Not notes

This website is a place where I can share short thoughts, but as they also appear in other places (as ‘tweets’, ‘toots’ or ‘microblogs’), I often decide it’s probably best to keep some of these to myself.

That said, I do keep hold of them, and its fun to look at them out of context, long after the events that triggered them.

If only so that I can delete the page in my notes app where I’ve been saving them, here are 10 random things I avoided saying over the last six months:

• The suggestion that “Google wants the web to win” is laughable. Google wants Google to win. It would throw the web under the bus in a heartbeat, if doing so served its interests.

• Climate capitalism. You don’t need to stop flying, just buy offsets. You don’t need to use public transport, just buy an electric car. Capitalism always finds a way.

• So far on this trip I’ve taken photos exclusively using an iPhone 11 Pro but today I took my FujiFilm X100T out with me for the sake of comparison. Should have left the iPhone at home; no amount of software magic can beat the physical characteristics of a big piece of glass.

• Using a mobile phone, in a foreign country, on a train, and trying to pay my taxes before the self assessment deadline. Each payment option presents a challenge. My debit card has been frozen. My bank requires a card reader to set up a new payee. Setting up a direct debit will mean payment arriving after the deadline. Juggling multiple apps and webpages, copying and pasting reference numbers between screens. I’ve never felt so much like a canonical ‘mobile user’.

• The last four series of Cold Feet were a bit hit and miss, but while series 9 was one of the best, now seems like a good time to pause. I’m looking forward to seeing these characters again in their third age of live.

• Not sure what’s more concerning. Untold wealth acquired through tax-avoidance and slave labour, or the fact that so many stars from the Thick of It have visibly aged so much.

• Rummaging around in my email archives only to have a certain Mr. Benbow dispense some timely life advice from the beyond the grave. Cocky sod.

• They say the secret to good comedy is timing. Can confirm the same is also true of tragedy. And farce.

• The toppling of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol feels like a hopeful and much needed sign that in 2020 society will be changed for the better.

• If Vettel’s time at Ferrari proved anything, it’s that while he’s a good driver, he’s by no means a great driver. If anything, he’s a good driver with a great deal of flaws.