Category: Life

For the stuff about my life

Six Thousand

This is my 6,000th post.

Almost 1.5 million words and counting.

It’s a bit bonkers really. It’s one thing to consider the time that has passed since I posted my first ever blog post, but quite another to look at the build up stats surrounding this odd little place.

Yes I know, if you do something for so long the numbers will add up, but 1.5 million words is a LOT. Like, loads. And I still can’t stop spewing them out and publishing them.

It’s been a lifetime (25 years) since I started this blog and I’ve maintained it throughout, reflecting on myself as I journey through life, my work, my hobbies, my friends, my emotions, and my family (then and now).

There is, presumably, about the same number of years ahead of me; so many more words, topics, thoughts and dreams to capture and share to the 6 of you who still occasionally drop by.

But it’s never been about the numbers.

I’ve watched on as other bloggers – those who focused on a topic or two, who wrote better, were funnier, smarter and all the other comparisons I could come up with – roared on to success, to book deals, TV shows and wider acclaim, and whilst I admired them, and liked them as people as I was lucky enough to meet a couple of them over the years, it was no mystery to me why my little blog didn’t reach those heights, quite simply I wasn’t aiming for them.

I won’t go back over why I started blogging, nor why I continue to do so, but these little milestones are now things I take some pride in. Yes, it’s just a silly little blog, which means a lot to me but very little to others, but it’s something I’ve stuck with and whilst I’m continually tinkering with the design, the platform, the machinations behind the blog, it’s still the joy of writing and the ACT of writing down my thoughts that I enjoy. Even the smallest part of the process, watching words appear on a screen as I move my fingers across the keyboard, remains a magical thing. Yes, I’m THAT old. And yes, the publishing of said words for the entire internet to read is part of it too. Vanity and all that.

Threads recently had a couple of instances of ‘how old are you in internet terms’ posts, and all I can think back to is hand-coding HTML to appear as black text, on a grey screen. And two weeks later being able to add a background colour and an image. It was late 1997 if you are wondering. I spent some time playing with HTML creating my own start pages, first a bulleted list, then in a table, then with Frames, then with CSS… and then it all became easier with bookmarks and auto-complete and so many things we take for granted now, you know, like Google… in the midst of all that I wrote I was playing with building a website and needed some content so I wrote Sunglasses. The rest is, literally, history.

So here I am, 6,000 posts in and I’ve learned so much it’s hard to even fathom where to start. I am not the person I was when I started this blog, I’m into my third and final life stage, and whilst I remain Happily Imperfect, I still can’t seem to kick this silly little habit I’ve had for over 25 years now.

Plans and goals and things

My life is on hold.
My plans have wavered.
My dreams are simpler.
My hopes are vivid.
My goals have shifted.

As parents, Becca and I are well aware that it’s easy to lose yourself in the day to day of caring for our son. The weeks collapse on each other, and before you know it June has arrived.

Finding time for ourselves is tricky, not always possible, and frequently gets lost in the needs of family and friends. A few hours here and there to chill and indulge in our hobbies is about all we can manage.

And that’s just fine with me.

Coming from someone who likes a long term plan (I’ve already signed up to a cycling event for next year!) it’s been a shift of mindset for me but it’s been a surprisingly easy one. It helps that our son is an absolute joy most of the time, and I love spending time with him, just hanging out.

My memories of the time I spent with my Dad were all around activities he was doing, and most of that was jogging with him, the occasional trips to the park with the dog and a frisbee/aerobee (he did love a throwing ‘gadget’), but very little of just hanging out with him. That’s likely due to my early years as an only child and learning to be self-sufficient and happy to content myself without needing a parent around, something Jack is slowly learning as we tend to only play when he asks. If he doesn’t, we leave him to his own devices.

All of this means that my own time is very limited these days and whilst it’s nice to get a couple of hours to play FIFA, or go for a solo coffee date, it’s not the be all and end all of my aspirations.

There are so many clichés about being a parent but I didn’t fully grasp the subtlety of this aspect of it, the loss of hobby time (as best as I can describe it) that you realise you aren’t really that bothered about.

Realising all this paints the picture that Becca and I do NOTHING for ourselves which isn’t true. As previously mentioned we take monthly turns in a night at a hotel which gives us an afternoon/evening and the next morning to chill out, go to a gig, visit the cinema, have a relaxed dinner or, as has been the case so far, grabbing takeaway and slobbing out in the hotel room watching TV, which is just as wonderful.

