Winter 2024–2025 ⛄

PERS

I was reflecting on 2024 with my sponsor, as mentioned in my last post. He asked me to use the framework of Physical Emotional Relational Spiritual, which was an interesting way to break it down. I think I have invested quite a bit this year on E and a little more on P (gym, relfection, planning goals), but maybe a little light on S.

It's a good way to think through self-care, but I hadn't tried to do a review in that way.

And merry Christmas 🎅 🌟

2024-12-25

Mud and places

Well it feels like winter now anyway 🌧️, whether it starts on the solstice or 15th or whatever. We have steps outside the house now, which is nice: though the side is still a mud slip 'n' slide. Anyway I've updated my places page, which was looking a little sad.

2024-12-05

when I stop listening to my internal manager

Feels like my healthy routines and 'protocols' are something I have to choose to do: my quiet manager voice ☝. As soon as I loose momentum or somtething crops up (like not sleeping properly 💤) I stop listening and it all falls apart for a couple days. Disappointing that these things don't just tick along by themselves. Thursday was...not so great 😭. Hard reminder of what I said before though.

2024-11-17

Autumn 2024 🍂

new start

We've moved into our new kitchen 🧑‍🍳 this week. It was such a wonderful feeling to think that is our space now. And when I clean some Thing, it won't get building dust on it the next day 🧼.

2024-11-10

somewhere else

Hard to keep going at work: mind is whirling with the US election, lack of sleep 💤 and absolutely not caring about what I am needing to do at work today. QA checks of 10s of drawings and a huge specification 🥱. Also it's cold in the office. I'd rather be curled up in bed with a book right now. This is my 40th microblog entry, so there is that.

2024-11-06

ennui

Not a word I use often, but it nestly describes my month at work 😕. I have somehow lost all inspiration and motivation.

2024-10-31

new city and in-laws

The kids have 2 weeks off school 🎒 at the moment and the house extension is ongoing. Weve escaped to the in-laws' new house in a new city. Its not the family favourite but washing dishes in the bath 🛁 at home...not great

2024-10-24

I voted!

Yay! Don't forget 😁

2024-10-14

grace

I have a small view of God's generosity. Just had to say it. For the longest time, I believed God is good, but not kind...important difference there!

2024-10-11

pens and stuff!

I joined an in-person fountain pen group event recently. Was really nice to share a meal 🍷 plus some pens ✒️, inks and paper. This group is annual but even so, it was a highlight for me. It's not easy to find community connection sometimes.

2024-10-06

H&S triggering

I joined a group video call 💻 at work today. As normal for these large meetings we started with a 'safety moment'. These are hard to get right, so I normally don't have high expectations. Today the slide was titled "the cost of getting it wrong" 🔥. I find it easy to slip into anxiety when it comes to H&S at work, this was just too much for me and I muted it. I think I'd rather hear about what I can do.

2024-10-01

church

I think I'm a bit disillusioned with church at the moment. Not my faith itself but with shallow 'churchianity' ⛪. Feel fairly disconnected and wihout significant relationships. Of course I play a part.

2024-09-27

bids

Working on two bids simultaneously. Well...working on one and ignoring the other. Man do I hate working on bids 🤯. I saw these humourous 'definitions' recently:

Tender sum: a wild guess carried out to two decimal places

Successful tenderer: a contractor who is wondering what [they] left out

Totally true 🤔

2024-09-18

plain text email

I've recently changed to plain text emails in Outlook at work 📨. It's mainly for fun, but it's a natural result of my love for Markdown. (It's also good for security.) I've set emails to be in ModeSeven typeface in a 'console green', inspired by one of my fave Obsidian themes.

2024-09-13

time away

Lots of time at the beach and National Trust properties 🏯. Very nice to be away but starting to feel the pull of home. Not that I can quite face it yet. It's nice to be here at the sea 🌊; no church, no building work, no dust. But lots of sand lol.

2024-09-08

confrontation

Dealing with the building work 🔨 at home has thrown into sharp relief how much I dread and avoid confrontation.

2024-09-03

peace in nature

Lovely visit to the Broads today. Soft lawns and still water with lillies ❤️.Boardwalks and diving terns Sleepy lawns.

2024-08-25

Summer 2024 🌤️

journey

Is recovery work just as much about the journey 🎒 as the destination, whatever that is? Something I tried to bring to my recovery group as our discussion topic 🤔.

2024-08-21

break

Wow, what a shock: this holiday park, or at least the caravan does not have wifi! I feel a little lost, but grateful to have some disconnection 😊. And within 100 m of beach dunes 🏖. It's still got 5G so it's not, like, the dark ages.

This post along with the next few were drafted while on a long holiday. Sorry for the long pause!

2024-08-16

portable shade

Got a Pop-up Sun shelter ⛺️ from Decathlon. So cool! I was learning about UV risks recently ☀️☀️. It's worse than I realised! This is a neat solution. #themoreyouknow

2024-08-03

expat life

I haven't lived in the USA since I was 14. Yet here I am... paying an accountant 💰 to help me figure out Enough of this Byzantine tax system to avoid severe punishment. Not that I ever actually earn enough to owe anything 🙄!

2024-07-29

capture vs. archive

As a result of my post below, I think my re- balancing approach will be to treat Obsidian / digital 📱 as my archive, and paper as a 'capture' method. I love my pocket pen 🖊 and Hobonichi Weeks, so this sounds fun.

