Month: May 2021

Weeknotes #8

Week commencing Monday, 17 May 2021

  • I had to visit a hospital at the beginning of the week. It was nothing major but it was very controlled and unlike any other time I have had the need to be an outpatient: arrive, alone, no more than five minutes in advance, for example. As a result it seemed remarkably efficient. It would be nice if this kind of thing is retained as we move into a post-pandemic world.
  • I got caught in a torrential downpour on the walk back from the hospital. I was equal distance between two bus stops and, by the time I had sheltered from the enormous hailstones and arrived at the next stop, the sun was out. I decided to walk home in order to dry my clothes. This is very strange weather for May.
  • Helping PY’s company move offices on Saturday necessitated travel in central London. As I was on the edge of The City, it wasn’t overly busy but it is definitely noticeable that people are out and about again.
  • After the office move we had out first restaurant meal that was inside since December last year. It felt remarkably normal. The place was well ventilated and people were reasonably separated so we didn’t have any concerns.
  • Being out of the house meant I had a couple of deliveries diverted to a local pick-up point which was the first time I’d had need to do that since lockdown began. But one item was delivered to the doorstep, and subsequently stolen. It’s all on camera so can be reported. However, it did occur to me that the move away from everybody being home all the time is going to change the way deliveries work for the second time in eighteen months: few retailers have solved the problem of the last few metres of the delivery chain when they find nobody in.
  • Being out of the house also meant that we did not watch any of the Eurovision Song Contest performances from Rotterdam. We were back in time for the results. Disappointing for the UK. Congratulations to Italy (who last won in 1990). The main question on Sunday seemed to be did he, or didn’t he?

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here.

Weeknotes #7

Week commencing Monday, 10 May 2021

Personal

  • The interesting, interconnected world in which we live has been highlighted for me on my quest to buy a new jar of Marmite. Don’t judge me for my love of the yeasty spread. Apparently, our inability to buy beer in pubs had an impact on yeast supplies to Unilever which, in turn, had an impact on the amount of Marmite that can be produced. I found a big pot on Amazon which saved the day but, please, as the local pub opens go and buy some beer!
  • I finished Dolly Parton’s America podcast. I fear some people may be put off by the title. Sure, Dolly is the thread that connects all the episodes but it deals with so many big issues for today. Give it a listen. My favourite Dolly line, “I don’t know that I believe in reincarnation. And I didn’t believe in it when I lived before”.
  • I went to the gym 3 times. Rather pleased that I managed that.
  • Walked around part of central London on Sunday which was most enjoyable. Took a picture of Tower Bridge with the clouds that I thought was quite good.

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here.

Weeknotes #6

Week commencing Monday, 3 May 2021

London is in my blood – it’s the absolute honour of my life to serve the city I love for another three years.
My mission over the next three years is to put the dark days of the pandemic behind us and deliver a brighter future for all Londoners.
@SadiqKhan

Personal

  • I don’t know why house maintenance issues always worry me. At the start of the week there were issues with next door’s plumbing and it looks like they might want to lift some of our decking to try to find the problem. In the end, they didn’t. Still, need to keep an eye on this. At the end of week a plumber came to fix the bathroom leak but ended up leaving claiming it was a bigger job than the time allotted and promised a quote which still hasn’t materialised.
  • Bank holidays are always nice and we did a lovely long local history walk back to Earlsfield and up to Wandsworth Common in search of The Craig Telescope and it made for a lovely day. I also managed to grab a few snaps of the changing high street in Earlsfield. It’s a subject the fascinates me but I don’t have the time to document more. Yesterday evening I came across an office block where I once worked that’s being redeveloped. It’s the relentless march of progress.
  • Thursday was polling day in the Mayoral year-delayed elections. Sadiq Khan was selected. Disappointedly, the turnout was only 42%; but that maybe typical. The BBC reported that a Record number of mayoral votes rejected because of the supplementary vote system and says that the government is considering moving the vote to a First Past the Post system. I wonder if that favours them?
  • I made the gym three times this week. Quite happy with that although I realise it’s all about the continued momentum.
  • I wholly recommend My Octopus Teacher on Netflix – an Oscar winning documentary that was feel-good.

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here.

Weeknotes #5

Week commencing Monday, 26 April 2021

It turns out, however, that setting and then chasing after goals can often backfire in horrible ways. There is a good case to be made that many of us, and many of the organizations for which we work, would do better to spend less time on goalsetting, and, more generally, to focus with less intensity on planning for how we would like the future to turn out.
Oliver Burkeman quoted in I’ve Never Had a Goal, by Jason Kottke

Personal

  • Turns out today is day 412 of lockdown. I had been on a long weekend before we were told not to go to work so it’s been a little longer since I worked in an office building. SO much has changed.
  • I had to write my annual objectives last week and I’ve been thinking a lot about them since. Everybody I have ever worked for has some variant on goal-setting. I understand the process but the output rarely ranks as my number one way to think about the work I do. This week I discovered Jason Kottke’s 2016 piece, I’ve Never Had a Goal which resonated and also linked to Jason Fried’s similar piece (“I want to make progress, I want to make things better …). If you find goal-setting as difficult as I do then these are reassuring words.
  • I am really enjoying reading blogs via NetNewsWire, it feels like a proper uncluttered RSS reader and reminds me of the original Bloglines or Google Reader. Tom Stuart writes weeknotes and he’s in my feed. A line in Weeknotes 68 struck a chord, “When I was a CTO I was the most senior technical decision-maker in the company; now I’m a nobody”. I was never a CTO nor do I have much desire for people management but the idea that I had a prioritised voice and now I just have a job made me stop and think about what I want in my career.
  • I’m starting to see people out and about again. On Friday we had a small team social at work for those of us who live in South West London (a pub garden in Teddington) and on Saturday a trip to see my parents who did a barbecue in the garden. It’s the first time I’ve seen them since last summer and it was lovely to be out and about.

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here.