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Khoa Soi London

2026-04-20T00:00:00Z

Today I went out for dinner with Ian and Callum. We were originally going to Phed Mark a Thai pop-up, until we realised that it closed at 16:30.

Since going to Chiang Mai and eating Khoa Soi I’ve been on a mission to find it in the UK. A few weeks ago I found it in The Eagle in Brighton. After a few searches and review reading I found Sen Sen Noodle bar in Soho, it was also part of the group with the Phed Mark pop-up.

The menu had multiple Khoa Sois:

Khoa Soi chicken
Khoa Soi short rib
Khoa Soi scallop and prawn
Khoa Soi confit duck
Khoa Soi braised beef
Khoa Soi lobster

I had chicken and Ian and Callum both had short rib. The sauce was really nice and even better once I had added the chilli oil. It was not as good as the one we had in Chiang Mai but it was very good and I’d really recommend it.

Club Onion

2026-04-11T00:00:00Z

Even more acid, this time in a sold out venue in Nottingham.

Venue

This time the venue was the The Chapel above the Microbrewery pub The Angel home of Angel Beers.

Ian pointed out to me that in the past this venue was once a church and a whore house.

Dinner

Once we'd sound checked and helped Sunscreem bring their equipment up Ian took me out for dinner, we were going to wait for Simon but his train was delayed.

We went round the corner to Mesa between we had:

Pickled plums with smoked vinaigrette
Braised pork jowl with mojo rojo, almond and banana mole, pickles romaine
ex-dairy cheeseburger with bone marrow sauce, dill pickles
fries with miso and confit garlic dip & house chip spice

The food was amazing and you should try and go if you are in Nottingham, but book ahead we were lucky to get a table.

Club Onion

Sunscreem

It has been a very long time since I have seen Sunscreem live, I'd say around 1993(ish). They were really good and it was delightful to see just how happy they were playing together. I'm really looking forward to see them again later in the year.

Video of Sunscreem performing Perfect Motion

Support

The support tonight was great and included:

DJ Indigo Herder (whom I missed as I was eating)
Steve Hardaker
Filter Sequence (featuring me on Guest Vocals for More Acid)
James Prail

What a great night, loads of people in the crowd came and told me they really enjoyed my performance/shouting, I had a great time time doing it.

Harry Hill

2026-04-09T00:00:00Z

Last night I went to The Moth Club, with my friends Lisa & Steven, to see Harry Hill.

The Moth Club runs a comedy night called Knock2Bag which are really affordable, attract huge stars, promote up and coming comedians and is a small venue.

Harry Hill

As to be expected Harry Hill was superb, so much better than when you see him on the TV. He came out and immediately said:

That JK Rowling, he's not very nice is he?

Superb!

Other comedians

There were other comedians last night all very funny, my highlight was Ele McKenzie, who I thought I recognised but couldn't place until I looked her up and she was a star in Funboys.

Rest of the line-up

Moth Club

The Moth Club, is a great community venue for Music, Comedy & club night and is currently under threat so if you could sign the petition that would be awesome.

Obscure Pet Shop Boys

2026-04-06T00:00:00Z

We arrived in Camden at 16:30 and there was already 100s in the queue for the gig that the doors were 18:00. By the time Sarah and I had eaten and returned to the queue, at 17:30, it had more than doubled and was all the way around the corner. Once the doors opened it was still nearly an hour before we got inside the venue.

Merchandise

Once in there was a merch stand, in the usual place at the bottom of the stairs, which had a green tour shirt and hoodie that read Obscure Pet Shop Boys there were also a couple of obscure track specific shirts:

Jack the lad
Young offender

The queue was huge (surprise) the man selling said: "There another upstairs that has more merch and you might get a free tote bag". The queue upstairs was even bigger.

Princess Julia

The support for tonights show was a DJ set by Princess Julia of Blitz Kids fame.

The sound system in the room was huge and thunderous, her set was brilliant and featured loads of great 70s & 80s tunes including a long and strung out version of Funkytown by Lipps Inc.

Pet Shop Boys

Tonight's set was no hits and as Neil introduced:

B-sides, Album tracks and what we're calling Fan Favourites

The first track they played had never been played live before, it was good that we went to the first night of this tour otherwise this would not have been a debut. 10 of the 23 tracks (according to setlist.fm) had not been played live before, this is probably not entirely accurate as it is based upon the setlists that have been added to the site. The lats track of the encore was a debut as it was a brand new track too.

It was an amazing night and seeing a band like Pet Shop Boys in a 1500 capacity venue, with a really friendly crowd was epic. More acts should do gigs like this for their super-fans, in my opinion.

Set list

Warning contains spoilers

Intro – Music For Boys (AMBIENT MIX)
Will O The Wisp
Two Divided by Zero
Jack the Lad
To Face the Truth
After the Event
Hit and Miss
Always
Do you have to?
Sexy Northerner
Young Offender
Happiness is an Option
The Theatre
One in a Million/Mr Vain
New Boy
King of Rome
Kings Cross
Love is the Law
Why don't we Live Together?
The Performance of my Life

(Encore/Break)

Your Funny Uncle
The way it used to be
Later Tonight
I Dream of a Better tomorrow

Stanmer Park

2026-04-05T00:00:00Z

Today we decided to escape London and go for a walk in the out doors.

We parked the car by the One Garden, before heading out into the park we went to toilets. On the way to the toilet we passed a food van called Tallow Street Food. We both had a Korean Pork Belly bun, it was similar to a Bhan Mi in a brioche bun, which was delicious.

