iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 11h

Busy day at the charities grindstone. And a flu jab. Really can’t be bothered to cook - it’s choir night anyway, so English cheese, homemade fig and ginger chutney from the French garden, Portuguese wine, Murcian grapes. Terrible American TV.

1120

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 11h

Individual boycotts never work, the numbers involved hardly register… Oh.

082

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 16h

I walked to the hospital to get my flu jab this morning. It’s a bit around the houses and I was musing about what I would do if I was king… The third one is my favourite though.

020

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 20h

When you read a newspaper article about a period you know next to nothing about… And think “interesting, I bet there are VIEWS out there” Good point about violence being the thing that attracts men who like to dress up in black, though. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

theguardian.com

‘Hitler was a lazy criminal who slept in until noon’: why most of what we think we know about the rise of the Nazis is wrong

In a new book, German artist and writer Philipp Ruch argues that viewing the ascent of Hitler’s NSDAP through the prism of the Third Reich has distorted our understanding of fascism’s electoral breakt...

181

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Yesterday we are debating hymns in schools. As I’m struggling up the stairs after two bike rides and a Pilates session, I say to the o/h “I’m so ancient, I’m the ancient of days”. Ah. She says. But you’re not immortal or invisible are you? Thank God.

2100

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

We helped inaugurate a piece of public art today. With the well dressed mayor in his chain and the local MP who looked liked he’d just stepped off the train from Liverpool after spending the whole night clubbing. The words on the sculpture entirely appropriate outside Cecil Rhodes’ birthplace.

152

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Today’s #churchfromabike is the Catholic Church of St Joseph in Stortford. Or as the inscription on the outside says: Deo Optimo Maximo Divo Joseph et SS Angliae Martyribus. Which had me instantly thinking of the John Cleese centurion correcting “Romans Go Home” but anyway…

St Joseph and the English Martyrs - Bishop’s Stortford

272

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It’s a mark of the corruption of our whole way of thinking about the world that trying to meet a planetary emergency is routinely described as “ideological”, while continuing to accelerate it is presented as “pragmatic” and “economic”.

201235445

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Macron: “Brexit is the biggest lie of the last 30 years. “Those who said, "We will be richer" - eight points of GDP less ten years later. "”We will solve the problem of immigration" - it is more complicated than before. "”We are going to crush it in international trade" - it is worse.”

591312385

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Can you imagine an AI enabled soup blender… Now I am scared

350

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Such a treat for dinner tonight. Cheesy mash with beans. While the missus eats the left over risotto. Glass of Mendoza Malbec for me.

3120

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Earlier in the week we were debating “car hits man” reporting. Oh, it’s really risky for reporters. Today I read this. Which maybe happened last Wednesday. Or Thursday. By “a cyclist” (not a bicycle). Not an “alleged” in sight. Oh. And it’s “assault” when it’s a bike. Obviously.

110

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Real Gaz on a proper bike: gazza_d@toot.bike @gazza-d.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"it would begin to accelerate if a certain pedal was pressed whilst it was stationary". It's known as an accelerator pedal. Not knowing how your car works is NOT a defence, but an admission of guilt. Just a 2 year ban, but no extended retest. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Grandmother drove into nursery trapping boy, 2, under wheels

Jayne James has been given a suspended jail sentence over the incident in Ellesmere Port.

10379

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Alasdair Beckett-King @misterabk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Is it me, or does Michaelmas start earlier every year?

36681192

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

A.V. Deggar @avdeggar.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

OMFG they tried to spin this as a thwarted terror attack by the Iranians, but it was actually just a bunch of grifters from London trying to pike red diesel off yokels. Wild shit.

Looks like the Fairford five were fuel thieves

411345

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

John Duffy @dubhaigh.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Book cover that looks like famous five series with the title "five go dogging in Fairford with transit vans and an airfield .

12111

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

road.cc @roadcc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Heidi Alexander also did not mention walking, cycling or wheeling when introducing her junior ministers, despite pledging new funding commitments last week. road.cc/news/cycling...

1229

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Yes, I know Monday is choir night and you were looking forward to something with baked beans in it. But I still have left over curry to eat up. Well, it’s mainly yoghurt, veg and spices now. Still delicious. Third meal. Works well with the Georgian white.

0121

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Partially obscured by late summer foliage this pretty little #churchfromabike is St Mary’s in the sort of village which Americans think murders must happen ever week, Stocking Pelham. 14 century flint with a sweet weatherboarded bell tower that hides a very rare medieval bell…

1111

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Matt Flip Flop @mattflipflop.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

#Bikesky True Story

072

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

When you’re feeling a bit down, get out for a ride. The ride:

271

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

We watched S6, episodes 7/8 of the Israeli tv series Fauda. It dramatises the attacks of 7/10/2023 in graphic detail. You get horror warnings in advance. Regardless of your views about the retribution in Gaza, if this is how the Israeli public sees 7/10, it explains much of what happened next.

120

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.”

