Meenzer

In other words, he's a white South African.

I want charts for Are we human? and Are we dancer?

I'm typing this poolside in Gran Canaria. We've never done a sun holiday at this time of year before because the prices are generally ridiculous as everyone has the same idea (and indeed Gatwick yesterday was chaos, 30-minute queues just to get into Wagamama and all), but I'm a couple of hours into a good book and the weight of the world is already starting to lift. Dust off the fedora and get on it next year, you won't regret it.

Yeah, I think their science-guided approach should suit the way you think about things quite well. And if nothing else, it'll get you used to talking about things out loud and examining your actions with a bit of rational distance (as indeed you already do when you're not bogged down in it all), which can be really helpful in terms of internalising this stuff. Whatever you end up doing next, I really hope it gets you a step or two forward, you deserve a good run.

The Darras Hall one

"Kiddiefiddeläinen. You know, Pervijärvi. Nonceinen?"

Merry Christmas one and all. Just about to get tonight's Swedish Christmas meal going. Nothing says "festive season" quite like anchovies.

This makes me realise how fortunate we are that Stevie isn't still around. His sympathy for Tonali's gambling addiction would have been magnified by his general appreciation for all things Apennine.

I change trains at Manningtree occasionally. Very good little pub on the platform at the station, improbably enough. Probably also £8 a pint these days mind 😬

You're not my real dad, you can't tell me what to do

This is so shit it's brilliant

As I phrased it over on that there Bluesky, my listening stats will be completely skewed by the 110-hour playlist of post-rock/instrumental stuff I put on whenever I need to concentrate, so there's no point in looking at the bare numbers to figure out what I was into. But here are some songs I liked this year, at least: and, obviously, Where parent albums/EPs exist, they were usually pretty decent too. As for the article, I do think the Spotification of music consumption has damaged my approach to new music discovery somewhat, it's inevitable that it would. On the other hand, it does make me more likely to listen to things from a wider range of times and places than I might do otherwise, and that's not necessarily a bad thing - I've discovered and rediscovered all kinds of goodies that way. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.

That usually depended on whether we got out of the office early enough for jumbo caipiroska happy hour at Sausalitos. All bets off after that.

Excellent - as someone who lived in Mainz for a while, I think we can build a local rivalry on those tenuous foundations. Welcome.

Getting it to actually fit properly would be too much effort (so to speak).

We do not want any UN-BRITISH INFLUENCES in this story about looking after a Russian exile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan's_World_Cup_Song "Boardman stated that if the song made it to no. 1 in the UK charts, he would donate half of the profits to charity."

Well, for a while, anyway.

Let that come up in the interview, please. "And do you have any questions for us, Mr. Wykiki?" "Well....."