Weeknotes 340

Significantly cooler this week. Not in London, which continues to push the boundaries of fitness for human habitation, but in Iceland where I spent five nights on holiday.

Zero gyms, but lots of stomping around on mud and rocks, so that’s the same.

I saw waterfalls, walked down into a volcanic crater, swam in a hot spring, got splattered by a geyser, hiked through the gap between continental plates, drove past mountains, and gawked at lava. It was around 10 °C every day, I didn’t open a laptop, I felt peaceful. It was great.

I also ate lots of good food and drank lots of good coffee. The tastiest thing by far was — sorry, my tastes are unsophisticated — the “vegan potatoes” at Le Kock in Reykjavik. Umami, crispy, spicy, just fantastic.

Contra my love of Le Kock, I’m not sure I’d recommend the Icelandic Phallological Museum. It’s a funny idea but once the initial joke wears off you’re stuck in a room looking at a nauseating collection of dismembered members. You can probably get most of the value by visiting the gift shop.

Annoyingly the rental car suffered a burst tyre on the third day, resulting in a costly roadside assistance callout and a couple of wasted hours. To their credit the rental company immediately replaced it with another (albeit slightly worse) car so it was only a minor inconvenience in the end. I’m glad I heeded the various bits of online advice to pay for zero-liability insurance so I didn’t have to worry about whatever it would cost to actually repair the car beyond getting it back home.

When I returned to London last night my flat was absolutely roasting. A few hours with the front door and windows wide open sorted it out. Only the distant sound of roaring blokes disturbed the cool evening air.

Succession: The Disruption, Lion in the Meadow, Retired Janitors of Idaho, What It Takes (“minimising the Greg window”). All very good, with impressive performances from Jeremy Strong and Matthew Macfadyen in particular. I don’t enjoy the political manoeuvring quite as much as the baseline Roy sibling bickering but it’s still extremely watchable.

So… that’s it really. Back to normal next week.