Catching Up (Kind Of)
Posted: Wed 11 July, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Television, Thoughts Leave a comment »As well as doing less – or at least going out less – I’m taking the time to catch up on some of the TV programmes I haven’t been watching.
My TV Box is about half full, and I realised that in some cases I’ve got a complete half-season (I know, it’s an oxymoron) of something I want to see and catch up with. They’re all programmes I want to see and keep up on, it’s just that I haven’t been doing so this year so far. I’m actually pretty ruthless when it comes to things I’ve decided I can no longer be arsed with, so at least I’m being picky in that way – but there’s still a fair amount of stuff that I’ve kept.
So while I’m home more in the evenings and weekends, I’m taking the time to get through some of those things. These things will be on as background, allowing me to multitask and do the other things I’m working on over this quarter, and that works for me.
Getting Quieter (Kind of)
Posted: Mon 9 July, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Thoughts Leave a comment »As I’ve said before, I’m intending that this quarter (July, August, September) will be a bit quieter than the last six months (OK, at least six months) have been.
It’s not going to be complete radio-silence, because I’ve still got stuff booked in, and things during the week. But there are empty weekends, and I’m trying to keep them that way.
I won’t deny, it’s a struggle. I see those blank calendar weekends, and they make me twitchy. I am really bad at not doing much, or not having stuff planned. I know I need to do less (and I’m intending that there are other things to replace those insanely busy weekends) so I’m working on it. And I’m getting there. Kind of.
The first week of July was a bit quieter – I didn’t travel much on the weekend, for one thing – although I still ended up being out and about more than I’d planned to be. (It turned out that other friends were helping out with a local event, so it was only fair to go and give a bit of support on that score!) My “I’ll turn up for an hour, and then fuck off” turned into five hours. So there’s still room for improvement on the whole “not doing much” – but at the same time, I didn’t do much except for talking to friends and so on.
It’s early days/weeks. I’m hoping it’ll work out – but we’ll see. This coming week I’ve got a couple of things going on in evenings, but then there’s nothing at all lined up for the weekend. That’s going to be interesting…
The Thermal Properties of Coke
Posted: Fri 6 July, 2018 Filed under: Cynicism, D4D™, Domestic, Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »In the UK, we’re in the middle of a heatwave. Other countries would absolutely laugh at how crap we are at dealing with heat (and in their eyes, it’s “only” 30° C, after all) but for the UK it’s more than enough. As with snow, we’re a nation of mid-range and changeable weather, so we’ve never had any need to invest in infrastructure to deal with more ‘extreme’ (and again, that’s in the context of our weather, not other places in the world!) temperatures. We generally don’t have air-conditioning in houses and offices by default, nor the stuff for dealing with snow, winds, rain or anything.
Anyway, for us, it’s hot. And every time it’s hot like this, I’m reminded that Cola (whether diet or full-fat) is a strange, strange beast.
Obviously Cola is best drunk cold – as cold as possible. But it’s crap at staying cold. Leave it for ten to fifteen minutes and it’ll be warm.
On the other end of the scale, leave it in a car to get hot, and it’ll stay hot for hours. The full-fat sugary one is the worst for it, but even the diet ones do this, so I don’t think it’s a facet of the sugar content.
There’s no real point to this – I just find it interesting that it’s a liquid/substance whose thermal properties are different according to whether it’s hot or cold.
Yes, I need to get out more.
Lead Developer 2018
Posted: Fri 29 June, 2018 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Food, Geeky, Getting Organised, Getting Out More, Lead Developer 2018, London, People, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel, Walking Leave a comment »This week I was in London during the week, attending the 2018 Lead Developer conference. I’ve been before, both in 2016 and 2017 (so I’ve only missed the first one, back in 2015) and this year was as good as the previous ones. It’s gone from size to size, and this year had 1,100 delegates – which also meant that it’s outgrown the QEII centre, so this time we were at the theatre in the Barbican centre instead.
I had decided this year that I couldn’t be arsed with frantic travelling, so instead went down to London on Tuesday afternoon, checked into a hotel in Islington (so I had plenty of opportunity to keep up with walking and so on as well) and stayed for two nights. On the Tuesday I also darkened the doors of Mac and Wild, where I had a truly ridiculous (and rather excellent) off-menu burger. Following the first day of the conference I also walked to Mere (again – and I hadn’t remembered I’d done much the same thing last year until I re-read the post from then) and back.