My life is on hold but will restart far too soon.
My plans have wavered but only need moved.
My dreams are simpler but far more important.
My hopes are vivid and get brighter everyday.
My goals have shifted for the better, for me, for Becca, for Jack.

How NOT to make a smoothie

I work in an office 3 days a week and, on those mornings, I prepare a smoothie to take with me for my breakfast.

I make it the night before, as buzzing up a smoothie at 6am is likely to wake my toddler and I’d rather not do that to him, or my wife. So I blitz it up and pop it in the fridge and take it with me to drink at my desk. I also make a coffee for the train journey but that’s not the point of this story.

A while back my old, Aldi, smoothie maker was starting to die so I bite the bullet, literally, buying a Nutribullet as the reviews suggested it was the best one for my needs (thanks, as always, to The Wirecutter review team). I have the large cup for it, with the ‘drinking lid’ add-on which means I can just make my smoothie, pop the drinking lid on and go. It’s fab, I can’t recommend it highly enough, it’s handled everything I’ve thrown in it with ease; frozen fruit, walnuts, spinach leaves and more.

Once it’s made and in the fridge, the bladed section needs cleaned (you screw the ‘cup’ onto it, then invert it and push down to activate the WHIZZZZ). Once cleaned, we’ve just been popping the bladed section back in the base unit out of the way; and yes the unit sits at the back of the counter out of reach of our toddler.

The ingredients for my smoothies vary a little but mostly consist of a banana, oat or almond milk, protein powder, milled chia seeds and a lingonberry mix, and from there sometimes a bit of peanut butter, some frozen mango or avocado, maybe some strawberries, a splash of apple juice, it really just depends what’s available. The cups come with a separate lid too, so I find myself, particularly on a Sunday, just popping bits and bobs in in the cup, snapping the lid on and putting it back in the fridge. It’s where all the bits of fruit that Jack decides he doesn’t want usually end up (or takes one bite off, I’m not fussy).

The other morning, I’d been compiling my shake throughout Bank Holiday Monday, and on Monday evening whilst Becca gave Jack a bath, I got ready to blitz it up ready for Tuesday morning. I glanced over at the base unit, with the bladed section already sitting in it, waiting for me to lift it out and screw it onto the cup.

A teeny tiny part of my brain reminded me NOT to tip the cup ONTO the blades. Gravity would not be my friend. I even giggled a little at the thought. Hey, I was tired, it had been a long (good) Bank Holiday weekend.

I fetched the cup from the fridge, unscrewed the cap and, despite having laughed at myself about it a few seconds early, actually had to catch myself to NOT do what I’d just told myself not to do!!

Even as I got the bladed section out of the base, and screwed it down onto the cup, part of my brain was STILL thinking .. this isn’t right, is it??

The moral of the story is, whilst I did not tip a full smoothie cup of ingredients onto the base unit (and the kitchen counter and likely the floor), my brain was very close to doing just that.

Twice!

No, YOU are tired.

Busy busy

I’m almost approaching my first year at Allied Vehicles and I’m busier than ever but, looking back I can see how far things have come since I joined. It’s a very small team, in a very fast paced environment and a lot of what I’m trying to do is help mature our own processes. With a couple of new people joining our team it’s brought a lot of this into focus, both how far it’s come, and how far we have to go. And that’s before we get into all the Business Analyst work I’ve got going on. I was sad when my time with Virgin Money came to an end but in hindsight this new job has been a boon!

It does mean that between my work, and having to be in the office 3 days a week, and spending time with my son, that I’ve not always been the best at finding time for me. I’ve barely been out on my bike, nor managed more than a few runs as, barely halfway through Couch-to-5KM I developed a bit of a niggle in my knee which meant I had to rest for a few weeks, got a physio session to sort it but still means I had to out of doing Etape Caledonia this year. I feel doubly bad for that as I’d talked two of my friends into it and, as one of them also dropped out, my mate is now doing it on his own, his first organised cycle too!

Elsewhere, Jack continues to amaze and delight. He is enjoying a daredevil stage at the moment which is wonderful and terrifying all at the same time, and he flits between being barely a toddler to a young child in an instant, it’s quite startling. We are very lucky that we have a good routine that he understands so for the most part (I mean, he’s a toddler) meals, bath time and bed time mostly go without a hitch. And I’ve just jinxed it…

In a couple of weeks we are heading up north, and will be sleeping with him in a tent. It will be his first time (technically his second but he was still a baby the first time on Mull) so it’ll be interesting to see how he adjusts to it, and how the adjustment goes when we get back. That said, with all the fresh air, and the fact that Granny and Grandpa will be there too, we are pretty confident then sleep won’t be a problem for him as he’ll be exhausted.

