Weeknotes #93: Halloween, Beetlejuice and Christmas

A lively week of outings, media, and festive anticipation

Week commencing Monday, 28 October 2024

Close up on the cut out eyes of a Halloween pumpkin
Spooky

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 7/7 and Move 7/7. (100%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days 1/5. Total steps: 55,438

Life

  • Monday, it’s very noticeable in the supermarket that Christmas is coming. There was a tiny section focused on Halloween, but entire sections of the store are already providing festive inspiration.
  • There does not appear to be a consistent way to describe the size of replacement fridges. Oh for standardisation.
  • Impromptu drinks and some baba ghanoush in Mora Meza on Tuesday. Yay.
  • Wednesday. The budget. On big plans, HS2 to London is good and might impact me directly, assuming I am still around when it’s finished.
  • My office day was followed by our regular last-Thursday drinks. Outside the pub, I actually watched somebody use a distraction technique to try to steal a phone. Very clever, but we saw and he ran off; the phone was still with the owner.
  • When a trip to a supermarket is my Friday night entertainment, maybe I need a reset.
  • Due to poor service in the restaurant, our family lunch moved across to the Street Burger, where the service was exceptional (and the food good too).

Media

  • Saturday night was my annual viewing of The Nightmare Before Christmas: although closer to Halloween than Christmas this year. It set us up for …
  • … a really nice way to spend a Sunday morning: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice captured the humour and eccentricity of the original film, while making the film feel more modern. This is not a recycled nostalgia trip. Recommended.
  • When The Evening Standard went weekly, I found a collection of new London writing, and it’s all excellent: The London Minute, London Centric, and The Londoner.