On the Thursday, once the conference was done, I walked up to where I’d parked the car, and had dinner in Wahaca up there before driving home. This had been planned, as it meant I left London just at the time that England started their kickyball match in the World Cup, which meant that the roads were comparatively much quieter than usual, and that the drive home was pretty easy.
Along the way, I’ve also been able to complete a full working week, allbeit crammed into three days rather than five. It’s been pretty tough, but at least it’s all done now.
After this weekend, things calm down a lot – and I honestly can’t wait.
Bourdain
Posted: Mon 11 June, 2018 Filed under: D4D™, Depression, Domestic, Health, Mental Health, News, People, Thoughts Leave a comment »Last week, I was as surprised as everyone else to hear that the chef Anthony Bourdain had committed suicide.
Bourdain was a huge influence on the catering world – you only have to read the many obituaries (including this one) to see the influence he had, and the respect in which he was held.
Depression and suicide are bastards. They make you think you’re not worth anything, make you think the world won’t miss you, make you insignificant. They’re lying bastards.
Twitter and Facebook have been full of people expressing shock, and making depression and mental health a subject to speak about, to help remove the stigma around it all, and make more people aware of how prevalent these things really are.
If nothing else good comes out of the deaths of celebrities, then at least it’s making people talk, making mental health normalised and spoken about. And that can’t be a bad legacy really, can it?
Busy Busy
Posted: Sun 10 June, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, D4D™, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, Gigs, London, M1, Single Life, Stupidity, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »I slacked off from writing posts last week – primarily just because I was ridiculously busy, and didn’t get round to it.
The week before had already been daftly busy, including travel to Newcastle for a couple of days, and then social and busy bits on both weekend days.
I can’t even remember now what I did on the Monday – I know I was out, I just can’t recall where/why. That can’t be a good sign.
Then Tuesday evening I was seeing The The at the Royal Albert Hall, and on Wednesday evening seeing them at Brixton Academy, as I may have mentioned before (on more than one occasion) Both nights were great, but on neither occasion was I home before 1am, nor in bed before 3am. And also working during the day.
Thursday was no better, although at least it was more local, by going to the local Geek Night for a bundle of presentations and connections.
And then Friday was supposed to be quieter, “just popping out” for food at a local event, that then meeting friends and chatting, meaning I didn’t actually leave ’til gone 11pm.
Saturday was a day in London, starting with cocktails and lunch at one of my favourite places, The Alchemist in Bevis Marks (near the base of the Gherkin) followed by a play called “Sancho – An Act of Remembrance” at Wilton’s Theatre.
And today was another food event in Milton Keynes, and this evening I’ve finally stopped and been able to relax a bit.
So. That’s my reasons for not updating over the last week. I think it’s a pretty good list, but other opinions may differ. 🙂
Lag-Free
Posted: Wed 16 May, 2018 Filed under: Domestic, Insomnia, Sleep - or lack thereof, Thoughts, Travel 2 Comments »Having come back from Toronto on Saturday into Sunday, I’ve managed to stay remarkably free of jet-lag. Most people have pointed out that this is probably because my body-clock and sleep-patterns are so utterly screwed anyway, but I’m still surprised by how I’ve got through it so far. (And yes, I’m aware it could still ruse up and bite me in the arse, but it’s looking less and less likely)
Basically, I just beasted my way through it. I was awake by 6am Toronto time on the Saturday, we spent most of the day walking the final bits of Toronto that we hadn’t seen, got to the airport, and took the 18:30 flight out. We got in to Heathrow at 6:30am UK Time (so about 01:30 Toronto time), and I then drove home.
Being aware of having been up 24-ish hours already, I didn’t do much for the rest of the day – sorted out all the domestic stuff, laundry and so on – but got through the day, and finally went to bed at about midnight, after being awake for about 36 hours straight. Then was up again by my usual time, and it’s been an easy switch back to the usual timetable.
It kind of worries me that I’ve been able to deal with that kind of jet-lag and time change with no ill-effects. It makes me wonder how far I’d have to travel in order to get hit by it – not that I want to, particularly, but it’s sort of interesting, I suppose.