Rob McMinn

Rob McMinn

@robmcminn.uk

Author, blogger, Irish tea drinker, pizza perfectionist, Beatles person. UK and France. My novels are 100% organic with no artifical ingredients. Read more: https://robmcminn.uk/fiction-and-non-fiction-books/

381 followers420 following6.4K posts

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

As is traditional at the end of October, I am thinking about the Revéillon (xmas eve dinner). I really want to do a gammon this year, but that's not really a thing in France and there are still import restrictions... Welcome to my brain for the next two months

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

I feel like someone lifted off the manhole cover of life and showed me the works 🕳️

Big Beatles & Sixties Sort Out Podcast@bigsort.bsky.social

Whoops! I put out the wrong file as todays episode (series 5 ep 22), with only Paul's unedited audio. Some say it made the show 50% better, but I've now deleted the wrong ep and replaced with the full edited version. It may take a little while to come through the feeds. Sorry! G

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

Someone in the UK must have briefly glanced in the direction of a raspberry, because of course I have a seed stuck in my tooth

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

The Magnificent Seven, which must have been on re-release, some time in the early-mid-60s. I was too young, apparently, to be left at home with older siblings, and it was a U certificate

Mark Thompson@markreckons.bsky.social

First film you saw at the cinema. The real first one, not the pretend one you tell people! Mine: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980, Wigan. We were near the front and I can still remember how massive the AT-ATs looked, looming over us out of the snow :) Film, year, where, and whatever stuck with you.

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

The relentless enshittification of Apple News Apple News+ is not a thing I'd bother subscribing to in its own right, but it comes as part of the (increasingly expensive) Apple ONE subscription. I periodically struggle with this, because I pay (a lot) for the Family plan, so were I to change it,…

robmcminn.ukThe relentless enshittification of Apple NewsApple News+ is not a thing I'd bother subscribing to in its own right, but it comes as part of the (increasingly expensive) Apple ONE subscription. I periodically struggle with this, because I pay (a lot) for the Family plan, so were I to change it, I'd end up discombobulating my kids (who are not kids). I feel like Music has its hooks into me so deep that it would be hard to cancel—necessitating a return to old habits and an overflowing hard drive.
Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

“If I am looking back at my professional career, it’s been one big struggle to reclaim public spaces from cars, which in the 1960s filled all of the streets and all the squares – they filled every possible place. We have spent many decades reconquering cities for their citizens.”

theguardian.comEveryone hates Oxford Street. Will pedestrianisation save it?The long read: In a few days the busiest shopping street in Europe will be closed to traffic. The hope is that an unloved and polluted thoroughfare will turn into somewhere that people actually want t...
Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

Good to see more Slow Horses on the way. But very notable absences from the trailer. One may be a ruse, but the other? #notLouisa

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

The Big Count Since jumping on the Wegovy train and dieting, I have tried a variety of calorie counting apps. There are an awful lot of them out there. What you want, in the UK, is an app with a database of UK foods. You also want a fairly frictionless experience, because the more friction you…

robmcminn.ukThe Big CountSince jumping on the Wegovy train and dieting, I have tried a variety of calorie counting apps. There are an awful lot of them out there. What you want, in the UK, is an app with a database of UK foods. You also want a fairly frictionless experience, because the more friction you introduce, the less likely you are to keep up with the record.
Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

I abandoned listening to radio a long time ago, but I do feel for people mourning the loss of 4 Extra. Sad salami slicing times

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

My OH, who apparently doesn't read on-screen messages, just cost me £2.99 by pressing OK when Amazon Prime offered ad-free viewing. Fuming 😤

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

Cancelled the *renewal* (which extends way beyond my membership expiration), but there seems to be no way to cancel the accidental purchase and get a refund 😶

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

Movie idea. A crack squad of assassins hired by the H*rshey chocolate company goes around the world killing all the supertasters on the internet

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

Went for a 3k walk in my waterproofs. Rain was dripping into my eyes and blinding me at the end. Soaked. But the waterproofs worked

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

I’ve been using rain sounds as white noise for a while, so I’m surprised I didn’t just fall asleep on my walk

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

YouGov made half of these up, I reckon. I hate them all. And I know I don't get out much, but (apart from the McDonalds one) I have never heard any of these in the wild

Geoff Wet Blanket@geoffwetblanket.bsky.social

"Chippy T" is my least favourite.

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

The Spy and the Snake by M J Robotham Book 57 of the year was this sequel to Mrs Spy, which I reviewed at the beginning of August. So memorable was the sequel's title that I just had to remind myself of it on Goodreads. Is this a problem? Spy, I get, fair enough, but Snake? I've got nothing.…

robmcminn.ukThe Spy and the Snake by M J RobothamBook 57 of the year was this sequel to Mrs Spy, which I reviewed at the beginning of August. So memorable was the sequel's title that I just had to remind myself of it on Goodreads. Is this a problem? Spy, I get, fair enough, but Snake? I've got nothing. Another in a long line of titles that seem to have been AI-generated by the publisher's marketing department.

Rob McMinn reposted

Big Beatles & Sixties Sort Out Podcast
@bigsort.bsky.social

Good day! It's the second of only 3 episodes looking at the US number 1's of 1964. Today it's July to November and we've got harmonies and falsetto for days, plus the stomping sound of Motown, ol' drunky Martin and few more besides! Have YOU had your crooner mush? plinkhq.com/i/1531129636...

plinkhq.comThe Big 60s Sort Out USA! Ep 21 - 'Have you had your crooner mush?' - Podcast Episode Links - PlinkPodcast Episodes smart links to listen, download, and subscribe to The Big Beatles and 60s Sort Out. Click to listen! Welcome to the Big 60s Sort Out USA edition where we are ranking all the Billboard...
Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

Losing it About time, you might think, for an update on my weight loss journey. The news is not inspiring. Since August, the weight has been coming off, but much, much more slowly. Food noise has returned, not with a vengeance, but with a kind of low-level niggle. It doesn't help that I'm…

robmcminn.ukLosing itAbout time, you might think, for an update on my weight loss journey. The news is not inspiring. Since August, the weight has been coming off, but much, much more slowly. Food noise has returned, not with a vengeance, but with a kind of low-level niggle. It doesn't help that I'm currently letting my latest novel rest for a bit before tackling a second draft.
Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

Did the season swap today and put all my summer clothes up in the loft. What I thought was a vacuum bag of winter clothes turned out to be mostly… more summer clothes. Remind me not to buy any T-shirts next spring 🤪

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

This book keeps throwing up typographical howlers. Here’s why “hanging punctuation “ should be the default for all text, and not just an InDesign option. This would look so much better if the . and the - were hanging outside the margin and the t was aligned with the s

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

I did half a day in a barn sticking CDs to the front of magazines. It was piecework, and as soon as you started getting fast enough to earn at the next tier, they would step in and criticise to slow you down again. Never bought a mag with a disc on the cover again

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Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

Struggling to remember what my first single purchase might have been. Didn't every buy many. Did I ever buy Sultans of Swing? Or was it that copy of That's Entertainment I found in a charity shop in 1981?

Rob McMinn
@robmcminn.uk

Infuriated that I only spotted one of the *evers* turned into *every* in that post. Not sure if it's my fingers doing this or autocorrect. Whichever, it can fucking well stop