Posted: Sat 9 July, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, 2016/17, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Single Life, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related, Writing |
As well as slowing down a bit for the second half of 2016, I’m also starting to plan stuff where possible for the first half of 2017. For me, that’s scarily organised.
Part of it is looking at stuff I want to do – and places I want to go – and starting to put things in place for those to happen. I’ve got a couple of breaks booked for the second half of 2016, a week in Cornwall at the end of September, and a weekend in Dorset at the end of October (in which I’m hoping to break the back of some writing ideas – that’s the current plan, anyway) but I’m also looking at what I want to do in 2017, and starting to book it up where/when I can.
So far, that’s looking like a long weekend down around Bath and Bristol (an area I like, don’t know enough about, and want to know more) and potentially a week each in Lake District and somewhere in the North-East. I may do something abroad as well, but we’ll see.
I’m also looking at things I don’t want to carry on – in particular the restaurant project I’ve been doing this year, with at least one Michelin-starred place per month for the year, part of my whole thing about eating alone. I’m still really enjoying it for this year, and I’ve no intention of giving it up completely – but it might go down to a quarterly thing, rather than monthly.
There’s a bundle of other stuff getting prepared for next year – but not stuff I’m going to write about just yet. Most of this is just in the contemplating and planning stages, rather than actually happening, but I’m going to spend time this year sorting out next.
Which, for me, is disgustingly organised…
Posted: Thu 7 July, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Single Life, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related, Writing |
The first half of this year has been particularly barmy, and has felt close to non-stop. It’s safe to say, there’s been a lot of life going on! I haven’t written here about a lot of it, because while it’s been fun, it hasn’t been massively newsworthy – but I think even here it’s been fairly clear that I’ve been doing a lot.
All told, there was only one event/thing that I wanted to do that I didn’t get to do – and that was more from an overdose of sanity and reality than any form of timing clash – and that was that climb up the Gherkin.
However, as a result of it all, I’m pretty wiped out – so the plan for the second half of the year is for me to slow down a bit.
I’ve still got loads planned, but I do intend to also have some more peaceable weekends, ones where I’m not all over the country and generally running round like a pillock. I know that September is insanely busy, so I’m definitely going to pad out the weeks either side of it.
There’s a lot of other stuff I want to do as well, which is part of why I’m trying to settle a bit and not be covering the country quite as much as I have been.
That’s the plan, anyway. Whether it’ll happen like that, only time will tell.
Posted: Fri 20 May, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Geeky, Security |
In the interests of – well, really just geekery – I’ve turned on HTTPS encryption on D4D™. It should be an invisible process to users of the site, but I want to know if it actually is or not.
I firmly believe in making all internet connections more secure, for a bundle of reasons I’m not going to go into right now. So I figure I might as well do some testing of it here (as well as on some other projects I’ve been running, or that are coming up and haven’t been mentioned here) to see how it goes.
In other news, it’s been a busy old week again, but I’ll write more about that in a different post.
Posted: Fri 4 March, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Driving, Health, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related |
This week has been another ‘quiet’ week – or at least one where I don’t seem to have stopped long enough to do a decent post. Which means ‘quiet’ here and… less so in reality.
It started off well – driving home on Monday from a long weekend in Dorset. A ‘quiet’ ‘break’ that resulted in 600ish miles of driving – but also enough necessary downtime and peace to have made it worthwhile. In fairness I could’ve split the driving, or whatever, but it’s never the driving that tires me, so *shrug*
The place in Dorset will definitely be re-visited though – it was great, and all told thoroughly enjoyable.
The rest of Monday was less fun – once I’d got home I started feeling pretty rotten, and ended up having a sleep on the sofa. Felt a bit better when I woke up, but rapidly got worse again, and ended up with gastric explosions of an epic standard. At least it had the good grace to wait til I got home, rather than expelling my innards into a hire-car. Thankfully, there was only the one major dollop, so I was able to sleep etc.
Tuesday was a day on-site with my current client – could’ve done without it, but needs must and all that.
Wednesday and Thursday were back to almost-normal, but also included taking the bloody Saab back to the garage (another Engine Management light issue, which was why I had the hire care for the weekend) and going to the cinema, as well as a day where it seemed like people were all trying to kill me. (More of that in another post, perhaps)
And now Friday, and back on-site, as the boss is then away for two weeks.
And that, my friends, is a ‘quiet week’…
Posted: Sun 14 February, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, D4D™, Domestic, Valentine's Day |
Yet again, it’s Valentine’s Day.
And verily, I say to thee, Bah Humbug.
I know that’s not seasonally apt, but there’s no equivalent for Feb 14th. So Bah Humbug will just have to suffice.
Posted: Fri 5 February, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, Music, Sociable, Travel |
For the first time this year, I’ve got a weekend that’s being spent primarily at home. It’s about time.
As I’ve written before, it’s been a chaotic start to the year. I don’t regret a bit of it, and it’s all been my choice, but at the same time I’m definitely knackered and glad of a pause.
The last couple of weeks have involved mid-week concerts – one in Manchester, one in London – which have made for late nights (well, early mornings) so having a weekend without a lot of mileage is definitely a boon.
I’ve still got more stuff booked in, but it shouldn’t be quite as manic for the next couple of weeks, at least.
Posted: Sat 16 January, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Write More, Writing |
This year, I’m trying to write more – both here (which so far seems to be pretty successful) and also to get more fiction stuff done as well.
Here on D4D I’m aiming for at least a couple of posts per week, getting back into the swing of things. I don’t know that I’ll ever go back to the daily (and multiple-times-a-day) updates of a few years back, just because I’ve changed, life’s changed, and I just haven’t felt the need to update this stuff as often anyway.
On the fiction side, I’m hoping to write a short piece a week – short-story level, maybe a thousand words at a time, and see how things go. If it all clings together into something more, then even better.
There’s also the chance of writing something bigger, but I’m not going to guarantee anything on that one so far.
We’ll see what happens – but for now, at least it’s starting off pretty well.