After a short browse around an upcycle/antique stall we headed out to go for a walk.

The was a map in the car park and from that we decided to walk up the hill to walk through the woods. The weather was great although a tad blustery due to Storm Dave. When we went into the woods there was a welcome break from the wind.

One of the best things about the walk was a stroll through an apple orchard of vintage apple varieties.

We there lot of flowers and blossoms to see:

Common Bluebell
Wood Sorrel
Wood Anemone
Common Dandelion
Red Dead-nettle
Daisy
Three-cornered Leek - which I thought was snowdrops
Tulips - small and red

Together Alliance March

2026-03-28T00:00:00Z

Meeting Up

I was attending with my friend and protesting buddy Lisa. We arranged to meet at Bond Street.

Before heading out I did the usual Saturday chores and then jumped on the bus, the bus got all the way to Romford Road before I remembered that there were engineering works on the Elizabeth Line, this weekend, between Stratford and Shenfield. Which meant that I could not go that way. I quickly jumped off the bus, crossed the road and caught a new bus back to East Ham station and went via the District and Jubilee Lines to Bond Street.

We met each other and went to get a coffee, before walking to Park Lane where the March was starting. When we got there there were very few people and both of us were a tad confused. We walked the full length of Park Lane to the Hilton Hotel where the front of the March would be forming.

There was a Fire Engine, own by the Fire Brigade Union that was driven onto Park Lane to block the road and it would also be used as a platform for the speeches before the march proceeded.

Famous People

As we were right at the front and near where the speeches were happening we got to see quite a lot of famous people, mostly politicians.

Hannah Spencer - newly elected Green MP for Gorton & Denton
Dawn Butler - Labour MP for Brent East
Jeremy Corbyn - Former Labour Leader, now Joint Leader of Your Party and MP for Islington North
John McDonnell - Former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington
Daniel Kebede - General Secretary of the National Education Union (NEU)
Zack Polanski - Leader of the Green Party

Marching

Once the speeches had finished the the march began at approximately 13:00. There were some fantastic home made protest banners.

Everyone we met on the March was kind and hopeful. Which is very different from when we went on an anti-Tommy Robinson protest march in September where people were drunk , angry, sweary, and lots of them were urinating in public and climbing building and statues. It was a much happier day.

After about 90 minutes were arrived at the top of Whitehall, my friend Lucy was still on Park lane and hadn't even started moving. Lisa and I found a pub, Walkers of Whitehall in a side street off Whitehall. Where we could have a rest, drink and use the bathroom. It was pretty quiet when we arrived and as the afternoon rolled on got busier & busier.

Rave

About 16:00 we decided to go and get into Trafalgar Square where there was a sister protest House Against Hate was taking place.

As we got out back on to Whitehall there was a Drum n Bass Soundsyatem at the top of the street and about 1000 people raving.

It took us a little time to get round to the back entrance from Trafalgar Square where they had a queueing system and bag check. Once in the square we descended the steps and pushed through the crowd to get to the back left corner where there was plenty of room for us to dance.

London need more free outdoor raves! IOt was great fun, the music was great and everyone was nice and having a great time.

Dinner

The event in Trafalgar Square was planned to end at 18:00 so we left to meet Lucy outside St Martins. We had arranged to meet Ian for dinner at 18:30. As we were early we went for a quick drink in The Imperial.

We then walked round, after going the wrong way, to C & R Cafe Malaysian Restaurant. The food here is amazing, check it out if you are in Soho.

My Bloody Valentine

2026-03-27T00:00:00Z

Today my plan was to go to Northampton to hangout with my friend Pawel and other members of the NN1 dev club. While on my way to Mackbear for coffee and breakfast I got a message from Susan saying her sister couldn’t go to the gig and did I want to go with her.

NN1 dev club

The NN1 dev club is a meet up in Northampton run by Pawel. It’s a fantastic community event and every last Friday of the month they have a working day at the co-working space they hold their meet ups. This week I went. At lunch we all went to a Greek restaurant for lunch, because they know I don’t like pizza.

Back to London

Getting to Northampton was super easy and it only took me 90 minutes. So a t 14:30 I thought that 2 hours 30 minutes would be plenty of time.

When I got to the car Waze said I would get back at 17:15. As I got closer to the M1 the time it was going to take was not getting shorter and by the time I was at Dunstable it was saying that I would not get home until 18:00, the time I’d be meeting Susan at Carluccio’s. After a few minutes of talking to Waze I worked out that I’d be able to get to the Royal Albert Hall for 17:30.

Once I passed the M25 I pulled into London Gateway services to use the bathroom and find somewhere park near Royal Albert Hall. [JustPark] offered me Millennium Hotel which was 9 minutes to the restaurant and 15 minutes to the venue.

Dinner

I arrived at Carluccio’s early and god a table. We both had the spicy sausage gnocchi then did desert I had Affogato and Susan had Tiramisu.

Gig

When we left the restaurant it had started raining, fortunately there is a tunnel that goes from South Kensington to most of the way. By the time we exited the tunnel it had stopped raining.

Chvrches

The Support act for the evening was Chvrches. While they only played a 30 minute set they were quite entertaining.

My Bloody Valentine

The headliner was My Bloody Valentine. There was a 30 minute break while they set up.

During this break there were a few videos from young people who had been supported by Teenage Cancer Trust. Before the band came on one of the workers from the charity came on and told us more about the work the trust do and then brought on stage a group of young adults that they had been supporting and let them take selfies.

Prior to the gig both Colin and Clive had said to us "I hope you have earplugs". While yea it was loud, most of tracks were about 102dB and the loudest peaked at 110dB. I have definitely been to much louder Leftfield gigs.

