Arrived home just before noon local time. Which makes it about 10 hours, door-to-door
Author, blogger, inventor of the Caramac Kit-Kat, tea drinker, pizza perfectionist, Beatles person. UK and France. My new novel, Codename Hirondelle, is out now https://robmcminn.uk
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Arrived home just before noon local time. Which makes it about 10 hours, door-to-door
Classic McMinn move. I was alert to the opening of a lane at passport control. Got in first, straight around and onto a train. Sweet smell of success
Home to terminal in 6 hours. I am vibrating
On the road. First proper stop. Pain au chocolate and double espresso. Aire des oiseaux migrateurs
Shutters closed, everything put away, alarm set for 2 a.m., fridge cleaned out, car packed. Travel day tomorrow
Powerless by Harry Turtledove (ARC review) This is a review of an ARC from publisher Caezik SF and Fantasy and Netgalley. I found this a strange experience. Published in 2025, this nevertheless read like it was written 60 years ago. It has a real "New Wave" 1960s vibe, and might have been spawned…
Our regular look at what’s been on TV Things are picking up. Strange New Worlds has been back for several weeks; Foundation creeps towards the end of its third season. Even Invasion is back—and the lights are still off. As the nights draw in, we can expect Slow Horses, the remastered Beatles…
I like the plucky Japanese woman in Invasion, but the rest of the characters are a bit bof
Just booked three days in Copenhagen for October half-term. Excited now
🤞🏼
Friend of ours lost his driving licence today. Speeding on the Ballon d’Alsace 🙄🙄🙄 (I am quietly satisfied)
Two diversions on my bike ride, one expect, one not. Cut a huge chunk out of my usual loop, dammit
Authority and Acceptance (Southern Reach 2 & 3) by Jeff VanderMeer I’ve been struggling with these two sequels to the original Annihilation for much of the summer — struggling being the operative word. Because I found myself not enjoying them as much as the first book and I didn’t know why. A…
People kept saying that the dog really liked me, but I think the dog just had an instinct that I was the person most likely to drop food down my front
Went out to dinner last night. This was my view for much of the evening
Being honest with myself about sleep (and alcohol) I’ve mentioned it before, but I have been sleeping much better since I retired. I would say it’s still not a perfect situation, but I’m probably getting, on average, a couple more hours a night than I was for a long time. The problem with…
Tift Merritt's latest revisits Tambourine 20 years on. Great to hear her voice again music.apple.com/gb/album/tim...
Unreal city Under the circus tent of a winter sound stage Mr Lennon, the famous Beatle Lank haired, with a pocket full of pills Carriage and insurance free to London Asked Eric, Keith and Mitch, the dirty mac To play Yer Blues in Wycombe Road Followed by wail and jam… robmcminn.uk/a-beatles-wa...
France diary #17 On the wind down I suppose it’s official: I have now been retired for exactly a year. Today being payday (for my OH) and it having been a year since my bank account was thus inflated. Meanwhile, I’m still a *little* confused about when exactly my pension goes into my account. It’s…
The airfield at Chaux, which is one of the locations featured in my novel Codename Hirondelle. In the novel, it is disguised by surrounding crops, but still had a runway long enough to land a Lysander
Out for dinner tonight and tomorrow 😬 Have broken out one of the two decent shirts I keep here (i.e. haven’t worn it for gardening or barn clearing yet)
Yes, I am entertaining this idea. Might be some bargains after their forthcoming event too
My Apple Watch battery is borked. But £95 to replace. Not worth it?
What does the last weekend of meteorological summer have in store? Find out and ask questions on the the Weather studio Live on YouTube at 12:15 pm👇
Met Office spreadsheet says Monday. This is incorrect, I know, but we are where we are
I’m a shadow of my former self
Fitting in what might be a last ride. More rain expected
Exciting news. Intermarché seem to have a new in-store bread provider
Some bits you can just fold back down. But most of it is like an impossible jigsaw puzzle
Opened the front door this morning to be greeted by more wild boar gardening 🐗 Fuckers
Codename Hirondelle – Chapter 14 (audio feed) It's 1939 and the build-up to war has begun. Jack's operation with the Nordic Circle is over. He finds himself in a requisitioned hotel, learning how to encode messages and working on worst-case scenarios. How do you fight an occupying army? If you…
Post credit sequence: don’t miss
Funniest Star Trek episode ever
Strange New Worlds is an absolute hoot this week 🖖🏼
Every time I see a pic of that Reform dude who banned the Evening Post, I just want to shout GAMMON! I can’t help it
Road closure update. Rocks gone(?). No workforce. It was 5 minutes to 2, so maybe they were at lunch. Empty lot remains empty
Didn't think it was my kind of thing but watched it on a recommendation and it's great
Dark
Watching The Apartment, which was my late colleague Lee’s favourite film
“Don’t you remember? The science lab Christmas party?” “Yes, I remember.” So many questions. Her hair is totally different when they arrive planetside
Star Trek: Dagger of the Mind. Quite simply amazing how easy Red shirts are to knock out and kill. Just a little fist bump on the back of the head
Eek
Well, there’s a diversion, but from the straightforward route, yes
Road closure update: two days to go, and no visible progress from yesterday. Rocks still in the middle of the road
As always, Bluesky compresses the sound to buggery
Some arty slow mo of the rain in the water trough. Was hoping to catch one of the frogs leaping in, which they normally do when you approach. But the little bastard waited till I turned away. So arty slow mo of rain it is 🐸
As heard on Radio Caroline, on this day in 1967. From an incredible reel to reel bought by the wonderful @simongmusic.bsky.social
I could. But we’re home in less than a week. I’ll cope without
Can't help thinking Amanda Shires is directing this at someone youtu.be/Xxm7mgSgV0Q?...