2024-07-24

analog

I think I hit rock bottom on Obsidian today. I go to such extremes: one day it's all in digital tools ("ooo shiny" ✨), then my inner pendulum swings the other way and my heart yearns for analog living 🖋️. It's so hard to get a balance when, really, I need both!

2024-07-19

seasonality

Good day out with the family on Sat 🚗 and a BBQ on Sunday. It's good for days, weeks and months to have their ups and downs, a seasonality. I am getting better at thinking about my day and aiming for a bit of time (the "golden hour" 🔥) before bed. Not very consistent about it though.

2024-07-15

colouring

Sitting with the kids and doodling and colouring 🎨. So nice to slow down and do something together.

2024-07-02

obsidian ⇔ todoist

Discovered I can sync Obsidian and Todoist with a plugin 🤤. I also got to introduce my colleagues to Espanso (text expander) in a team meeting, which went down well. On another note the UK is finally warm this summer 🌞🌞!

2024-06-27

cost of living

Have to both work as parents to support our family now. It's a load of crap 💰💰.

Juggling kids and work is emotionally exhausting. I really feel for single parents now.

2024-06-24

yuck

Standing guard over an open manhole, disgusting smell 🤢. I've got the unenviable job of keeping an eye on drainage clearing and survey in a food factory. Not sure why I am here tbh! Worried I'll be put off the food type...

2024-06-19

belonging at work

Excellent podcast from the Happiness Lab, on happiness at work. A key point for me is a sense of belonging, of investing in relationships ❤. I've been travelling to another office this week 🚆 because I've been a bit isolated. It's been a brilliant experience to reconnect.

2024-06-14

sleep

There are a lot of things to do and think about in recovery (a la 12-step...). However, I feel like a lot of stuff I/we deal with in life boils down to how much sleep we are getting 💤. And good sleep routines.

I once heard:

think of going to bed as the start of the next day...like an investment.

Last night not getting much (kids, neighbours 🙄) is a tough reminder.

2024-06-09

concrete pour

Concrete has been poured for our new home extension today 👷‍♂️. I'm actually stressing out about it as pipes are leaking and it's raining off and on 😟. I need to let it go.

2024-06-04

Spring 2024 🌷

disconnection

Sitting outside, really enjoying The sunshine ☀️ and the space the kids have in a big park. But I still feel a bit of a loss without my phone with me 📱.

Probably a good thing I don't have it!

2024-05-31

weekly journal

I've set up my weekly journal. I do love using my Stalogy A5 notebook 📕 and fountain pens. The weekly postit is from Muji. I heard recently that just recording Something helps memory 'cluster' around dates, and keeps us able to recall it 🧠.

pic

2024-05-27

can-hit-game

Was remembering a game I used to play with friends as a teen.

  1. Place an empty drinks can on a Stick
  2. and take turns hitting it with a bat 🏏, watching it fly across the grass.
  3. Repeat until the can splits in two.

Lots of good times.

2024-05-22

open for posting

I've now moved everything over to this site from my short-lived Wordpress blog. Nothing wrong with that site, but I am sure this will be much more fun!

2024-05-18

obsidian journey

So… that was a crazy couple of weeks. I jumped off the deep end with Settings, themes, plugins, CSS snippets, front matter, data-view queries…

And now I’m pulling back. The tool is using me now, not the other way around. I’ve Stripped quite a few things back, hoping this means a week of being balanced in life again 😬.

First published 2024-04-29

beauty

How do I experience beauty? How can I put myself in the path of oncoming beauty?

I discussed these recently with Some friends. Some thoughts:

(PS for some reason Google’s OCR thinks my ‘s’ are capitalised. Sorry about that!)

First published 2024-04-24

work fears

I’ve been procrastinating a lot at work. When I stop and think about it, I wonder if it has a fear-origin 😕

I am fearful of The challenges I will face if I move into a new project.

First published 2024-04-17

obsidian

Just discovered Obsidian...

Wow! Can’t believe I missed this one till now. I’m already migrating everything over. Markdown love ❤️!

First published 2024-04-13

ideas

card one

These are some things I would like to try. In no particular order!

card two

First published 2024-04-09

terrible triangle

I landed in a really tough project at work this week.

I am determined to avoid the terrible triangle. I’ve been caught there too many times 😭. This is doing all three:

First published 2024-04-04

easter

Such fun seeing the kids hunt for Easter eggs 🥚. Makes me kinda wish I had an old camcorder like my dad did when I was little. Now it’s just short clips on the phone.

First published 2024-03-30

to blog or not to blog

I’ve really enjoyed my experience here, though a lot of it was behind the scenes. I am tempted to leave it now, as I have have a strong pull to treat this as a self promotional thing rather than selfless expression. BUT, I am willing to give it a bit longer. We’ll see 🧐

First published 2024-03-29

Winter 2023–2024 ⛄

distraction with markdown

Totally distracted trying to figure out how to get Corporate brand-compliant Word docs, but starting with Markdown. Sigh. Not working 🤦‍♂️ (no 🎲 installing plugins or software. with our IT).

First published 2024-02-23

first

I love analog✒! A thought Struck me: could I create a microblog using index cards and a pen ? The answer is yes💡! I am using the Google app OCR function to paste this here. Future Posts on :

First published 2024-02-22