It was a really cool gig and the louder they got the better it was, or more likely that it got better as they played their more popular songs towards the end of the gig.

Home

Because I'd parked my car near the venue it meant that I got to drive through what is the congestion zone during the day time and not have to worry about paying. This is a great drive that takes you past many famous London landmarks which at night time are all lit up.

Yard Brixton Windmill

2026-03-26T00:00:00Z

We discovered Yard by not seeing them at Bearded Theory, when a load of our friends came back raving about them. In September 2025 we managed to get added to their guest list when they were performing at a conference for festival organisers. They performed at a venue called Omeara, which was awesome and I would love to book it sometime.

Bucket

The support act were Bucket, we missed the first 5 minutes. They weren’t exactly my cup of tea but they were exciting and well received. They were also very nice people and they were obviously friends of Yard as they helped them set up their equipment.

Yard

Yard are an electro noise trio from Dublin. They had just returned from a successful visit to SXSW festival in Austin Texas.

There were quite a few super fans right down the front who knew all the words to all their songs.

Yard really do deserve to be much bigger than they currently are and I’m sure that they will be in a few years.

Club Gascon one last time

2026-03-25T00:00:00Z

25 March 2007 is the date that Susan and I met for the first time. This anniversary coincided with the closing of one of our favourite London restaurants, Club Gascon. The restaurant is actually closing on Saturday 28 March but it will be busy and there is a March against the Far Right that day.

The first time we came to Club Gascon was about 2010 weeks ago went because my friend, Ben, had won a meal and couldn’t go so we went instead. Since then we have been about 10 times. It’s a shame that you won’t be able to go.

Meal

Welcome course - Mushroom cigars, chilli clouds and Negroni choux buns.
Amuse bouche - Leak mouse
Black Pudding and Sweetbread Raviolo, Bisque and Lovage
Truffle Glazed Foie Gras Pebbles, Blood Orange, Confit Kumquat, Black Treacle Cake
Guinea Fowl Balllotine, Black Lemon Sauce, Croustous
Fondue, Chou Rave, Tipsy Sauce, Chouquettes

A weekend in Stockholm

2026-03-23T00:00:00Z

This weekend, we went to Stockholm to visit our friend Mike and see Leftfield's first ever Swedish concert. Unfortunately we missed our flight which meant that we arrived much later than we expected and missed the gig altogether.

Saturday

Arriving late at the airport meant that there was no way that we were going to be able to get to the venue in time to see Leftfield and we would probably not be let in arriving late anyway. We did land about 30 minutes early and getting to security was pretty slick even thogh they asked loads of questions and asked to see proof that we were actually leaving the country at some point, fuck Brexit!

Mike was waiting for us at arrivals and drove us back to his very Swedish flat. We didn't hang about and jumped onto a bus to go to Sundbyberg Central. Mike took to his local Indian restaurant, Bazaar, that did Indian Tapas style dishes. The food was amazing and we would not have got to go here if we had arrived in time to go to the gig.

After the food we had the option of waiting for a bus ~15 minutes or a 10 minute walk up the Hill. We decided to walk and it was not really a hill but more of a gentle incline.

SunnyDay

Sightseeing

When we awoke it turned out that is was not a cloud, overcast, miserable Sunday after all but a really bright and Sunny Sunday.

We started off walking around the estate where Mike lives, which was specifically designed for families with children. There were schools, parks and play areas. There was also a water way that had a lido for swimming in the summer months. Once at Sundbyberg Centrum we took the underground to Gamla Stan, Stockholm Old Town.

We went up to the old town square and got some breakfast. Mike & I had Semlas, cinnamon for me and classic for Mike. Susan had a cinnamon swirl, which turned out to be the size of her head, and a toasted tuna sandwich.

The square we were sat in was home to the Nobel Prize Museum, Wooden Horse Museum and lots of sparrows who were used to be fed or pick up crumbs. This meant that there were sparrows all over the place and one of them flew straight at Susan while she was eating her tuna sandwich.

The square was also beginning to fill up with tourists and content creators (influencers) who were waiting for the museum to open at 11:00.

Once we'd finished our breakfast we walked down to the water front and walked up to the Katarina lift (the Swedish for lift is hiss) to get a great view over the city and the old town.

At the top of the lift there is a bridge that goes out to the top of the city and we walked down some steps and back along the water front. It was very warm and sunny and the city looked absolutely stunning.

We walked all the way around the waterfront to get the commuter ferry, from outside the Grand Hotel, to Vaxholm. Vaxholm is one of the hundreds of islands in the Stockholm archipelago. The journey was about 1 hour 20 minutes and we passed and stopped at many of the islands in the archipelago.

When we arrived at Vaxholm, Mike was very disappointed that all of his favourite places had been knocked down and the area was being redeveloped. We walked around the edge of the town and found a place to eat. I had Swedish Meatballs while Susan and Mike had fish stew. The food and service was excellent.

When we'd finished we did some research, with citymapper, to find out how to get back to central Stockholm, the options were to wait for the next commuter ferry back or to take a bus to Danderyd sjukhus (hospital) metro station. We choose the bus/metro option as it was about an hour quicker and we'd get to see some more of the archipelago's scenery, but this time from the land rather thn the water. Fortunately the 670 bus was a double decker so we had an amazing view from the top deck.

Once back in Stockholm center we went to see some of the fancy shopping centres and posh shopping area. and then walked through the Kings Garden. Mike took us to see a number of the underground stations. Each of the underground stations in Stockholm are decorated differently, the most famous of these was designed to look like Roman remains.