I’ve hit the BBC Sounds catch 22. It’s decided I don’t live in the UK, but also wo t let me have the BBC app because my App Store account is in the UK and can’t be changed without losing subscriptions and family sharing etc. Marvellous
McMinnville. Good name for a town
All these early star treks are about the same thing: women who appear beautiful but are in fact old/aliens/horribly disfigured
France Diary #16 Looks like the weather changes today — and that today might have been the last fine and sunny day of the holiday. Oh well. I don't suppose many people will be complaining. We had a rainy start, all those weeks ago, and it looks like we might get the traditional rainy finish. The…
Provisional statistics from the Met Office show that summer 2025 will ‘almost certainly’ be the warmest summer on record for the UK. It would move 2018 off the top spot and relegate 1976 out of the top five warmest summer in a series which dates back to 1884. 👉 www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...
One of the frogs living in our trough. Look at his little fingers
…but almost nobody uses them these days and I would guess nobody new to cycling would ever see them. They’d just be confused by the use of the word “clipless” to refer to something you have to clip into
Language thing that really bugs me. All the cycling press talks about “clipless” pedals, but “clipless” actually means the opposite, because these are pedals you need cleats to clip into. The word was originally used to refer to those old fashioned pedals with toe clips and straps…
It’s still a mystery to me what these works and road closure are about. Syndicat des Eaux is involved, but mainly it appears to be rocks plonked in the middle of the road 🤷🏼♂️
[rings bell] We got another one!
It’s all in KSR’s Ministry For the Future
Un deux trois
Today's little blog from our cycle ride to Rochefort, we've now pedalled over 545km. I never imagined it could be such a beautiful place vauclusedreamer.com/2025/08/25/d...
Test your blood pressure?
Got Copurrnicus a microchip feeder to stop Grabbity stealing his food. He hates it. He opens it up, takes a mouthful of food – up to three bits of kibble – carries them off, drops them on the floor and then eats them one by one. It's hilarious.
Paging Manchester
Marina giving a masterclass in not finishing sentences in the latest TRIE episode
This episode has the crazy ESP doctor lady. Still better than McCoy
Where No Man Has Gone Before. First filmed Kirk episode, 4th in series. Jarringly different Spock character. Who was it told him to be less shouty after this episode?
These rocks are what they referred to as “public art”, though that’s a translation of something that might have just meant “public works” in context. Who knows. Is a bunch of rocks on the site of a once derelict house art? Guess we’ll find out in four days
Nobody wanted responsibility for cleaning up the flood, so it remained for several years. Stagnant brown water. But this summer, they’ve drained it, filled it in, and now appear to be moving giant rocks onto the site
Turns out I was mistaken about the reason for the 4-day road closure. There’s an empty lot next to the house with the mural, which for several years was flooded due to a burst water main caused by a person renovating a burned out house
Rode into a headwind all the way down the valley from the waterfall, which kept the speed down
Rode up into the St Antoine forest, one of the key locations in my novel Codename Hirondelle
🤔
Well, I trimmed the hedge by the lane for a bit, and then I saw a couple of hornets. So I stopped
Last week in France begins. A little bit of gardening today, I think, bit of hedge trimming. I wish I could stick to my plan of a slight tidy up, but always, when I get into it, I hack things back to nubs
Oof, headwind. Well done for getting through
Watching original Star Trek. From the beginning
France Diary #15 Heart of the Matter I’ve been thinking about heartbeats today; specifically, heartbeats and steps. A few months ago, a whole gang of researchers at Northwestern University published a research paper that linked a calculation based on two metrics from a fitness band to overall…
Anything that makes it harder for Kynaston to write his books is a crime
@emflxer.bsky.social 👀
And finally, as I blasted up the last hill feeling great, this: Take me down to the water, dunk my head into the river Raise your hands, all hail rock 'n' roll Change my life, wash me clean with The truth of a guitar picker For the songs he sings, I'll gladly give my soul youtu.be/-jz9owb08qA?...
And then this, which as it so often is, was the best song of the ride. The best thing Dwight Yoakam ever did youtu.be/nd5U3tgcGGw?...
And then this randomly popped up and I didn't even know who it was. A banger nevertheless youtu.be/rHvahMijeYE?...
Fab early bike ride. So many bangers. Starting with this, which played as I set out down the hill through the woods, and it was COLD 🥶 I was glad I went with the long sleeves youtu.be/2vRsEC65NTA?...
Late capitalism hoping we've forgotten about towels.
Today’s constitutional
In the battle of the weather apps this summer, Météo France has been a clear winner
Riding my bike earlier, coming down from the top village doing about 45 kph, and a three legged dog ran out in front of me 😲
This sounds so raw and powerful music.apple.com/gb/album/won...
Quietly marking the 50th anniversary of BTR: music.apple.com/gb/album/lon...
Keep seeing pictures of (music) artists I don't recognise and then I see the caption/headline or whatever and realise it's someone whose work I know really well. It's just that they've done something horrific to their lips 😶
Out early for a ride. A little chilly on the arms in the shade of the trees, but mostly perfect
Codename Hirondelle – Chapter 13 (audio feed) We're back in 1949. Mavis and Theodora are trying to understand Jack's PTSD. Meanwhile, Jack makes a decision. If you want to progress faster through the story, there is an option. Please support my work, and this blog, by buying a copy of Codename…
It appears that this road (the main road to Belfort) is going to be closed for FOUR DAYS next week in order for the mural to be restored. LOL
Anthology 4: Star Club, Hamburg? Stowe School?
On the current Anthology track listing on Apple Music, "Come and Get It" is "1996 Remix" — does this suggest a new 2025 version, or was it always so?
The cat keeps coming in at the front and going out at the back, looking for somewhere it isn’t raining
