Yesterday, almost nine months after starting, my from-the-ground-up redesign of the podcast website went live. Of course I was not working on it full time, although I have notes from 25 different sessions. Now that it is up and running, it seems like a good idea to reflect on the process. The primary reflection being, it is a pain.

On Monday, perhaps foolishly, I went for a bicycle ride despite a very iffy weather forecast. A friend from the Venice ride in May was in town and wanted to go for a ride together, and two previous dates had fallen through. Monday was our last chance on this trip, so we went for it.

One reason I enjoy trawling through my various social feeds is that it exposes me to stuff I am interested in and might not otherwise find, even without the help of an algorithm. The past couple of days that happened in spades.

First, John Gordon mentioned the Tourbon canvas & leather bicycle bi...

Page 249 of the 250-page Leuchtturm 1917 A5 notebook, which I think of as the hub of my paper-based life, beckons. There’s a fresh spare on the shelf, still shrink wrapped, so I’m calm, but I’m also conscious that I am deluding myself about its centrality.

Thomas J Bevan complains that people no longer stroll. The need to keep abreast of phones, pump audio into their ears, and count steps, he says, makes people “pollute their potentially edifying walks”. In sum, for Bevan walking is not an activity, not something to be doing, it is simply being.