Today I spent the morning looking at various bikes to replace my aging cyclo-cross bike.
When I bought it, there wasn't much of a market in that area. I had actually wanted a fairly standard road bike, but the bike shop owner convinced me to go with the cyclo-cross if …
I have previously mentioned that my phone seems to be on its last legs and went on strike last month. Well it has gone on strike again. My main reason for not simply replacing it is that I don't like the phones on the market.
What I want is my …
Last night was the second disastrous dinner and the first one I presented. When I first came up with the concept for the dinners, I was fully expecting to have to provide all the talks, at least for the first year. I felt that producing 11 talks wasn’t too …
I remember1 a scene in Winnie-the-Pooh when Pooh Bear needs to think of something. He sits on his thinking log and wills himself to think. Think, think, think. But no answers come.
That is how I feel this evening. The more I will myself to think about the problem …
Considering that the next disastrous dinners is on Wednesday, and that I am presenting it, I thought that I had better start to prepare my talk this weekend. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to cover and say, but i also was aware that my knowledge on …
I wrote back in August about receiving a hackerX invitation and how I pointed out to them that I wasn't a full stack developer, but a chemical engineer.
Well I have received another invitation to one of their events.
Q: What if my employer is there?
A: Don't worry, before …
Last night I donated blood. This was the first time in over a year.
This morning I did my usual circuits session in the gym. Just after the halfway point, I started to get a little dizzy. Then my vision started to go.
I can confidently say that I found …
I was discussing Todo lists with my wife and we both have the same problem that we often put off a couple of tasks and have to copy them over onto the next list quite frequently. When looking at the type of tasks, we noticed a difference.
Yesterday I mentioned one of my personal algorithms of life. To be honest, I had never considered it as such until I was writing about it but that is what it is.
And it isn't the only one. Thinking about it now, the there are lots of these algorithms I …
When driving to somewhere I don't know particularly well, I have a personal algorithm that helps me get to where I want to go, usually picking the best route. I usually try to know the route in general and when driving I have the car's built in satnav set up …
To weeks tomorrow I attended my first lunchtime yoga session. The sessions were have been hosted at work during Tuesdays and Thursdays for a few years now but I only considered joining in at the end of last year1. I decided to join in mostly because after doing the …
Last week we rearranged the bedrooms in our house.
As I explained the changes to a friend, I mentioned that we no longer has a guest room and if anyone did want to stay, they would have to use the futon in the living room. I then remembered that this …
Last night, while I was cooking dinner, my phone died on me. There was no warning, there was plenty of battery but I turned the screen off, put it in my pocket and when I tried to use it again a couple of minutes later it was completely unresponsive.
I …
Today was the first day back at nursery for the boys. The last few trips to nursery we used the car. As a result it was my first time cycling the boy home in several weeks.
Perhaps it was overindulgence over the holidays. Perhaps I didn't do enough other exercise …
After posting yesterday's post, I thought further about it and though I don't need to know much more about electricity, I do know more and want to learn more. I like learning, particularly about different subjects.
My background as a chemical engineer has given me a good understanding for what …
As a Christmas gift to each other, we have gotten ourselves an ooni3 pizza oven1.
This afternoon we fired it up and gave it a test run. This involved assembling the oven, seasoning it (giving it a half hour blast at full heat), before …
After yesterday's solitary walk, I got to spend some more time with myself today. The rest of the family went for a cycle into town to collect a parcel and do some shopping.
This gave me a chance to do some DIY projects I had wanted to get on with …
Thanks to bad planning on my part, my car spent last night in the garage having had its MOT and service.
So to collect it this morning, I had to walk for about an hour to get there. It was a lovely experience, walking in the frosty air and listening …
I have just read an article that has caused me to re-evaluate what I think I know about a topic. While the article didn't tell me anything particularly new, it did present things that I did already know in a different way and with the opposite 'advice' or strategy as …
I forgot what these were left like.
Probably ought to leave it long enough to forget again..
Today, after work, I had to drive over to Denny to collect something. Previous journeys over there have taken 20 minutes. Previous journeys were not done at rush hour.
Today's journey took 40 minutes and reminded me why I am glad my commute is so short and can be done …
Work have been offering free health checks including height, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose levels. At the end we were provided with heart risk scores, a 10 year risk and a 2 year risk1.
My 10 year figure was 2.3%2 and my initial reaction was …
When you meet friends that you haven't seen in a long time, a common comment is something along the lines of "we should do this more often".
A month ago, rather than just saying it, we booked a date in our calendars. These things can get moved, but once it …
Considering everyone else in my house has an American passport, we haven't really done anything for Thanksgiving. But I would still like to take the opportunity to state what I am thankful for.
I am thankful for life, the universe and everything.
This was the answer that I gave many …
In one of my previous jobs, I did not particularly get on with one of my supervisors. This is not that surprising and to be honest, it would probably be surprising if I had gotten on with every supervisor I have encountered.
