Week 42!
Mostly over covid now, but still have an annoying (to others probably more than me) cough and an intermittent runny nose. Still slightly lacking energy too, but probably no longer to the extent that I can realistically use it as a cover for my usual laziness.
I had most of the week off, and as predicted failed to do most of the tasks that are waiting for me to get round to. I spent far too much of the time off preparing a talk for the internal DevCon15 event at work on Friday, which I think may be missing the point slightly. I think the talk went OK, despite giving myself 108 slides to get through in 15 minutes (mostly showing incremental code changes, which is safer – if a lot more work – than live-coding).
There was some kind of reorganisation while I was away, but I think it’s just the usual “someone senior you’ve never heard of now reports to someone else senior you’ve never heard of, and you’re now technically in the same organisation as these other teams you have no dealings with” nonsense.
I did manage to make my Christmas cake (plus the small extra one I somehow got talked into making every year for a friend – I need to get a smaller tin so it’s not so wide and flat). They came out OK, but there was a near-disaster when I finished mixing the ingredients and wondered whether I’d missed anything … ah yes, the dried fruit that’s all sitting in a bowl soaking in brandy. Nothing important then.
On Tuesday when I went to come home from training in Felixstowe my car refused to start (or even turn the engine over). I got a lift home (realising that I’d left my house keys in the car, but fortunately I have a hidden spare), then returned by train the next day for a brief and unsuccessful attempt to diagnose the problem followed by a call to the breakdown service. It started OK once I was home with a boost from a battery charger, so I think it’s probably the starter motor (it’s always been a bit sluggish if the battery’s not fully charged). It’s going to be a pain to change it though, as it’s hidden behind the engine where there’s no easy access.
Went out for a meal with work on Thursday night, which I think is the first time since last Christmas. Quite a few people have left and joined since then, so it was good to do something vaguely social.
I got talked into entering the Thurlow 5, which I’d never done before. It looked like we were going to get soaked, but fortunately the rain stopped before the start, and didn’t start again until afterwards. It went OK-ish (35:37), and I think I may have got enough points to move up a place to fourth in my age category in the final Suffolk Grand Prix standings (for what that’s worth, which isn’t a lot as it only really includes people who make the effort to enter at least five of the races in the series, or just enter anything going like me).
I bought a temperature-controlled butter dish, which seems a bit indulgent but means I can finally stop having to microwave the butter to make it spreadable in the winter, and having it almost runny in the summer. I’d been thinking of trying to build something with a peltier junction and a heatsink, which I assume is how this one works, but I’m sure a commercial one will be more reliable (and not end up as a half-finished project).