Heading into the summer months and on into October, I’m aware that my son is heading towards his 3rd birthday. He’s increasingly independent and we trust him and can leave him ‘unattended’ (in the next room!) to happily play with his toys, or stoating about the back garden looking for ‘wee spidurrs’ and ‘weuyrms’ and hopefully a ‘wee ant!’.

And, inspired by my unstoppable force of nature of a wife (who’s currently smashing her C25K, and slotting in the odd yoga session when she can), I’ve even managed to sort out a few cycles for myself and will be signing up for the local gym soon too. I’m 50, not getting any younger etc etc and definitely not getting any more flexible, or stronger, or lighter with my present, very sedentary, lifestyle. I want to be around for many years to come to enjoy watching the person my son will grow up to be so I need to start taking better care of myself. And yes, I’m posting this wholly for accountability purposes!

Fit for 50 was a goal but I’ll take Fit for 55 if that’s what it takes!

A very minor peeve (in three parts)

I digress. Where was I?

Ohh yes, watching the ‘… is typing…‘ message and waiting, waiting, waiting on that third message…

To recap, so far, they’ve sent:
09:14 – Hi
09:14 – Can I ask a question?
09:14 – [… is typing]

Aaaannnnnd finally a third message appears, the actual question that they wanted to ask me all along has finally been unveiled.

I’ve still not seen it as I’m not at my desk, my status is set to Away with a little red circle helping (those who aren’t colour blind?) fully understand that I am not available to have questions asked of me now, forcing me to leave that message unread, unloved, floating in the ether until I deign to reply!

Three separate messages, less than 30 seconds apart.

Why?! Is there some setting I’m unaware of that automatically starts a new message based upon certain triggers? (they said “Hi”, quick start a new message… ohhh they ended a message with a question mark, start a new message…???)

Or as is increasingly the case as I grow older mature, is it just me? Is my approach the wrong one here?

Here’s how I’d do it.

“Hi, was wondering if you can help, I need blah blah…”

One single message; polite (I said Hi!), consenting their time (vaguely), and including the actual request itself. All in one line in one message so that the person who, I am pretty sure, can read English to a competent level, can parse it all immediately before telling me to naff off, or leave the message ‘unread’, or maybe even respond to my request.

Like I say, this is not any real level of annoyance, in fact it’s barely a blip, a quick wondering that I toss aside with barely a second thought.

But it keeps happening, and it’s not just one person and it’s not just my current colleagues. It is, and has been, rife throughout my career.

Did I miss a class in school or something?

Or is the problem me?

Hi.

[insert culturally prominent Taylor Swift reference here]

Answers on a postcard, or in the comments as who can afford to send postcards these days (have you seen the price of a stamp! Bloody Tories!).

My Mac Apps 2024

An update as it’s been a few years since I compiled a list and, once again, a friend is making the PC to Mac switch and I was collating a list of what I use (and why) anyway so thought I’d share it here too (cos I’m nice like that!).

I’ve taken my last post and updated it as some of the apps I used to use may be useful for others. Personally I’ve moved away from many 3rd party apps and services with the Apple offerings not good enough for me to use daily (plus my own circumstances have changed).

Productivity

  • Spark – email client I use across Mac and iPhone. Handles multiple accounts, and the Snooze feature is a lifesaver (and lets me go as far ahead as I want, other apps seem to limit this to a few months or so!)
  • Google Drive – FREE – much as I love the Apple versions I find the familiarity (aka ‘feels a bit like MS Office’) of the Google apps covers everything I need for simple documents and spreadsheets
  • TodoistFREE/Paid Premium – took me a long time to settle on a To Do list app and whilst Todoist still lacks a couple of features, it’s nicely designed, works on multiple platforms and, importantly, it works for me. Switched to Apple’s own Reminders app, instant sync, multiple lists and does everything I need it too (and it’s free).
  • EvernoteFREE/Paid Premium – It took me a while to really get into using Evernote but it’s now become a key part of how I work/live. I use it to store all sorts of things, a backup to my ailing memory. Switched to Apple’s own Notes app which I largely use for storage of useful information and occasionally sharing those with friends and family.
  • SimplenoteFREE – simple text/note app, syncs with iOS app. Feels ‘lighter’ than Evernote so I use it for transistory information, useful during meetings or on calls. Anything that I need to keep is tidied up and moved to Evernote. As above, Notes fills this gap (but I still have Simplenote for easily getting chunks of text from my work PC (via Simplenote web to the app on my MacBook/iPhone)
  • Fantastical£15 – I’d be lost without my calendar, but iCal is less than great, this makes using the calendar quick and easy, syncs with my Google Calendar (and the 9 other Google calendars I’m subscribed too), and my work Exchange server. I use the iOS app too. Switched to Apple’s own Calendar app, which has everything and is super easy to share with my wife (and vice versa).
  • NEW – Tot – £20 (on iPhone or Watch, free on Mac) a wonderful utility for temporary text capture/edit. “Tot is an elegant, simple way to collect & edit text across your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. It’s your tiny text companion!”

