Month: September 2023

Weeknotes #35: an end and a beginning

Week commencing Monday, 18 September 2023

A view of Television Centre with The Broadcaster pub in the foreground.
Television Centre

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 5/7. (62%, slipping). Morning walks: 0/1 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 4/5. Total steps: 62,418

Life

  • Monday, a nice few drinks with people who will soon be ex-colleagues. Have to admit to, quite a bit of, ‘why am I doing this?’
  • Related, noticeably cold on the platform waiting for the train home.
  • Tuesday, completing the circle. On my first day the trains were cancelled to mess up my arrival and, now, the same on the last.
  • Lovely final day where the developers showed me completed software and it was exactly what I imagined. Good stuff.
  • Nice words to end the day, handed back IT and then a nice email from my boss.
  • First day in the new one was a quiet day in the new – but familiar – office. I don’t like the crowded trains from Clapham. Home, a different way was marginally better. Thursday, trains the other way around were much more pleasant so that’s going to be my route.
  • Friday was much quieter but I did get to upgrade my phone to the new software, iOS17. I am not sure I can immediately tell the difference.
  • Lots of good advice from Merlin Mann: No one has ever died wishing they’d spent more time documenting their “minimalist desk”.
  • Back at The Crazy Coqs for Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks and it was fantastic. I don’t know if it’s because there’s been a gap between shows or because I am not as familiar with all the music but I thought the evening was wonderful.

Media

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. If the source above no longer works, these should.

Weeknotes #34: watching sailing boats

Week commencing Monday, 11 September 2023

View of the entrance to Cowes marina
Cowes, Isle of Wight

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 6/7. (71%, better than last week). Week off work so I am not trying to count my morning walks. Total steps: 62,519

Life

  • It took a day to change the ‘fuse box’ but the new lamp is lovely.
  • Sitting watching sailing boats is remarkably peaceful, especially from a pub rooftop terrace with a glass of wine in glorious sunshine.
  • They appeared to hold the Shrewsbury train to allow those of us on the late-running train from London to make the connection; sometimes the trains work well.
  • Friday, morning wasted but I can’t quantify why. Did place my order at 1pm. That’s a lot of money splurged.
  • Enormous pot of chilli made. Half real minced beef and half a veggie equivalent with a lot less fat. You could’t tell. I forgot to cook the sweetcorn.
  • To Woking. The fish lunch PY prepared was brilliant. We didn’t succeed with all the errands.
  • Sunday, PY was volunteering. His message at 9:21am read, “You have to see this – it’s in incredible!”
  • So, to the the only Grade 1 listed cinema in the country. Cinemas of the time featured an organ to accompany the films. This Wurlitzer was installed in Sacramento but came to the UK for the cinema’s opening in 1931. It still rises from beneath the floor, but only once a year for the Open House festival. The bingo players of Tooting never see it otherwise.
  • To dinner. K is off to university in the middle of next week. I remember lots of lovely things but, today, I recall the bricks and drums their 1st Christmas. I don’t want to think about how fast the years have past.

Weeknotes #33: little big things

Week commencing Monday, 4 September 2023

Outside the theatre where The Little Big Things is playing
The Little Big Things

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 2/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 4/7. (42%, terrible). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 36,122

Life

  • The Little Big Things is a wonderful new musical based on the life of mouth artist Henry Fraser. It’s opened at the lovely Soho Place Theatre. We went on Friday night where there was a full standing ovation. I followed Lord Lloyd Webber down the stairs afterwards. If that’s not a seal of approval then I don’t know what is.
  • Business software 1: I do like a sequence diagram when explaining a product feature. I should do more of them. I did a couple to explain projects I am handing over.
  • Related: websequencediagrams.com makes it easy. I subscribed in my last job. I may do in my next.
  • Business software 2: Jira is a tool used by a host of software companies. People love it; people hate it and people love to hate it. But lots of people use it. It’s (almost) endlessly flexible. And in my job, it has all the info in it. So, why don’t people use it to get the info instead of scheduling meetings?
  • Related: labels are good in both Jira and Confluence: use them with abandon.
  • Related, related: tidied up a lot of tickets this week and wrote my final piece of documentation which was, in reality, an update to an existing doc but it felt like I was completing something. The list of closed tickets looks remarkably short.
  • Related, related: Team lunch on Tuesday was nice, although service was slow and a couple of people had to run off at the end for calls.
  • (Not business) software: when did WordPress get an AI assistant that reviews what’s been written? Interesting take on last week ’s Weeknote: “Overall, the content is informative and provides a good snapshot of the week. With some structural improvements and additional visual elements, it can become even more engaging for readers.”
  • I’ve previously mentioned the UK government’s position on messaging app encryption. Today a u-turn that the government says isn’t: “A new statement concedes that the tech to access messaging without breaking security protocols does not exist” BBC: Government denies U-turn on encrypted messaging row.
  • Thursday. How are you supposed to know if his advances are welcomed or not? Still, does anybody who is a ‘close protection bodyguard’ say that’s what they are?

