Denis Defreyne

Weeknotes 2026 W13: Animal report

March 23​–​29, 2026

I have returned from a work trip to London, and it’s overall been quite pleasurable. I’m fond of remote work, but there’s no better way to cultivate bonds than getting the team together.

As predicted last week, this week’s week­notes are a bit sparse.

London animal report

  • redacted names’s dog redacted is totes adorbs and full of affection. They’re not technically living in London, but who cares! My week­notes, my inconsistent rules.

  • My hotel room was just below the roof, and every morning I could hear hungry baby pigeons screaming and the parents flying off to find food. One of the adult pigeons often hung out on my windowsill. I felt like I was part of the family. 10/10.

  • The gulls screaming makes me think of the beach and the sea. 10/10 for making me dream and also leaving me alone otherwise.1

  • I didn’t see any foxes. Elusive beasts. 10/10 for sneakiness.

  • I saw one cat, who sprinted across the street and stopped right in front of me, blocking my path, all while absolutely not acknowledging my existence in any way. 10/10 for classic cat assholery.

Quick bits

  • Yorkshire tea is an everyday tea. Earl Grey? Not so much.

  • Arriving in Germany, the plane landed early, my bag was already on the carousel when I arrived, and the train arrived a minute ahead of schedule at my station. Wild.

  • I’ve got about two hundred photos to sort and edit. I’ve narrowed the collection down to a few dozen, but I’ll need a second selection round before I get to the editing.

  • London’s escalators are quite a bit faster than Berlin’s.

  • Walking around in London feels significantly safer and more comfortable than in Berlin, because people in London don’t cycle on sidewalks. In Berlin, that is sadly ubiquitous, and it turns pedestrian paths into dangerous spaces.

Entertainment

  • No Other Choice2 is alright. I know it’s kinda the point, but it’s rather violent, and I seem to have developed an aversion to that.

  • No One Wants To Die3 is certainly pretty, but a bit shallow when it comes to storytelling and gameplay.

LGBT links (new section just dropped):

Tech links:

  1. The memory of the Feathered Terror of Brighton still lingers. ↩︎

  2. No Other Choice, directed by Park Chan-wook, written by Donald E. Westlake, Park Chan-wook and Lee Kyoung-mi (CJ ENM Co., CJ Entertainment, KG Productions, 2026). ↩︎

  3. Nobody Wants To Die (Critical Hit Games, 2023), published by PLAION, Deep Silver. ↩︎

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