Utilities

  • 1Password£40 – Works on multiple browsers and on my phone, saves me remembering multiple passwords and will generate ‘better’ passwords for me too. Life saver! Switched to Apple’s own Password Manager – here’s a handy Shortcut to take you straight to it – and I’m hoping it’ll become a standalone app one day.
  • Moom£10 – gives me window positioning and sizing, customisable and fast.
  • BetterTouchTool – FREE – I love the touchpad, multi-touch gestures are changing how I work, this add-on lets you take that to the next level, still figuring it all out!
  • Bartender – £10 – file under, why didn’t Apple fix this? Removes a LOT of visual clutter (it’s the small bar on the top-right of my screenshot above).
  • Caffeine – FREE – one click to stop your Mac going to sleep until you say so, handy for viewing movies etc.
  • Keka – FREE – file archiver (ZIP/UNZIP) deals with most archive file formats, nice and simple.
  • Witch – £14 – window switching made easy, a must have if you are moving from Windows.
  • VLC – FREE – video player, supports a multitude of formats.
  • SkitchFREE – fantastic app for screenshots and image tweaking. Part of the Evernote set of apps. Built in Apple functionality is enough for me.
  • uTorrentFREE – for downloading torrents. Duh. What’s a torrent? LOL
  • AppCleaner – FREE – for when I want to remove some of these apps, it’ll find all the related files and get rid of them too.
  • Hazel – $29 – a simple way to keep your Mac tidied. Watches folders then runs rules, very powerful and very useful.
  • Flycut – FREE – Clipboard manager, nice little popdown menu of the last [x] copied items.
  • Contexts – For those who also use Windows, this provides a smarter CMD+Tab app switcher, which includes sub windows too. So, if I have 3 draft emails, I can bring either one to the front.
  • Timeout – FREE – a simple enough idea, an app that helps you take a break more often so you don’t end up staring at the screen for hours. Very customisable too.

Worky

  • Pixelmator – £23 – A bit like Photoshop because sometimes you need a little more power than the standard editor gives you. Not yet tried the iPad version as I don’t do that much graphic editing.
  • FileZilla – FREE – FTP client. I don’t have need for anything fancy, I’ve used FileZilla for years and it does everything I need.
  • TextWrangler – FREE – powerful text editor. Mostly used for checking code snippets.

Cloud services apps

  • BackBlaze£4 per month – I recently switched away from Crashplan which would drag my internet connection to a halt. BackBlaze seems simpler but provides the same service. Cloud based backup. I use Time Machine on a separate drive as all of my important stuff is backed up on iCloud
  • DropboxFREE/Tiered – quite simply I don’t know where I’d be without this service. Hosted files, apps on all my devices. Drop something in a folder and it’s synced everywhere. Replaced by iCloud
  • SpotifyFREE/Paid Premium – because sometimes listening to random playlists created by someone else is all you wanna do! I now pay for Apple Music, largely because of how it hooks into the rest of the Apple ecosphere (we have a family Spotify sub though so I still have access to it)
  • Pocket – FREE – I moved from Instapaper to Pocket largely because, at the time, Pocket seemed to be further ahead and have more integrations to other apps I used. These days it seems Instapaper and Pocket are separated mainly by marketing/buzz.

Lifey

  • Day One – £8 – Journal app, only downside is no web app, syncs with iCloud and/or Dropbox.
  • ByWord – £8 – my writing app of choice these days. I compose blog posts and other random writings in it. Syncs to Dropbox, and the accompanying iOS apps are great.
  • CalibreFREE – eBook management, for my Kindle, it’s a bit clunky and not the prettiest but does exactly what it says on the tin. I now just use my Kindle app on my phone, not fired up my Kindle hardware for years.
  • TweetDeck – FREE – Because Twitter. App is dead and Twitter is dead (to me).

And there you have it.