ArcTanGent 2024
This is probably going to be my last ArcTanGent, at least for a little while. It’s an expensive indulgence just for me, it comes right in a prime holiday timeslot, and I just fundamentally don’t enjoy the concept as much as I used to. I still had a great time this year and saw some amazing performances, but I think it’s time to quit whilst I’m ahead.
Le Weekend
Bit of an eclectic weekend. Norman castle, village fete (the kind you're not really welcome at if no-one recognises you), raft race, cheese on toast, pizza.
Friday
Haven't done one of these for a while. Mainly because she's not a very friendly cat. I don't really know what we do to cats to make them this way!
Two things that stress me out are dates and deadlines. So it makes sense for me to volunteer to coordinate all of the fixture dates for Sussex Junior Badminton, which has a deadline and I feel like results in a lot of people aiming grumpiness at me if I do a bad job.
Woodingdean Sunflower Field
It's a load of photos of sunflowers. Do you need this many photos of sunflowers? No, you do not, but it's not hurting anyone!
Spa GP, Belgium 2024
F1 Dads take a road trip to Belgium, to one of the best tracks of the season, to watch George Russell get robbed.
Tabitha's final day at primary school
There's nearly seven years between these pictures. So much has changed. Very happy to have such a great kid and I'm so excited for her to start secondary.
Charlotte is doing a sponsored abseil for charity. You can read about why she's doing it, and I would hugely appreciate if you could donate/sponsor her.
Fuji X100VI
I had an X100-series camera ages ago, but a can of Dr Pepper exploded in my bag and killed it.
Adam Hargreaves drew Mr Impossible for me
Charlotte got me a ticket for this event at Helm for my birthday. It was pretty cool.
We went to the sound mirrors
Wanted to go to these since we saw Tom Scott's video about them. They're not open to the public all the time but they do occasionally sell tickets.
It was my birthday again
Palm Reader kicked off their farewell mini-tour in Southampton on my birthday. Andy and I took a little trip down memory lane, and found it largely closed.
Permit Room / Helm / Sam Campbell
Li'l date night with Charlotte. Dinner, drinks, comedy. Not bad but my word restaurants are expensive at the moment.
Cars Cars Cars
Another weekend, another car show. This one technically (legally?) a meetup rather than a show. An American car meetup, with a couple of lovely German cars thrown in for good measure. I'll take the 911, please.
One of two things has happened: either I've sampled so much fine ice cream that McFlurrys (don't come at me with McFlurries; it is a proper noun) now taste and have the texture of warm garbage, or McFlurrys always tasted and had the texture of warm garbage. I guess those aren't mutually exclusive.
Still I think today marked the first day that an ice cream was so repulsive that I threw it in the bin. Never thought I'd see the day.
Dad-Daughter Date
Charlotte met up with a friend in London, so Tabitha and I had a very expensive day filled with inefficient travel!
I'm on an organising kick right now. Today I organised our finances for the next few years because Tabitha's secondary school was stressing me out. Then I found a Johnny.Decimal tab I opened a couple of weeks go from an article on Jack Baty's site and have decided to implement something akin to this for my own use as I'm a bit fragmented right now. I'm not going to do Johnny.Decimal because it's too restrictive for my tangent-prone, words-first brain, but I am going to learn all about it to really squeeze the best of it out and decant that into my system. That is generally how I roll with most things.
Now can he focus on this long enough to complete it? I'll let you know tomorrow.
From Low Beams of Hope
I went to see Pijn last year and they played a lot off their new record; From Low Beams of Hope, and I specifically said at the time I couldn't begin to fathom how you'd compose songs like this.
Meth. at Hope & Ruin
Nearly didn't go to see Meth. on their Shame album tour because of the heat, and that would've been a mistake. This was top-5 material; super intense and vicious. The singer is actually pretty scary.
Father's Day
Not feeling too great at the moment but it's illegal to be grumpy on Father's Day. Dragged us out in the unexpected sun to go for a walk.