Once back at Mike's we chilled out for a few hours. I played Mike both of the More Acid tracks, that I had appeared upon. Mike then showed us Snoppen & Snippan an education video for young children in about lady parts and then Willie and Twinkle the English version.

Dinner and Cocktails

About 19:00 we got a taxi into the Old Town to go to a restaurant. We had found a restaurant Lilla Gästabud, we did try and book before we left but the phone number on their website did not work, when we arrived it was full and there was also a queue outside to get in. We decided to walk to their sister restaurant Gästabud to see if they had space. We also made the decision that if we saw somewhere on the way we would go there. We did indeed find somewhere, Café Cronan, it was not the best idea as the food and drinks were not the best.

Once finished we headed to a cocktail bar I had discovered online before we went to Sweden. It was in the square with the Nobel Prize Museum and called Pharmarium. The cocktail menu was all based upon Nordic Tales. We had 3 cocktails each, I had Dragonslayer, Eternal Lady and Margarita made with Mezcal. The Margarita was a little disappointing but the other 2 were excellent.

Once we'd finished we got a cab back to Mike's and watched the Gladiators 2nd semifinal, before retiring to bed. A great night all round.

Semla & Duck hunting

Before heading to the airport to go home we first went in search of pistachio semla and to find a Swedish rubber duck for our collection.

Mike took us to Lekia, in Bomma Block shopping center, a toy shop to find a rubber duck. They did indeed have lots of rubber ducks but no Swedish specific duck. So we headed back to Sundbyberg Central to get some semla for breakfast.

Semla is a seasonal pastry for lent, Mike had been telling for the past few days that the best semlas were pistachio semlas that you could get from Bröd & Salt. On the way to Bröd & Salt we walked past a bakery which Mike said: "Technically they make the best semlas".

Once at Bröd & Salt we were told that they no longer made semlas and we would need to wait until next year. So off we went to the bakery that makes the technically best semla. They also no longer did semlas. We asked and they said that we could probably still find them at a bakery called Princess.

We could indeed get semlas at Princess. Susan & I had vanilla semlas and Mike, again, had classic semla, as they had no pistachio semlas.

Mike then drove us back to the airport and it was not long before we found a souvenir shop that sold Swedish rubber ducks. There were two options, one was just a yellow duck that had the word Stockholm in blue text. The second was a red wooden horse themed duck. We bought the wooden horse one before getting something to eat.

This time we did not miss our flight.

Six hours in Heathrow

2026-03-21T00:00:00Z

I had been looking forward to today for a couple of months now as we were flying to Stockholm in Sweden, to see Leftfield.

We left East Ham at 10am to get to Heathrow in time for our flight at 13:20. Once through security we went and got some food from Wagamama.

We finished there and went to fill up our water bottles, when we got to the corridor that led to the toilets and water refill there was a barrier across it saying closed. Although there were many people coming through so we went through. When we got to the toilets they were also closed off and there was a leak from the ceiling. We filled up our bottles and went to find another toilet.

As the first toilet had been closed there was quite a queue for the loo. Once out we went down to our gate and as we arrived, at 13:01, we were told, by Andy, that the bus had just left and that was the last one so we had missed our flight, even though it was not leaving for another 19 minutes.

Andy told us there was nothing we could do other than go back upstairs to customer service. Once there we were helped by a most wonderful lady Taz. She checked and there were no seats left on the next flight at 17:50 and suggested that we could try SAS. I looked and found that there was flight leaving at 17:30.

I was just about to book this and Taz said that we would have to book a return as would not be able to use our British Airways flight to return because we didn't fly out. So a return with SAS it was.

The next issue was we were at Terminal 5 and our new flight was going from Terminal 2. Taz told us to go see her colleague at the next desk and someone would escort us to a bus that would take us to Terminal 2. This was pretty exciting as we got to go in a secret lift and was then directed to a shuttle bus that would take us the place we needed to be.

Now at the correct terminal we went and found somewhere to sit and found a seat by the window where I could update my blog about Monkigras and watch the planes taxiing and taking off. After a while we went and found a cafe where we could get a drink, I had a fiery ginger beer with jalapeños, it was not fiery at all and just a bit meh.

Eventually we got on our flight and are now finally on our way to Sweden. I'm hoping that was we get closer to Sweden we will be able to see the Aurora Borealis, which we would not have done if we hadn't missed our earlier flight.

Alas there were no northern lights.

Lessons

Taz was amazing
If you are flying for Terminal 5 Gate 10 there are actually 5 gate 10s and they all require you getting on a bus to the plane and the last bus leaves the terminal 20 minutes before the flight leaves, so boarding should technically say the time less 20 minutes.

Monkigras 2026

2026-03-19T00:00:00Z

Monkigras is my favourite conference of the year, sorry to all the other conference friends I have, and it is not even truly my industry. Every year the conference has a theme and this year's is about being prepared.

Topics

The Monkigras conference is attended every year by folks in the tech industry, in the early days it was the days before FOSDEM and now the days before Kubecon Europe so that the attendees of those events could just come earlier. The Talks while delivered by folk in the tech industry are generally very meat and not actually tech talks.

Trans Lives

There were 3 talks this year about Trans lives:

The first about what it's like now in the US traveling to different countries, the speaker spoke about how they now had 2 extra passports a Canadian one and an Australian one and when moving between the USA and Canada they used an ID card and not their passport.
The second was a their story about growing up, how they felt at different times in their life and the thoughts and opinions of their family.
The final was by a father who has 2 Trans children what they learnt and witnessed at different times within their child's development.

