday 24th September 2022]
Third stretch of the Icknield Way today, from Letchworth Garden City (well actually Baldock) to Royston. Another YouTube video of course.
[Friday 23rd September 2022]
Having slept the night in a hedge, I woke up early to be at Avebury for sunrise on the morning of the Autumn Equinox. It was rather grey and cloudy so I couldn't really see anything of the sunrise, but I was happy to be there nonetheless.
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[Thursday 22nd September 2022]
Took another (half?) day off work so I could head to Avebury this afternoon. I'd decided I wanted to spent the night in the area for the autumn equinox. While I was there I did a tour of some of the local momuments like West Kennet Long Barrow and the Sanctuary, and made another YouTube video:
[Wednesday 21st September 2022]
Still struggling to get back into a normal routine with work etc after last week's crash. Headed to the heath in the early evening and stayed a while to watch the sunset.
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[Monday 19th September 2022]
Bank holiday for the Queen's State Funeral, so I was off work and Erika was off school. Didn't really do much, just watched some of the funeral on the TV, and otherwise had a quiet day at home.
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[Sunday 18th September 2022]
Quiet day at home. Spent some time playing with Erika's tiny remote controlled car, and made a sort of obstacle course for it.
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[Saturday 17th September 2022]
Met up with Walter again, and also mutual work friend Andrew, and had lunch on the heath plus a glass of wine.
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[Friday 16th September 2022]
Once again I couldn't face working today, so took another day off and went for a walk in the countryside, this time doing another section of the Icknield Way, from Luton to Letchworth Garden City. Didn't take a lot of photos, but made another YouTube video along the way:
[Thursday 15th September 2022]
Once again I just couldn't face working today. I was already scheduled for a dentist appointment down in Belgravia, after which I met my old work friend Walter (who was visiting London this week) for lunch at Oliveto. Then for the remainder of the afternoon I just stayed in Belgravia revisiting some old pubs. Again not many photos today but I did make a video.
[Wednesday 14th September 2022]
I started work as usual this morning but after a couple of hours realised I was just staring at a screen and achieving nothing. I just couldn't bring myself to do any work - it all suddenly seemed like a pointless waste of time. So I decided to take the rest of the day off, and headed to East London to visit some old favourite pubs of mine. Didn't actually take many photos, but I did make a video of the outing.
[Tuesday 13th September 2022]
Today was the anniversary of when Chie and I got engaged. Most of the photos today are trying to get a shot of the two of us so we could print it out on Erika's new sticker printer.
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[Sunday 11th September 2022]
Not many photos so I assume this was mostly a quiet day at home? One of Erika's presents was a tiny sticker printer and we tested that out this afternoon.
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[Saturday 10th September 2022]
Erika seemed to want a low key birthday this year. She even went to Japanese school as usual in the morning, after getting up slightly earlier than normal to open presents. In the afternoon she had a friend over and they went to have their nails done.
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[Friday 9th September 2022]
Finished work a bit early after a probably not very productive day feeling a bit shellshocked by yesterday's sad news. Definitely felt a visit to the heath was in order, and went for a longer than usual wander around.
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[Thursday 8th September 2022]
I was out for dinner this evening with some old work friends when I heard that the Queen had died. Very strange atmosphere on the way home.
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[Tuesday 6th September 2022]
Slightly reluctantly opened the last of the 2005 Nuits St Georges from Gavignet, as Burgundy stocks were running rather low. Paired with Jagarico. It was very good.
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[Monday 5th September 2022]
Erika was back at school today, and it was work for me as usual. So all pretty humdrum and back into the routine.
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[Sunday 4th September 2022]
I woke up early and drove to Heathrow to pick up the girls, who returned from Japan today. In the afternoon, in a bid to get Erika out of the flat to help with her jetlag, we went down to King's Cross to catch the tail end of the annual "Return to Hogwarts" Harry Potter event.
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[Saturday 3rd September 2022]
Spent a large part of the day tidying up the flat in preparation for the girls returning from Japan. Just treated myself to lunch at the Pineapple before returning home to do more tidying and cleaning.
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[Friday 2nd September 2022]
I was craving pizza, so headed down to Rossopomodoro in Camden for dinner. I diverted by way of the heath on the way back (taking a likely inefficient route involving walking to Chalk Farm then getting a bus to Hampstead Heath overground station), thinking I might have some wine, but then remembered when I got there it had a synthetic closure which is a real pain to open with wine prongs. So I gave up and went home instead.
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John's Journal / Blog
