2026-41

We had a great day at Battle Abbey today for the annual re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings. I thought the Saxons looked pretty sharp to be fair, so it was something of surprise to see them so roundly beat by the Normans. There’s always next year, lads.

I enjoyed watching the crafting and cooking going on in the encampments. There was plenty of staked furniture, including some being made on shaving horses; a pole-lathe or two, quite a lot of knock-down furniture with tusked tenon joinery and some textile and pottery work too.

At the end of the day the boys joined a free-roaming gang of other children and staged their own battle in the ruins of the abbey. A soft autumnal sun setting in the distance. Surely the stuff that childhood memories are made of?

I’ve had some success scaling back my harmful internet use. It’s been fairly easy to log out of LinkedIn, facebook and discord and check them on my own schedule (rarely). I’m having a bit less luck with news aggregators - I think I’ll try blocking those and maybe subscribing to some subset of posts using RSS. I still check in to mastodon occasionally, I’ve quietened that down a bit by unfollowing some of the people who post very frequently but I don’t know in real life. I’ve also been pretty good at leaving my phone in the spare room when I get home. I’ve been drawing and making music a bit more as a result, but also watching too much shit TV.