All of these talks were very emotional and their were tear both on and off the stage. The bravery, openness and honest of all these speakers was just truly amazing.

Data

One of the actual tech talks was about 2 things:

npmx and the forming of the community around it.
AT Protocol the technology behind BlueSky which allows the users to own their data rather than that data being owned by the closed corporate owned network.

Communities

There was a brilliant talk about how communities:

How in Oaxaca state Mexico communities work together when disasters happen.
How in Minneapolis communities formed and came together when ICE agents came to their City.

Preparing

The theme of the conference this year was Preparing and there were talks loosely connected to preparing:

One on being prepared when the power goes down and how you might get water out of your well so tou can flush the toilet.
One on being prepared for when you fall off a ladder, shatter your wrist and what happens when the hospital is 45 minutes drive away.

Food & Drinks

Drinks

Wine

Bobo Wines

Beers

Low Alcohol

Food

Breakfasts

For breakfast each day there was a selection of great pastries, fruit and nuts.

Lunch

On the first day lunch was Turkish there was a choice of kebabs:

Lamb Koftas
Lamb Shish
Chicken Shish
Halloumi

The second day there was Vietnamese chicken and coconut curry with rice and a selection of Banh Mi:

Chicken
Pork Belly
Tofu

Evening Meal

The even meal on the first day was exceptional as always there was:

Indian Curries, I had chicken tikka
Essex Oysters
The infamous Cheese Mountain

Journey to Monkigras 2026

2026-03-19T00:00:00Z

Instead of getting the tube today I chose:

Walk
Bus
Tube
Train
Walk
Boat
Walk

Smokers Delight 30th anniversary show

2026-03-13T00:00:00Z

This was just a pure celebration of great music.

You could see this as everyone in the crowd was happy and dancing along. The range of ages in the crowd was huge, I was really not expecting this. It just goes to show how universal these two albums really are.

At the end of the gig, George brought all of his family and friends onto the stage and shouted out to everyone who had ever been apart of his life.

If you have never come across Nightmares on Wax, then you should really check out these two albums:

Web Day Out

2026-03-12T00:00:00Z

The short version

This is the short version as I need to leave so that I could get back to London in time for Nightmares on Wax live at Royal Albert Hall.

This meant that I'm already on train before Jake and Lola gave their talks. Gutted as I am to miss these, music is more important than work.

The day before without the web

The day before I jumped on the train at Blackfriars and walked the full length of the train to sit down. When I finally got to the last carriage to sit down I found an empty table sat down and immediately Harry said: Hey Dave. So I immediately sat the other side of the carriage with him. This was a great start to a fantastic start to a couple of days in Brighton.

Arriving in Brighton we headed to Loam for coffee, a great place and have added to my places in Brighton list.

After checking-in to my hotel, Numa, I dropped my bag and headed to Bison Beach Bar, earlier that day I messaged Rog, from Only With Love beers (the brewery I have recently invested in) to ask "Where in Brighton can I buy my beers?" and he sent me a bunch of recommendations this being one of them.

I bought a Juicy AF and went and sat on the roof to soak up the sun and be battered by the wind. It wasn't long before I was joined by Harry & Marc.

After a while we headed back into town to the usual haunt The Basketmakers where we were joined by even more attendees.

About 7pm we went across the road to The Eagle, where I ordered food straight away. The pub had a Thai menu and to my absolute joy they had Khoa Soi on the menu. It was absolutely amazing, so much so I considered ordering it again, I shall definitely be returning for this. the only thing wrong with the Eagle was their range of Alcohol Free beers, they only had lagers and Guinness zero.

The real Web Day Out

The day of the event, I went to my usual location for breakfast Cafe CoHo, I've been eating here for years and it never disappoints. Post breakfast I went to meet Niel's for coffee, we met at Triple Point coffee which was supposed to open at 08:30 (according to Google Maps) but there was no sign of it opening anytime soon, so we walked round the corner to Loam.

The Event

The day was introduced by Jeremy, building up for an exciting and educational day all about what's new and cool in the web.

Jemima Abu

I can’t believe it’s not JavaScript

Jamima kicked off the day with a great talk on all the features that are newly available that mean you can now use instead of throwing JavaScript at the problem. These included:

<details>/<summary> to replace an accordions
Popovers
@startingstyle
Scroll Driven Animations

Rachel Andrew

A pragmatic guide to browser support

Rachel spoke about Baseline and strategies for Browser support. Particularly about how the code will be supported in the future, for example will you be just handing over and letting the client take ownership and what their teams capabilities are.

Rachel shall be giving this talk again at Pixel Pioneers, in Bristol so grab a ticket if you haven't already.

Aleth Gueguen

Progressive web apps from the trenches

This talk spoke directly to me, it was as if Jeremy had looked into my brain and then asked Aleth to come give this talk. The talk was about PWAs (Progressive Web Apps) and especially how they can be used to work offline and wait for the network to be available before uploading files and data.

Harry Roberts

Build for the web, build on the web, build with the web

Usually Harry comes out with his performance hat on (even though it's an invisible hat and not red), today however he came and spoke about using the right tools for the right job. Which does indeed have an effect on performance but building things correctly has an effect on performance any way.

A great talk and if you get the chance go see it.

Manuel Matuzovič

Breaking with habits

Today was Manuel's birthday so he came on stage to a room singing Happy Birthday, led by Jeremy.

Manuel spoke about how he has changed the way that he writes CSS, due to all the new features in the Programming Lanuage. He started by talking about reset stylesheets and then went on to show how he used the Maths he didn't pay attention to at school to build all kinds of scales in CSS using olicss.com.

