James Stewart

I'm trying both: webmail and via Mac Mail iPad and iPhone. Here's hoping for tomorrow

Yes webmail. Can't send any emails and I'm on deadline. It's been like this for 5-6hours. Tried to file a ticket but guess what: "There has been an error"

Still can't send anything: 504 errors

SMTP 465 - ie mail - is down

@runbox.bsky.social can you update re email provision, please? recurrent outages and 504 errors

Cardiacs definitely more important. Hope all snowy in the pond

Thoughts and prayers with every PR who has a major launch this week

You'll be telling me that George V didn't actually like Bognor next

Exactly. "But I got spooked by the mRNA vaccine!" Oh well, that's ok then

Plus there's the line: "It's all very well to scream at me that the medical establishment knows best… but I was also someone who got spooked by the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine".

Just one nonsense explanation after another

UK quietly shelves £110mn frictionless post-Brexit trade border project Experts criticise halt to programme that had used Deloitte and IBM as contractors

If the government had only asked me I'd have saved them £109m and done nothing for £1m www.ft.com/content/186f...

I think it's wrong to describe the World Service as "soft power". It's actually "info power". And these days that's a very hard form of power indeed.

Mad that so many people complained it had lost it's soul cos Audrey started offering table service

Thanks Simon! I was hugely fond of Cabane. It felt a privilege to hang out for a few days. Dinner conversations and interviews tested my French to its limits, mind

Cornwall’s new hamlet of cool cottages — glorious even in winter This estate near Looe has 11 stylish self-catering pads, a farmhouse, and shepherd’s hut saunas, making it the perfect base for year-round holidays by the sea

And while I’m putting up pieces here’s one from last week; a new Cornish stay to help you remember what matters

www.thetimes.com/article/30de...

The surprisingly affordable mountain hotel in upscale Verbier Skiers will love Cabane Mont Fort, elevated 2,457m above the Swiss resort’s busier centre with out-of-hours access to the slopes — plus what’s new nearby

My bit from Verbier in today’s Times. The header pegs this on price but it’s actually a story about tradition and community; what one guide called “the spirit of the mountains”

www.thetimes.com/article/f328...

Boy who drove campervan at 70mph given penalty points for future licence The 13-year-old drove his parents’ VW van in the middle of the night on a dual carriageway. They tell a court he will be ‘washing cars for a year’ as punishment

Frankly kudos to him for coaxing 70mph out of a VW bus

www.thetimes.com/article/b4f7...

Are the locals friendly? Do hotels perch? We need to know

Have you ever done a tour of Hamburg's docks? Can recommend. Even just taking a small ferry into different quays is brilliant

TBF it's news reportage not travel. But set against that is that it's the centre header of the front page. Ooof!

Can someone send the NYT subs some new travel cliches? Missed opportunity to blather about “hidden gems” and “secret beaches”

Grindcore is the new hustle culture In Silicon Valley, long hours have fused with a monastic male wellness aesthetic

Anyway. Cracking read, this. Worth it just for the comments www.ft.com/content/d0b7...

I've a theory that the world's current ills can be laid at the door of dysfunctional tech bros. Because Silicon Valley nerds struggled with in-person relationships they created an online world where relationships were distant and interaction performative

Aware of the irony of saying this on socials

If you’re interested in how much America cares about Trump and Greenland, the New York Times is running the story on page 4. The Mail phone-hacking trial gets higher billing

The FIFA prize weeping in a corner: "What does a Nobel have that I don't? Aren't I enough for you?"

This from the FT news story on Nadhim Zahawi is chef's kiss. Par 3 too

Self Esteem’s guide to writing a pop song You don’t need to start with the melody and you don’t have to be a virtuoso — but you must connect with your listener, says the musician Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka Self Esteem

And since I'm flagging pieces, the brilliant Self Esteem told me how to write a pop song for the Sunday Times Mag. Lots of top tips even if her thoughts on the joy of being sweary and having a global pop hit with the word "lump" didn't squeeze into my word count

www.thetimes.com/article/5796...

Testing the world’s first battery-powered skis A Swiss start-up aims to do for ski-touring what e-bikes did for cycling. James Stewart gets an exclusive preview

My bit on testing the world's first electronic skis got readers in a right flap BTL. Which was sort of the point of the piece www.ft.com/content/c703...

Asking people, again, to pay me for the work that was commissioned, written and published in November. It’s illegal to make us wait this long and I‘m too old to be begging like this. So if anyone dares to give writers shit for monetising their Substacks - it’s better than begging the broadsheets…

I expect it’s being run in a tradition of FT pieces: expose the idiocy of zealots by giving them a platform