iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 20/09/2026

A helpful sign in Bushy Park for any deer that have forgotten how to behave (but can read):

Sign saying, “It’s deer rutting season”.

Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 18/09/2026

We were impressed with the products at the Schplendid sofa company and are probably about to hand them an obscene amount of money. But I also felt that on a place selling sofas this slogan conjured up all the wrong kinds of mental pictures:

Office of the Schplendid sofa company with the slogan, “Come in for a schit”.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 22/08/2026

Very literally a niche business here:

A shopfront with the words “London Alcove Company”.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 18/08/2026

It’s our final evening as residents of Brixton. Guess what we saw on the way home from going out for pizza…

An unmarked police car blocks the path of another car while blurred police officers run around.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 17/08/2026

We’re moving house. So of course I’m taking the opportunity to use a bike to do the things you’re not meant to be able to do by bike:

A bike and bike trailer loaded with three large bin bags.

A bike and bike trailer loaded with long curtain tracks and curtains.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 15/08/2026

I was reasonably pleased with this as a bit of packing on a bike trailer. It certainly kept everything on board for the four-and-a-half mile trip from John Lewis at White City to our new home in Putney.

Bike trailer with long curtain tracks secured with IKEA bags.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 14/08/2026

And here’s a picture I took on Wednesday of a New Forest pony sheltering from the sun in the shade of a fire engine:

A New Forest pony shelters from fierce sun in the shade of a fire engine.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 09/08/2026

I’m sure I can’t be the only one. But every time I see a description stating some cut of meat is “free range”, I have visions of, say, lone chicken thighs roaming free, living their best lives.

Butcher’s packet reading, “Free range chicken thighs”.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 09/08/2026

We’re about for the first time to buy a Henry vacuum cleaner. @susanrwright.bsky.social was initially baffled when I suggested Henry’s uncomplicated smile would be a refreshing change from the face of our current machine, which has always struck me as having a “drugs - never even once” feel.

A vacuum cleaner with an apparent gap-toothed grimace.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 03/08/2026

Not another new flavour. We’re only just getting used to umami.

Board saying,, “This kitchen is seasoned with love.”

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 01/08/2026

Today, I will spend much of my day here: the Couronian Spit.

Sand dunes and sea on the Couronian Spit.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 28/07/2026

Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains

Cover art for the Living Colour album "Time's Up"

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 28/07/2026

Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains

The cover art of Gillian Welch's debut album "Revival".

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 28/07/2026

Our holiday accommodation is very nice. But, truthfully, I’m baffled why the fridge has been made to look like a dog.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 27/07/2026

Yes. Anyway, feeling positively Baltic now:

Women, a cafe and a beach at evening by a stormy Baltic Sea.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 27/07/2026

We’re changing trains at a place called Kaišiadorys, in case you wondered what the middle of nowhere looked like.

Railway tracks, platforms and overhead line equipment.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 25/07/2026

Thank you. Today we’ve been looking at Kaunas’s magnificent art deco buildings:

The Amsterdam School building, Kaunas, Lithuania.

The Church of the Resurrection, Kaunas, Lithuania.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 25/07/2026

Very comfortable weather for eating lunch outside:

A prematurely aged middle aged man sitting at an outdoor cafe.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 22/07/2026

You don’t really know you’re on holiday until you’ve climbed up to take in the view from some centuries-old bell tower, do you?

St Casimir Cathedral, Vilnius, from bell tower.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 20/07/2026

The wildfire action has spread to Brixton Hill:

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 08/07/2026

You can just see @countbinface.bsky.social preparing to get on the stage here:

Boris Johnson and other novelty candidates at Hillingdon Election count, December 2019.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 02/07/2026

Short and to the point press release just in from the @libdems.org.uk:

Press release mainly conisting of quote, "See you in the pub".

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 24/06/2026

I unusually turned up at an event today wearing a t-shirt. I was puzzled why everyone worked out whom I represented. Then I remembered which t-shirt I was wearing.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 22/06/2026

Best picture I got of him (sadly):

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 22/06/2026

I and other reporters are at the Euston-Finland station awaiting the arrival of comrade Burnham’s sealed Pendolino.

Reporters and photographers at Euston station

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 15/06/2026

A whole story of the tragedy of recent decades of British newspapers here in the spelling in this headline in the once-great Daily Express:

A screengrab of a Google search showing a Daily Express headline that mis-spells "descendant" "descendent".

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 09/06/2026

Puny turnout in Parliament Square:

Far-right protesters outside parliament.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 07/06/2026

Well, I practised what I preached:

Chicken with plums, garnished with tarragon.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 01/06/2026

I stopped this morning to pay my respects at the ghost bike that’s now been set up to mark where a truck killed a woman in her 20s on April 29 at the Oval. It’s such a tragedy when people pay with their lives for deciding to cycle to work.

A white-painted “ghost bike” surrounded by flowers.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 24/05/2026

Useful for police manhunts, though:

A police officer uses a children’s climbing frame to look over a wall.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 18/05/2026

And congratulations to everyone:

Graduating students outside the Royal Festival Hall.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 18/05/2026

I wonder what Jeremy Bentham would have thought if told that in its 200th year UCL’s communications team would no longer know the difference between “your” and “you’re”.

Sign wrongly saying, “smile your on Grad Cam”.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 16/05/2026

I’ve spent my day watching scenes like this.

A man with a megaphone stands on railings addressing protesters carrying British and other flags.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 08/05/2026

This is a picture from last Friday, from as close to the source of the Severn as I could get with a bicycle. It’s extraordinary to think some of this water will make it to the Bristol Channel.

Waterfall near the source of the Severn.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 07/05/2026

The first elections where all four of our family had a vote. #DoglessAtPollingStations

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 05/05/2026

Good morning from the Tom Roberts Activity Centre, in Newent, Gloucestershire, where about 30 of us are preparing for the final day of this year’s Herne Hill Whoosh charity bike ride. We’ll be riding 62 miles to Bristol - with the excitement of needing to get a 5pm train.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 04/05/2026

This tombstone in the churchyard at Tewkesbury Abbey is such a poignant reminder of how much harsher people’s lives used to be.

Tomb inscription reading, “Six other children of William and Mary who died in their infancy.”

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 04/05/2026

Good morning from the Stourport Manor Hotel, from where around 30 of us will shortly set off for the fourth and penultimate day of riding in this year’s #HerneHillWhooshSevernSource2Mouth ride. Today we’re cycling 55 miles to Newent, near Gloucester.

The Stourport Manor Hotel, with a flowering rhododendron outside.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 03/05/2026

A few of us have worshipped this morning at St Chad’s, Shrewsbury. We’re now preparing to ride 46 miles to Stourport.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 02/05/2026

We’re about to head off for Shrewsbury from our overnight stay in Llanidloes, Powys:

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 10/04/2026

Bike space based on the superior LNER version, I’m pleased to see:

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 10/04/2026

I’m heading for the weekend to Neston, on the Wirral, to see @susanrwright.bsky.social’s parents. It’s the first time for me (and my bike) on a Class 805. As a travel sickness sufferer, I’m looking forward to being on a non-tilting train.

An Avanti West Coast class 805 electric multiple unit at London Euston station.

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 06/04/2026

If you want to understand my completely sane and healthy approach to accumulating bike miles, I realised last night that if I rode 38 or more miles today, I’d pass 2,000 for the year so far. So I’m now on 2,003 miles for the year.

A bicycle computer showing 16,144 miles.

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