Richard Rutter

What’s new in web typography?

Richard taught us about all the new web features for Fonts since he wrote his book Web Typography 9 years ago. This was quite a lot of things including:

size-adjust
text-size-adjust - which I have just added to this site
@counter-style
utopia.fyi/

He also showed a typographic CSS reset too.

Over all an excellent day out. If you are looking for similar days out like this then check out the following conferences:

Beyond Tellerand - Düsseldorf 27-28 April 2025
All Day Hey - Leeds 7 May 2026 - the last ever one
CSS Day - Amsterdam 11-12 June 2026
Pixel Pioneers - Bristol 19 June 2026
Web Dev Conf - Bristol 9 October 2026
FFConf - Brighton 13 November 2026
State of the Browser - London 6 March 2027

Sleaford Mods No War No Death tour

2026-03-08T00:00:00Z

Orbital DJ Set

The support act today was Orbital doing a DJ set. The first thing that stood out was Paul was on the left, this was probably because he did have a bank of synthesisers to play with. The set was scattered with some Orbital tracks, some tracks that Orbital had remixed and some really dark tracks that I imagine Paul played during his Folk Horror set.

Dirty Rat

In the middle of the set they played Dirty Rat. Jason and Andrew, from Sleaford Mods came on. Andrew danced around the stage with Paul and Phil, while Jason did a live vocal of the track. Yo my knowledge this is the first time that this collaboration has happened.

Video of Dirty Rat (with Jason on live vocal)

Orbital DJ Set list

Sleaford Mods

Just before the gig started there was a quick sound check, Andrew came on stage and waved at the crowd. He looked very happy to be there.

The set was superb, 25 tracks in total and a mix of old tracks and tracks from Demise of planet X.

Special Guests

The new album Demise of Planet X, has many collaborations and guest vocalists. A number of them were there in person:

Gwendoline Christie
Liam Bailey
Sue Tompkins
Snowy

Tweet tweet tweet

The last track of the set was Tweet tweet tweet, Gwendoline came out and started dancing, she had the biggest smile. With a little encouragement from Andrew all the rest of the special guests, who were still there (Liam had gone) came out and joined it.

Once the gig had finished Orbital’s Paul came out and they are took a bow to huge applause and cheers.

More Acid

2026-03-03T00:00:00Z

Happy 303 day

Today being 3 March is recognised as 303 day. A celebration of music which use the Roland 303.

Story of More Acid

This is a brief history/explanation of how More Acid became a thing.

Brisbane

If you know anything about me then you probably know that I like Orbital, a lot.

In February 2019 they did a tour of New Zealand and Australia. This was quite fortunate as I, at the time, worked for an Australian company. I was able to persuade them that I needed to be in Australia at the same time as the tour so I managed to see them 3 days in 3 cities.

The first date was in Brisbane at The Triffid, went with my friend Badger. I did try and persuade some work colleagues but no one was up for it.

The gig was very hot and sweaty, a) because it was in Brisbane Australia and b) because it was quite small and rammed.

Once they had finished they went off for a few minutes before coming back on to do an encore of:

The End Is Nigh
Doctor?
Chime
Where Is It Going?

As they left the stage I shouted at the top of my lungs More Acid!. We saw Phil say to Paul: “come on let’s do one more”.

So the came on and played Lush (3.1/3.2/Eurotunnel). While playing this I again shouted More Acid! and then (probably unconnected) more acid noises came out of the speakers. There were huge cheers.

The guy next to Badger and I was fortunately videoing the second encore, so you can relive that moment and make up your own mind.

For the next two days I continued to shout More Acid! and they continued to do a second encore of Lush, coincidence?

t-shirt

I have seen Orbital a lot of times, completely by accident, they just to be at the same places that I was. This meant that 1 April 2023 at Hammersmith Apollo was my 100th Orbital gig.

To celebrate this my friends and I had t-shirts made that read:

Paul &
Phil &
More
Acid.

Acid4Life

Later in 2023 my friends Phil & Aly put on a small festival in their garden. A group of us went to Halifax Piece Hall to see Orbital on the Friday.

The following day we drove home to pick up our tent and then onto the festival. We got there at about 22:00 and put up the tent in the dark.

After midnight Badger played an awesome Acid house set called Acid4Life.

Roll on about a year and Badger contacted to say that he's working on Acid4Life part 2 and could I record myself saying More Acid. I happily did this, thinking no more of it.

No More Acid

On 5 April 2025 I went to see Orbital at Brixton Academy perform their first and second albums (commonly referred to as Green & Brown, due to the colours of the covers). Half way through the second set something went wrong with their Roland 303 and Paul said:

We've got an issue with our 303. Which mean's there'll be No more acid.

Then looking directly at me he added:

Don't you start!

It was later the next day that Steve (aka Filter Sequence) found out about the sample I'd created for Badger and asked if he could also have access to the sample.

Ha Long Bay

In November & December 2025 we went traveling in South East Asia. While in Vietnam we went on an over night cruise in Ha Long Bay. That night I received a message from Steve telling me that he'd finished the track More Acid. I immediately downloaded and while drinking many cocktails Susan, Sarah & I listened to More Acid for the first time.

More More Acid

Once home from traveling, I decided that I should tell as many people as I could about this track that I'd been sampled on. Firstly I shared it with Ian (aka Lloydi aka KZ1), he also asked if he could have the sample. Then I shared it with Dan, who also asked for the sample. So now there are 2.5 tacks out there with me shouting More Acid.