Media

  • Started the second series of Apple TV’s The Morning Show. We enjoyed the first season but – and I have no idea why – we didn’t engage with the second. Suffice to say that we needed the recap and still have gaps in our recollection of the first. Episode one is confusing (are you fired or not?) but by the end we were hooked and went straight into episode two. And later in the week, episode 3.
  • Currently, politics is divided but this interview with David Lammy, shadow foreign secretary feels inclusive and suggests our future policies could be better than the ones we have.

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. If the source above no longer works, these should.

Weeknotes #32: vineyards, wine with a view

Week commencing Monday, 28 August 2023

View from the hotel restaurant at Denbies Vineyard, Dorking.
Denbies Vineyard, Dorking

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 5/7. (66%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 0/4. Total steps: 58,802

Life

  • Holiday Monday train to Dorking for Denbies Vineyard Restaurant Food & Wine Matching Experience. Beautiful views with perfect food and wine matching.
  • Would you Adam & Eve it? I met up with an ex-boss and JB for beers and Bone Daddies. Hiccups after food spoiled the evening. Debate later in the week about having visited Bone Daddies before or not. Pork Chilli Broth is recommended. Adam & Eve? A reference to the pub we met in.
  • Train strike: walked to Curzon Wimbledon to see Barbie as National Cinema day got me a £3 ticket. I wasn’t wowed as the plot is too clearly signalled and there are some strange set pieces. What on earth is that office-based chase scene about? Barbieland is impressively brought to life. I am not as bought into Ken as a lot of people seem to be. Sorry Ryan. Are those abs real? We know the tan isn’t.
  • Then a walk from Wimbledon to Streatham via the M&S Cafe at the Collier’s Wood branch: not really up to M&S standards.
  • Dinner with friends at the Streatham Kitchen: Prawns & Spanish Chorizo and Aubergine and Halloumi Burger were both delicious. Recommended. Too much wine consumed and, for some reason, I stayed up drinking tea when we got back.
  • Sunday, train to Shropshire with an early start because yesterday’s train strike messes up the next day too. Not helped by yesterday’s wine and late night tea consumption. Tried hard to stay awake on the train north (succeeded). Carriage much emptier than suggested when I booked a seat.
  • End the week like I started it: wine and beautiful views. Lunch at Hencote Vineyard with panoramic vista overlooking Shrewsbury and the Shropshire Hills in glorious sunshine. My choices of, to start, chalk stream trout tartare and, main, crispy Gloucester old spot pork belly were delicious but Dad’s Pim Hill Farm wholemeal flour crumpet (36-month aged parmesan custard, ricotta stuffed tempura courgette flower, piperade & poached Legbar egg) was the most unusual. Glad I made the trip.

Media

  • It was podcast week for me, starting with The High Performance Podcast: Emily Maitlis: How I Approached THAT Prince Andrew Interview. Interesting insight into how the big interviews have elements of careful planning and luck.
  • James O’Brien’s Podcast, Full Disclosure with Mark Gatiss
  • Another journalism interview on The News Agents: David Dimbleby was an enjoyable discussion about the state of TV political journalism; mourning the loss of the long-form political interview.
  • Reading, not listening: has the rain put the fire out at Burning Man?

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. If the source above no longer works, these should.