We couldn’t have asked for a better start to the half term week. We spent the weekend camping with friends just outside London. I’m a lightweight camper, and I’m incredibly stubborn in insisting that we have to be able to carry everything we bring, no car. Packing was fun. Oscar and I have been camping several times before but this was the first time we went as a family. It was really nice to see both Ethan and Alicia embrace the experience.
Within five minutes of arriving, the kids were bored. “What can we do?”, “I’m bored.” Five minutes after that the vanished. They found things to do; tree swings, building a dam across a small stream, playing in long grass, frisbee, using muddy banks as makeshift slides. They were filthy, hot and desperately in need of a wash but they were not bored.
The hot weather continued for the rest of the week. Oscar had swimming training first thing each day, then played tennis. Alicia was out much of the week. I cowered at home in the comfort of a small portable air-conditioning unit.
At work we’ve been focused on the implications of an uptick in security vulnerabilities being discovered across languages, frameworks, tools, and products. Whether the impact of frontier models is enduring, there has been a real shift in the desire to patch software. People are finding out just how long they’ve been hitting ‘snooze’ on those new version notifications.
We wrapped the week up by hosting friends and family over the weekend. Things all came together last minute but we kept the boys entertained by asking them to make pasta. I made rice pudding ice cream but it was an epic disaster. Both the texture and the flavour were way off. I would welcome any recipes or tips that people have. The boys love it but I can’t bring myself to eat it.
Plus Minus Next
- ➕ Absolutely loved camping with the boys and friends
- ➕ Really enjoyed sitting around the campfire and realising that I hadn’t spoken English all evening
- ➖ Being let down by my lack of a filing system/naming convention for documents. I find Google drive a nightmare for document retrieval.
- ➖ I’ve fallen behind on arranging to meet people in person. This has been one of those things that always gets put off to tomorrow.
- → Contact three people and arrange to meet in person.
- → Spend more time in the garden, even on bad weather days.
Week in Pictures
early morning - I love being up before everyone else
炸酱面 (zhà jiàng miàn) - best hot weather meal
break in play - it was way too hot to be on court all day
in motion - cycling with one eye to the viewfinder was not the most sensible decision
the beautiful side of pollen - as a hay-fever sufferer this is not something I say often
in the shade - a welcome break from the sun
makeshift dark room - Ethan was keen to get involved in cyanotype this week