Compilations

The track has now appeared on a compilation album by DeepDownDirty Records to celebrate 303 Day (3 March). It was exclusively released on Beatport on Friday 27 February 2026 DeepDownDirty 3037. On Friday 6 March 2026 we learnt that the compilation was number 1 in the new releases Beatport chart, so now technically I'm a number 1 artist??

Vinyl

Steve has not only created one track he has also created a whole album called Infiltration, which is being released on vinyl on 20 March 2026. Go pre-order it now before it runs out.

Steve is also having a listening party 22 March 2026 at 8:00 PM GMT, why not join in.

Live at Dubrek Studios Derby

On Friday 6 March 2026 I performed More Acid live with Filter Sequence (aka Steve). I also performed a small part of [Acid Jubilee].

In the lead up to the gig I was pretty nervous, in fact I was proper bricking it. I got to the venue for about 18:30, Steve had told me he’d be there shortly after so that we could do a sound check.

I got to meet the other performers and they were all super nice and welcoming. I also got to see and hear them sound checking. While this was happening I was getting more and more nervous. Eventually Steve turned up at 19:15, he was very excited and pleased to see everyone which distracted him from setting up. This did not help my nervousness.

Acts

Hardaker & Kuz- Filter Sequence (featuring Dave Letorey & Amanda Danisa)
Lilly Sphire
Steve Hardaker
Nova (featuring Lilly Sphire)

Other sightings

This is a reference of where else More Acid has been seen in the world.

Bramus Anchors Aweigh!

My friend Bramus, recently gave a talk at State of the Browser, in which one of his slides reference More Acid (slide 16).

Photo by Josh

Once in a lifetime

2026-02-18T00:00:00Z

Susan & I travelled to Belgium to see David Byrne's Who is the Sky? tour. The venue was new to us it was the Forest National in Brussels. It was similar to Wembley Arena, in London, but about a third of the size. We had great seats central and near the sound desk.

The staging was superb and the set was fantastic, I'm not going to say more than this because I know people who are going to see this tour at a later date and don't want to spoil anything.

If you like David Byrne or Talking Heads then I recommend that you do everything to go see this tour, it was truly Once in a Lifetime.

The new national anthem- Shithouse

2026-02-14T00:00:00Z

A week ago I said to Susan:

If I took you away next Saturday would that be okay?

It turns out it was.

No tickets

Only thing was I didn’t have tickets and when I looked it was all sold out! I thought that Big Special were playing Rock City but oh no they were playing next door at Rescue Rooms a much smaller venue. So I had to rely on Twickets.

Thursday had come round and not a thing at all had been posted on Twickets. Friday was busy. I started by heading to Mackbear (my local coffee shop) for coffee and spinach borek. While there I did some more prep work for State of the Browser, do this at 8am I got a notification from Twickets because it was so early I was able to bag one ticket for Big Special.

After breakfast I headed to meet Rog at Only with love brewery, while there I got another Twickets notification this time it was gone before I got in.

I then went to Lewes for some lunch before heading to Muddles Green to hangout with my friends Barrie & Christina. Eventually I received another notification from Twickets and again I was too slowly. I kept refreshing and then I was blocked by Twickets. Finally another ticket and I was able to get a second needed ticket.

Gig day

Susan still had idea what we were doing and where we going.

When we got to Nottingham and park the car we walked past Rock City on the way to the hotel. Susan asked “are we going to see a band at Rock City?” I could confidently say no.

Wonder Pho

On Ian’s recommendation we went to Wonder Pho Lounge. When we entered I asked for a table for 4 people, yet another surprise for Susan. A few minutes later we were joined by, birthday boy, Simon & Allanah.

The food and drinks were excellent although the service was a bit slow and they confused some of the orders.

We went to get drinks at The horn in hand, they literally had no drinks and suggested that we go to the Rescue Rooms which was next door.

In the bar we had some drinks, they even sold Mash Gang Chug on tap. Susan went to the merch stand and got a Big Special tour shirt and some raffle tickets as they were fund raising for a friend’s family as he had recently died of cancer.

After a drink Simon and Allanah had to leave to get the train home. We got another drink and headed into the venue.

Gans

We had missed the first support act Good health good wealth. The second support were Gans another West Midlands based band. The consisted of a Drummer/Lead singer, a guitarist/bassist/keyboard player/singer and a flautist/saxaphonist/303 player. Their energy and performance was amazing I’m delighted that we get to see them again at Bearded Theory on the Wednesday.

Big Special

The headliner was Big Special also from the West Midlands. I’d only seen them once before when they supported John Grant at Hackney Church in October 2024.

The set was amazing and humble they pointed out that they were liberals and said:

Anyone voting reform go fuck yourselves!

Towards the end of the set they played what they referred to as The New National Anthem - Shithouse. And finished with Trees.

Video of Big Special performing Shithouse, live at Rescue Rooms Nottingham

#Caturday

2026-02-07T00:00:00Z

This is my kind of cat!!

Kittens by Underworld absolutely banging. So far it’s better than last night and we’re only half way through. So let’s see.

Kittens Video

Second set

Boom! Just as epic as the first set. Absolutely savage.

They also played and the colour red and the whole room was filled with red lights, red lasers and glowing grinning faces.

and the colour red video

Born Slippy

Controversial I know but this definitely not their best track it’s just their most famous.

This was blatantly obvious, because as soon as it started 90% of the audience, well certainly the younger members of the audience, all got their phones out.

They did a superb job of this and everyone was very excited. At the end there were huge confetti canons quite a sight.