071

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Dr Rebecca Tyson @tyguson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

1. #MedievalSky, grab a lifejacket and a seasickness bag, we’re casting off on a thread about the Norman invasion fleet in 1066! 960 years ago, the Normans landed at Pevensey and established a base at the Roman shore fort which was already succumbing to erosion from the sea on its south side. 1/20

Photograph of Pevensey Castle with an information board in the foreground showing an artists impression of how the view may have looked in 1066 when the sea came almost up to the walls.

6259106

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This stuff really fills you up. Delicious.

080

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Sean Jones KC @seanjones.org · 27/09/2026

Millionaires who breathlessly announce that they are leaving the country because a social policy subject risks mildly inconveniencing them should never be allowed back over the border.

1829150

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Labour Walks & Cycles @labourwalkscycles.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Final preparations for Labour Conference are taking shape with the last minute discovery of the long-lost password for this account! Stand by for updates across the week!

1125

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Steve Chambers @planningtransport.co.uk · 27/09/2026

Cities are places where people stop to do things, not places to pass through.

1191

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Iain Roberts @slowbikeiain.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"I need others to be injured, ill or dead to build a successful business" may not be the winning argument he thinks.

1112236

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I guess the loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires don’t have anyone to read the scathing comments on BlueSky for them. Pity. It would show just how much utter contempt there is out there for their views.

060

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Cycle Stortford @cyclestortford.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Local police encouraging reporting of “Nuisance and illegal bikes” eg Sur-Ron bikes

221

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Tonight’s supper is reheated (and very spicy) chicken and mango curry and spicy flatbreads. Zero Guinness.

1180

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

In the search for new experiences, we are drinking this Rkatsiteli from Georgia (via Tesco). It was the apparently most widely planted grape in the Soviet Union but somehow I missed out on it, even when I working across Eastern Europe for the EBRD. With a fish risotto tomorrow night.

250

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

There’s a kiwi bloke playing #rugby in Northampton who I’m convinced is called Rosetta Stone. He’ll have career in translation once he’s finished shoving scrums around.

130

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Oh you lucky lucky man. The Prem starts tonight. The missus is out with her journo friends and I’ve got beans on cheese on toast. And beer.

160

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Emma Monk @monkemma.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

🧵 As front-page headlines go, this has to be one of the most misleading I've seen in a long time It's an out-and-out lie But notice the trick they use to get away with it...👀 *They're* not lying - they're just quoting someone else who is👍🏻 In this case, the leader of the opposition🙄 1/33

Daily Express headline:

"More Freedoms Handed to New Arrivals than British Citizens"

Above an image of Kemi Badenoch

All with a Monk Debunked stamp on top

321005543

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

MiL says thank you for having me on summer holidays. Posh Stortford food.

060

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

ᴄʏᴄʟᴏᴢ @cyclozparis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Happy as Albert Einstein on a bicycle 🚲

0319

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Massimo (mirror) @rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The largest dinosaur weighed around 85 tons. Some male blue whales weigh as much as 200 tons. A blue whale's heart is 6 feet wide and weighs 400 lbs. The largest animal that ever lived. Original post

321464373

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Melissa & Chris Bruntlett @modacitylife.com · 24/09/2026

We can’t control every reaction to change. We can choose what vision we put into the world: positive rather than punitive, inclusive rather than exclusionary, and optimistic rather than fearful. One that imagines cities not just for the few who are loudest today, but for the many to enjoy tomorrow.🔚

1454

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

There’s one form of transportation that, if governments around the world said “do it like aviation” would instantly save thousands of lives. Sadly neither the car industry nor politicians are that bothered.

181

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Mythical Britain @mythicalbritain.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Rood gesture! A lion sticks his tongue out as he perches on the magnificent 14th century stone rood screen at Stebbing, Essex - one of three such screens known (the others at Great Bardfield, Essex and Trondheim, Norway). #Medieval #lion #animals

A carved stone lion clinging to a pillar and the base of an arch forming part of a church rood screen. The lion is sticking out his tongue. Parts of the screen and the roof structure are visible in the background.

1262

Reposted by Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉

Will cycles slower than you 🇿🇦🇬🇧🏳️‍⚧️ @williamnb.eurosky.social · 22/09/2026

One for all those BuT hOsPiTaL pArKiNg ShOuLd Be FrEe people: the free parking at this hospital removed £10 million from being spent on patient care.

46223

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Dinner tonight is that great post-ride standby. Pasta bolognaise. Simmering g on the stove top now for 30 minutes.

030

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Look at that sky!! We could be in the middest of mid summers for this #churchfromabike and today it’s the exquisite 13c (substantially restored in 1855) St Mary the Virgin in the pretty village of Arkesden. Across the road is the Axe and Compasses. I like to think the church masons stayed there.

3131

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Talking to the visiting child. Worked out that this - incredibly camp - exiled king lived just down the road from their new home.

280

Gareth Oakland 🇫🇷🏏🏉 @goakl.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Affinity Water update. After yesterday’s “we don’t touch resin drives, the law says it’s not our responsibility, don’t abuse me” man. These two incredibly helpful and nice chaps turned up this morning to cut open our resin drive to fix the leak. Right hand/left hand stuff.

371