Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk
Author, blogger, Irish tea drinker, pizza perfectionist, Beatles person. UK and France. My novels are 100% organic with no artifical ingredients. Read more: https://robmcminn.uk/fiction-and-non-fiction-books/
YouGov daily question today is that perennial summer silly season enquiry about whether it is at all acceptable for a Prime Minister to go on holiday. Fucksake. This year of all years, I get the impression they're only asking because hacks are short of opinion column fodder
Got myself. Second hand Sonos. €69. And the best news is, no AI assistant because it’s too old
Another early ride in fresh! Air! With even some damp! Tarmac! From overnight! Rain! Saw some escaped cows and a calf that fell over in the road because it was panicking. Heartbreaking
Just had to help a sphinx moth AND a grasshopper escape from the house. Idiots
Journalists have a blind spot when it comes to other journalists, don't they? Because they're all guns-for-hire, especially the opinion-havers. They'll write any-old-shit for money and then more any-old-shit the next day. They see the "professional" and not the person, who was a Grade A cunt
Mrs Spy by M J Robotham I came to this by a slightly roundabout route. I saw mention of its sequel, The Spy and the Snake, which is an espionage novel set in 1968. This happens to be the same year in which my current work-in-progress is set, and I was of course interested in how the author tackles…
Mrs Spy by M J Robotham
I came to this by a slightly roundabout route. I saw mention of its sequel, The Spy and the Snake, which is an espionage novel set in 1968. This happens to be the same year in which my current work-in-progress is set, and I was of course interested in how the author tackles the period. But! I didn't want to start with the sequel, so I went for the first book, which is set in 1965.
robmcminn.uk
Dinner last night with friends down in Ronchamp. They have this lovely pergola. But best avoided if you are moth phobic
Had a shower then got asked by OH to help her put the cover on her hammock. Sounds ridiculous, but it doesn’t quite fit the frame, like it requires a lot of force to get it on. And now I might as well not had that shower
Frustrated George Costanza
Alt: Frustrated George Costanza
static.klipy.com
France Diary Summer 2026 #8: Thirst The drought continues. There was a tiny bit of rain in the night, which woke me (not hard: it was 24°C), but it wasn't enough to warrant closing the Velux window. I did try sleeping with my head at the foot of the bed, aching for a little breeze, but it was…
France Diary Summer 2026 #8: Thirst
The drought continues. There was a tiny bit of rain in the night, which woke me (not hard: it was 24°C), but it wasn't enough to warrant closing the Velux window. I did try sleeping with my head at the foot of the bed, aching for a little breeze, but it was another rought night. You lose track of how many glasses of water you gulp down.
robmcminn.uk
Have now had external awning fitted to my bedroom Velux window. Do your worst, sun!
Every minor activity (walking to the glass recycling, e.g.) results in sweat dripping from my head for ages. Overnight low of 24° ahead 😩
Did an hour with the mower while daughter #2 raked hay. I sweated 3x my body weight, I reckon. Today’s Sunday morning coming down lawnmower banger was this youtu.be/-UUZykcidqE?...
Eric Church - Hands Of Time (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by EricChurchVEVO
youtu.be
Came to brother-in-law’s for paella, and discover to my horror that he’s soundtracking the evening with a YouTube playlist that I suspect is AI generated music
This was the highest point. Downhill (and then uphill again) from here
It is Jukebox time! For the next 12 hours there's some good music chat going on in this thread - come get involved!
Marsha@mmshere.bsky.social · 5d ago1/2 Welcome To Mystery Jukebox Kitty has the jukebox ready here on the shores of Lake Michigan. Coffee & donuts are ready. Everyone gets 2 tokens to request a song. Stay and comment. Please review her rules NO REPLIES HERE Rules: michaelgallagherwrites.com/rules/
Just ordered my copy of the next Kynaston. Published 24 Sept. Exciting. Also debating with myself whether to go to the London Library in October for this: www.londonlibrary.co.uk/whats-on/377...
Deep into the Sixties – David Kynaston in conversation
It’s the heart of the Sixties in Britain – the Beatles and the Stones vie at the top of the charts, England win the World Cup, and optimism and patriotism percolate through the streets. But this is no...
londonlibrary.co.uk
France Diary Summer 2026 #7: Gear Second airport run of the summer yesterday, to drop off daughter #1 for her flight back to Copenhagen. I'm still driving the Mercedes B Class, and I am not enjoying the manual gearbox. If it had five gears rather than six, I might be getting on better. My problem…
France Diary Summer 2026 #7: Gear
Second airport run of the summer yesterday, to drop off daughter #1 for her flight back to Copenhagen. I'm still driving the Mercedes B Class, and I am not enjoying the manual gearbox. If it had five gears rather than six, I might be getting on better. My problem is that I keep finding 6th (again) when I want 4th. As a sometime Milton Keyneser, I'm in the habit of going over roundabouts in 4th, so what keeps happening is, I'll pop it into (what I think is) 4th just before the roundabout and then find myself grinding and labouring in 6th.
robmcminn.uk
We had some proper rain (and thunder, lightning) in the night. Enough that the ground is still wet and the air feels clear. Slightly lower temperatures today before it ramps up again tomorrow
Yeah this is definitely witchcraft. Welcome witchcraft, but nevertheless there is some deep black magic at work here. #ShieldFont makes text look different depending on whether it's being read by a human, or an LLM scraper bot. https://shieldfont.org
ShieldFont
Publish for humans, not for crawlers. A web font that swaps the words in your HTML, so readers see your writing and AI training gets a stale copy.
shieldfont.org