This particular supervisor was not my direct line …
After yesterday's pension workshop, I spent some time at lunchtime collecting the various information about the different pension funds and calculating how much I might have at retirement.
It is an interesting exercise, but at the same time, inflation, investment returns, the government ruled and regulations will all change. Many …
I got to attend a pensions workshop provided by my work today. The presenter confirmed that for people my age, the state pension is probably a mirage. They may say that I can retire and collect the state pension at 68, that will definitely keep getting moved and possibly removed …
I have now attended tree InstMC dinners, and I have yet to have truly enjoyed any of the after dinner comedians. Sure every one managed to get at least one laugh out of me, but at the end of the half hour, I don't think I have had one where …
Last night's InstMC dinner raised funds on behalf of the Scottish Cot Death Trust and included a personal speech by one of the trustees. The speech was very emotional and stirred some of my earliest memories. I had intended to write this post last year but found it too difficult …
I will be attending the InstMC Dinner tonight, as the guest of Honeywell. This will be an evening of free drinks and dinner and a good chance to have fun with other folk from industry. It will be the first time I have had a drink in a while.
In …
Earlier this week, I cycled from work into Falkirk town centre. After the journey, I was asked how the trip went and my first reaction was that it was horrible. But then I caught myself.
Most of the trip went fine. It was just one particular part that spoilt it …
After my post where I sketched out the idea of Disastrous Dinners I noticed that I have been very inactive with my IChemE membership.
I am supposedly still on the IChemE Scottish Members Group committee, however I don't think I have done anything to help in the last year. A …
When out at the shops today, I tried to find a new jacket to replace my current one. My main issue with my current jacket is that it is water resistant but it doesn't hold up to heavy rain. It is also not particularly warm if I am standing still …
Today we went to a farm for pumpkin picking. I had envisioned going into a field where the pumpkins were being grown and picking them fresh from the stock. Of course this wouldn't have worked with the number of participants.
Instead you picked your pumpkin from a whole field of …
Today has been a day of DIY, mostly painting in the downstairs toilet. This was a good opportunity to catch up on podcasts and I spent most of the time catching up with the DisasterCast back catalogue.
I don't have much to add except that I found it an enjoyable …
Apparently there have been a lot of posts on social media about people leaving social media1. For the last two years I have effectively been off social media. I did so quietly without any posting about it at the time but I do want to record my thoughts on …
For many years, I have wondered about the process of getting old and watching technology progress and being unable to keep up. As someone who has always loved and been interested in technology, I found it difficult to believe that I will, one day, be unable to keep up and …
So my daily posting streak lasted 90 days.
Last night when I got home, we ended up doing the evening routine in a different order and we swapped over who did the various tasks. As a result, I completely forgot about writing and publishing a post. Annoyingly I have been …
Well I found out why I had lost my energy. Right after posting last night's entry, I crawled into bed feeling very cold.
For the next four hours I was curled up and feeling cold despite my body temperature being particularly high. Then about 11pm, the fever broke and I …
I seem to have lost all of my energy. I had a fair amount last week but this week I seem to have virtually non left.
So if anyone knows where I have left it, please let me know.
Thanks
On my way home from work, I noticed the slogan on the side of one of the fuel trucks:
The slogan reads:
I'm delivering fuel to your local filling station...
... to save you collecting it from the refinery
Thanks for the help, but considering that …
Over a year ago now, the sistern on our downstairs toilet started to leak. There was a crack in the casing so I isolated the water supply and we made do with the upstairs toilet until we could get it replaced.
Then my second son was born and we never …
I have been attempting to write a letter of complaint to Aer Lingus about our return flight for the past three nights. It is a very difficult task.
On one hand I want to be as polite and respectful as possible, making my point in a prompt and professional manner …
Every time I visit the United States, I make the same mistake. This time it was when I was asked if I wanted chips or salad with my burger.
I automatically assumed the waitress was talking about, what everyone around here calls french fries. Of course what actually arrived at …
Over the last couple of weeks I have had a several emails inviting me to a hackerX event in Edinburgh. These are advertised as "an invite-only recruiting event for developers".
Yesterday I emailed them back informing them that I wasn't a programmer or developer but in fact a chemical engineer …
In the last three weeks I have completed three lunchtime runs. Today's was the fastest of them but not as fast as I was running last May or last year1. One of the reasons for the slow run may have been the warm and humid conditions 2 but at …
Sometimes things seem bad1
Today was one of those days
All was good post nap.
So in the week before going on holiday I have had to deal with:
This afternoon was the point where all these problems were sorted and there was nothing else for me to do …
I went for my first run since my early summer break today. I have been very poor with my running since leaving university and never gotten into a consistent training routine. The only thing I have been consistent with is that I take a break from running from some point …
Last time we hosted a picnic party I failed to post that day, breaking my streak1.
Not today. Today I am posting no matter what!
