Below is a full log of the entire weekend just gone, from leaving the office on Friday evening through to going to sleep on Sunday night. It was an unusual weekend in some ways, but totally ordinary in most others. I decided to do this, initially as a private thought exercise, after stumbling upon Tao Lin’s substack post in which he lists, in boring detail, everything he does in a single day. It got me thinking about a few things. About George Perec’s An Attempt At Exhausting a Place in Paris, a book I have never read. About Nicholas Felton, a graphic designer NM put me onto back when we were teenagers who used to log every minute detail of every day, then produce annual infographic reports sharing the narratives of the data. About Kevin B. Lee talking about asking his students to keep a log of all the media they engage with, across platform, on any given day. And about the reality television programmes that I like (though actually very rarely watch) such as First Dates and Come Dine With Me in which you get (semi-mediated) access to that most elusive of things: a sense of the true mundane, the ordinary aspects of life that are otherwise concealed, filtered out, or kept private out of (rational) embarrassment or concern that they are too boring to be shared. I think this log is interesting, though you may very well not. I’m not sure how awkward and/or exposing it is. Thoughts are welcomed.

Friday July 31

• exit workplace, train from Oxford Circus to Seven Sisters

• walk from Seven Sisters to meet CQ at pub (The Elmhurst)

• 2 beers (nondescript Pale Ale), cheeseburger, discussing: work, friends, life, gossip etc.

• toilet

• walk home through Lordship Lane Recreation Ground, sunset

• toilet

• listening to various songs on phones (Crywank, Alexisonfire, Bonnie Raitt etc., discussing: old times etc.

• drink water, brush teeth

• sleep 
  

Saturday August 1

• wake up

• looking at Vini Jr transfer rumours on phone

• toilet

• shower, moisturise, antihistamines, steroid creams etc.

• dress, trousers and t-shirt

• make coffee and eat cereal (Fruit & Fibre)

• brush teeth

• playing first 30 minutes of Final Fantasy X on PS4

• sitting on sofa, scratching, walking around, looking at contents of different shelves, wall hangings etc.

• picking up rubbish materials in shrubs behind front bins, bags, plank with nails etc - CQ advising

• looking at shelves again

• taping up spine of book (Studs Terkel’s Working)

• draw cartoon banana and bread on paper

• toilet

• reading Substack newsletters, encountered Tao Lin post that inspires this log

• more shelves, walking around

• eat secret Jammie Dodger kept in bag

• sitting, discussing: Tate membership card, route, cafes, busyness, trainers with dress or not, is skirt length okay, hedge and property limits, title deeds, plants etc. 

• walk to 41 stop, bus to Seven Sisters, discussing: pubs new and old, tube line closure and installation of new trains

• train to Pimlico, reading book: Kazuo Ishigiro’s The Remains of The Day

• walk to Tate Britain, discussing: books

• sitting in “Member’s Room,” eating scones and drinking coffee, discussing: “the grey pound,” farting, libraries, weather etc.

• Hurvin Anderson exhibition, discussing: swimming, Birmingham, oils, acrylics etc.

• James McNeill Whistler exhibition, discussing: curation, painting, Nocturnes, “line a day” etc.

• Tate Bookshop (bought small print of Hurvin Anderson)

• eat half of ciabatta sandwich (salt beef, Emmental, pickle) from Relish, sparkling water

• walk to get Thames Clipper boat to Bankside, discussing: logistics, waiting, boats, tourism, people etc.

• ride Clipper, discussing: MI5 and MI6

• walk to Tate Modern

• Ana Mendieta exhibition, discussing: Ana Mendieta, benefits of membership etc.

• Tate bookshop (CQ bought postcards)

• train from Blackfriars to Finsbury Park, reading more of book

• CQ went to Marks & Spencers for snacks, I went to Superdrug for Hydrocortisone cream

• Bus home, listening to How Long Gone podcast (episode with Brandon Flowers)

• drink water

• toilet

• scratching etc.

• moisturise, another antihistamine

• read more transfer rumours

• change to shorts  

• clean bathroom, listening to No Tags podcast (episode with Lauren Martin talking about her dubstep oral history book) 

• pour boiling water down exterior drains

• eating crisps and olives, drinking beer (Kernel Table Beer)

• sitting on floor, listening to Mary Ann Hobb’s 2006 “Dubstep Warz” broadcast in full

• CQ is cooking, playing The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky on PSP

• dinner: lamb, potatoes, salad

• washing up, tidying up, wiping surfaces etc.

• drinking 3 mint tea, scratching etc.

• watch Paper Trail (Don Hertzfeldt, 2026)

• watch Highway Hypnosis (Ken Camp, 1984)

• watch first hour of Castration Movie Anthology i. Traps (Louise Weard, 2024) 

• toilet

• drink water

• brush teeth

• hard to get to sleep, then sleep 
  

Sunday August 2

• wake up, look at transfer rumours, pictures of CRTs etc.

• sex

• drink water

• moisturise, get dressed into same t-shirt and trousers as yesterday

• toilet, brush teeth

• making coffee, drinking coffee (discussing: Fantasy Premier League team, football etc.)

• listening to Joni Mitchell record (Blue)

• CQ makes pancakes with strawberries and maple syrup (has idea to mash nearly gone off bananas directly into the batter)

• washing up, tidying up

• watch more Castration Movie

• walk to cafe (With Milk), listening Aftermath podcast (episode with Ed Zitron on “hating”)

• work on book proposal in cafe (parallel: CQ has gone to the garden centre with her mum)

• drink cold brew, cortado, eat croissant

• walk home, get Tesco “meal deal” (ham and cheese sandwich, hula hoops, apple juice)

• eat meal deal while walking, more of Aftermath podcast

• talk to CQ’s mum, discussing: beavers, retirement, plants, birds, hedgehogs etc.

• drink water

• toilet

• re-moisturise, change to shorts

• siting on phone, Reddit, BlueSky, texting, scratching etc.

• toilet 

• watch more Castration Movie

• run round Recreation Ground (9km), listening to special PSP episode of Into the Aether podcast, watching music festival in square on each lap (summer etc.)

• toilet

• scratching, steroid creams etc.

• shower, re-moisturise, take antihistamine

• dinner: reheated paneer thing and naan bread, listening to Neil Young record (After the Gold Rush), drinking water

• washing up, tidying, hoovering etc.

• rinse label off empty juice bottle

• take out bins 

• drink 3 mint tea, eat Loecker bar, then Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut

• discussing: keeping of this secret log, meaning of log, possible publication of log, life, relationship, boring, shame, funny, cringe etc.

• finish Castration Movie

• toilet, brush teeth 

• drink water

• sleep