I even managed to get the set list of the second set and then we headed to the Underworld Drift Afterparty put on by my friend Paul.

Great night again¡

Set Lists

Set list on setlist.fm.

Set One 20:13 - 21:14

Good Day Today (Underworld Remix) (David Lynch song)
Deep Arch
Jumbo
Techno Shinkansen
Confusion the Waitress
Cherry Pie
Two Months Off
Juanita 2022
King of Snake
Kittens

Set Two 21:35 - 22:55

Born Slippy
Pearl's Girl
Dark & Long (Dark Train)
Cowgirl
S T A R
alleswirdgut (Underworld Remix) (Brutalismus 3000 cover)
Push Upstairs
and the colour red
Border Country
Arpeggio12
Pearl's Girl (Tin There)
Moaner
Born Slippy .NUXX

you bring light in

2026-02-06T00:00:00Z

This week has not been the best. For example I updated my phone to the latest software and now every time I make a call it shows me a picture of my mum. I could make it stop doing this but I don’t want to make my mum not be one of my favourites. I’ll get over this but that time is not yet.

Underworld

So tonight I went to see Underworld, again, with a load of mates (and I’m doing it again tomorrow).

I’m not going to spoil it for anyone other than to say it was joyous! Absolutely fucking joyous! If there was a heaven and my mum was there she’d have been looking down at me smiling at just happy I was.

They didn’t play my favourite track Mmm…Skyscraper I love you. But they did play my second favourite Moaner.

As I am going again tomorrow, and boy am I delighted that I am, I left just before they played Born Slippy. I just want to make sure that tomorrow I get it full in my face. Plus I wanted to get out before the masses tomorrow I am going to the after party so escape is not needed.

Tonight’s show as if someone had asked Rick if he could weaponise the music. He certainly did he changed his synths into a joy canon and assaulted 5000 ravers with pure joy. My cheeks are still hurting from grinning like a loon.

Set Lists

Underworld now play two sets per night, effectively supporting themselves.

Set list on setlist.fm.

Set One 20:13 - 21:14

Deep Arch (on tape)
Jumbo
Techno Shinkansen
Confusion the Waitress
Cherry Pie
Two Months Off
Juanita 2022
King of Snake
Kittens

Set Two 21:35 - 22:55

Born Slippy
Pearl's Girl
Dark & Long (Dark Train)
Cowgirl
S T A R
alleswirdgut (Underworld Remix) (Brutalismus 3000 cover)
Push Upstairs
and the colour red
Border Country
Arpeggio12
Pearl's Girl (Tin There) (Diskoteka Avantgarde (Brutalismus 3000))
Moaner (Horime (Brutalismus 3000))
Born Slippy .NUXX

The Rose Field

2026-01-26T00:00:00Z

Today I finished listening to The Rose Field by Philip Pullman read by Michael Sheen. This was the third book in The Book of Dust series.

I absolutely loved this is was so emotional and the narration was so moving at times I cried and other times I laughed out loud.

At the end of the audio book there was an interview with Philip Pullman and Michael Sheen, in that interview they discussed the ideas and themes of the book and commented upon how the current global politics were reflected in the story.

Towards the end Philip Pullman said:

Those who don’t understand or enjoy stories and art are the ones we have to look out for.

I truly recommend The Book of Dust trilogy and I really didn't want it to end.

Imagine

2026-01-14T00:00:00Z

Imagine being in jail for destroying a drone that was going to be used to kill possibly 100s of innocent people.

Imagine being in jail for 421 days without being charged for anything.

Imagine being in jail for 421 days and still having to wait at least 138 days until your trial.

Imagine being denied your fundamental human rights.

Imagine being denied the right to privacy.

Imagine being denied a clean bed.

Imagine access to books restricted.

Imagine access to visits restricted.

Imagine being transferred hundreds of miles away from your family and support system.

Imagine your only form of protest is your body.

Imagine using your body to protest by starving yourself.

Imagine not eating for 73 days.

Imagine having to tell your friends that your are probably going to die in the next few days.

Imagine being a Prime Minister, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and letting this happen.

Imagine funding from foreign powers being more important than this.

Heba Muraisi

This is Heba Muraisi she is one of the Hunger Strikers, who you don't really hear about, she has not been charged with anything and has been on hunger strike for 73 days so far.

“Physically, I am deteriorating as the days go by. I no longer feel hunger, I feel pain,” Muraisi said. “I don’t think about my life, I think about how or when I could die, but despite this, mentally I’ve never been stronger, more determined and sure, and most importantly, I feel calm and a great sense of ease.”

Not the only Hunger Striker

Heba is not the only hunger striker she is just the one that has not eaten the longest.

Hunger strikers

Qesser Zuhran 48 days
Amu Gib 49 days
Heba Muraisi 73 days
Jon Cink 38 days
Teuta Hoxa 60 days
Kamran Ahmed 66 days
Umer Khalid 5 days

All these days are as of 14 January 2026.

What can you do?

Write to your MP and tell them how you feel about this.
Tell more people about this, it will make a small corner of the news when one of these people die but will then disappear.
Share this on your social media.

Updates

Good

Two things happened yesterday that had an effect on this.

Firstly was that Elbit Systems were not granted a government contract to train UK military.

Secondly because of this decision the three of the Hunger Strikers ended their hunger strike. They are Heba, Kamran and Lewie.

Bad

The bad update is that this has nothing really to do with our government it was not them that did anything to stop the hunger strike really. Other than not awarding the contract to Elbit Systems.

Hanoi Day 4

2025-12-15T00:00:00Z