Blog ≫ 2024Another day of hot-spotting

Worked all day from my phone today (well, laptop connected to hotspot on phone) and it worked OK. Just a couple of hiccups. It uses a lot of power being a hotspot so the phone battery ran down fast, and then disconnected. Apart from that, worked successfully. And the Trooli engineer is coming in the morning which ought to fix it.

The cold came out properly today, felt a bit crap first thing but think it's on its way now. I don't usually have colds for long. It might be just a temporary reprieve because of the lemsip, or it might really be gone.

This phone and my mobile data contract is getting a proper workout today. I've turned off the work laptop but connected again now to post this. Also T1 has connected the XBox to it to game for a bit, and we'll probably do the same for the TV later.

Football on TV was quite good yesterday, Manchester United vs Liverpool on actual terrestrial TV. Of course I am all over the football again at the moment because Portsmouth are doing so well. Just need another seven points I think to get promoted. PUP!

Have put in my claim for being on call the other day, that will come in handy. And I realise that while I'm on call for most of the bank holiday weekend, I'm only actually on call up to 9am Monday morning. So I can still have a bank holiday day out.

That will do for today, don't want to use unnecessary bandwidth.

Light cloud and a gentle breeze, 9 - 13℃.

Energy usage

This week 20 years ago

30 years ago

Blog ≫ 2024Health stats 18/3/24

🚶 2395 steps

Scattered clouds. 11 - 12℃

Blog ≫ 2024Is everything down today?

The problems have not ended today. For one I am slightly ill, a bit of a cough, I hope it doesn't turn into anything. Then, there was a power cut, the power tripped out anyway, and now our internet won't come back on. Can't figure it out, have a support request in. I'm going to have to phone them, I need this for work. Right now I'm hot-spotting on my phone. I could manage with that tomorrow...

Did I already say this?

Blog ≫ 2024Was everything down yesterday?

News stories of Sainsbury's being down, their home deliveries being cancelled. They say it was a bad software update. It also affected their stores. I went into the one in Hythe and they could not take payment, it was chaos. Luckily we had cash and were ok. I heard on the news it also affected Tesco. How?? they're talking as if it's the same software update, obviously nonsense. Haven't seen any evidence of this yet "from the inside" either, so possibly just not true.

After this things picked up. I called my friend as we'd said we might go out later. He says yes, good, meet you in Hythe in an hour and we'll walk to West Hythe, to Unit Number 1. Weather was good, so sounds promising.

I got my hair cut quickly, five barbers on and only three people in the queue ahead of me. So with time to kill I went to the Malthouse Arcade in Hythe. Haven't been in there since we first moved here I think, but it's GOOD! There's a hipster cafe in there with good coffee, and I got a great vegan cake called a "Hello Dolly". It's like an inside out Bounty bar really on a biscuit base.

Fancy coffee and a vegan cake in Hythe

From there we walked to Unit Number One along the canal and had a couple of pints, and they were quite good. It was busy there, the food takeover today was burgers. There was a vegan option, but we weren't ready to eat again yet.

From there we walked to the nearby Botolph's Bridge Inn, which was disappointing. They claimed to have cask ale on, but it was a trick and it was not. We didn't complain but just didn't finish them.

From there are more adventurous walk, across country to Burmarsh and to a pub I'd never even heard of The Shepherd And Crook. It's good and it's obviously very old. Had quite a good pint in there. It reminds me a bit of the Red Lion at Snargate but with more nods to modernity, a jukebox, and electric lights.

Approaching the Shepherd And Crook in Burmarsh

From there across country again, before the light started to fail. We went to the Hidden Treasure micropub, which was OK. Then for a curry, which was good. Then it started to go wrong...

We could not get a taxi back from Dymchurch, there were none in town. There should be a bus, but why is the online bus app / timetable telling me there are none? I use https://nextbuses.mobi and generally it is great, but right now it's telling me there are no buses. The man in the restaurant said he could ask his delivery driver to take us home! But not until the deliveries were all out of the way. Then someone came in saying it's just the bus app that is down (so I assume the service that powers the bus app and https://nextbuses.mobi) but the buses themselves were OK. We walked to the stop and could see there is now only one bus an hour. This is not ideal to start with, but after waiting forty minutes after the bus should have arrived, we just started walking. It's about seven miles I think but at least it wasn't raining. Every few bus stops we passed we paused in case a bus might be coming. It wasn't until we were nearly back in Hythe that we did see a bus and flagged it down even though we weren't at a stop. The bus drive said he'd broken down.

So, home eventually, 35,000 steps later. Bus timetables still not working. Tired today.

Now our broadband is also down. Electricity went off, tripped, and the internet has not come back on. I've had to leave a support message as I can't figure it out. If this is not fixed we can't watch Gladiators later!! Oh also might affect me working from home I suppose. I'm hotspotting on my phone right now.

Light rain and a moderate breeze, 7 - 13℃.

Guessing 1632 cups of coffee from my espresso machine1 probably comes to £1.08 per cup (including actual coffee and now servicing1 but not the 'leccy).

Blog ≫ 2024Parkrun 150

Did my 150th parkrun! It was quite a good one too. Thought the weather was going to be worse than it was, so wore my hoodie. It was hot so I had to stop and take it off half way round. About twenty people overtook me here. Imagine what my time / position would have been without that? Could have been my best time of the year.

Folkestone parkrun results for event #428. Your time was 00:23:42.

Congratulations on completing your 150th parkrun and your 136th at Folkestone parkrun today. You finished in 66th place out of a field of 392 parkrunners. You were the 58th male and came 5th in your age category VM50-54. Take a look at this week's full set of results on our website. Your PB at Folkestone parkrun remains 00:20:50. Your best time this year remains 00:23:32.

My friends used AI to make some celebratory images, after I joked about no-one getting me a card for this milestone. It started off just rude, this is meant to represent me...

Is this meant to be me..?

... then it got worse, this is meant to represent Clare and I running together. Thanks guys, glad I brought it up.

Clare and I running together

Blog ≫ 2024Health stats 17/3/24

🚶 5271 steps

Passing clouds. 9 - 11℃

Blog ≫ 2024Run stats 16/3/24 - 4'39/K

🚶 35103 steps

your daily target Best ever daily steps: 38155 on Sat, Sep 14, 19 Saturday was the best since that day 10ᵏ - 20ᵏ - 30ᵏ - 52 bpm ❤︎ 22% stress 69.6㎏ 9910 my target 2408 days of data 3628 Thu, Mar 7 7699 Fri, Mar 8 17250 Sat, Mar 9 6522 Sun, Mar 10 5107 Monday 4982 Tuesday 11298 Wednesday 12660 Thursday 8465 Friday 35103 Saturday

Some things missing from the graph since September, working on getting them back.

Best time this week! Best time for a 16/03!

date '19 '20 '21 '22 '23 2024
09/03 4'53 5'21 5'01
15/03 7'31 5'24
16/03 4'39

Passing clouds. 8 - 9℃

Blog ≫ 2024TWO days in a row at work

Yes, another busy few days. Went into work on Wednesday and Thursday for a team event. First day was mostly presentations and little talks, and indeed I had to present. I was running a bit late as I had to take T2 to school first and drop him off at breakfast club. Going a little later meant I had a productive morning though, as I was able to put some chilli in the slow cooker to have for tea later, and put the overnight washing in the dryer and set the timer to use the Octopus free energy that was due later in the day.

Got to work at about 9:15 to find the day was already underway, presentations had started, and up on the screen was a slide adjacent to mine in the slide deck. So did I just miss my slot..? No, I am up next. So I was able to drop by bag and walk up to the front to take over. My "slide" was the holding slide I had left in, a plain page with a few bullet points on rather than the fancy graphics of the slide before. "Sorry I'm late, I was up all night working on this slide", I said, and I absolutely slayed. Everything went well after that.

In the afternoon we started a multi-day hackathon, I was less invested in this. I got home, had tea, went to bed, and then straight up again, commuting in on the 7.30 this time. Clare was working late so was able to take T2 in.

We worked on our hack day project, and it went ok, but I was not excited by it. Never mind though as one of the directors ordered pizza in for everyone, good pizza with vegan options. So I was stuffed full and didn't need to buy lunch. Then at 3pm we headed off to Swinger, for mini golf, more food, and more drinks! Swingers is good, a nice venue, not quite as good as Puttshack I think. Food was good and plentiful too, a specially cordoned off vegan section for me, and quite good drinks. Cold fizzy beer, but also frozen pina colada on tap which was tasty.

I had to leave at five and actually run for the train so didn't get time to enjoy all of it, but it was a good day. I was back in reasonable time to pick the boys up from Grandpa's, and he drove us home. Clare working late again, but a good day for her too. She had the final interview and is now fully qualified at whatever it is she does.

Today back to working from home. We continued with the hack day, but I did more of the usual work, investigating bots and security. I went for a run at lunchtime to go and collect the beetle. Staying in tonight though, as Clare is working again! Think we'll finish Iron Man 3.

Tomorrow, back to parkrun, then am I free? Can I get a haircut? Can I go to the pub? Then on Sunday will we go to the travel agent..?

Blog ≫ 2024Run stats 15/3/24 - 5'24/K

🚶 8465 steps

Worst time this week! Best time for a 15/03!

date '19 '20 '21 '22 '23 2024
09/03 4'53 5'21 5'01
15/03 7'31 5'24

Passing clouds. 9 - 10℃

Blog ≫ 2024Health stats 14/3/24

🚶 12660 steps

Passing clouds. 12 - 13℃

Blog ≫ 2024Health stats 13/3/24

🚶 11298 steps

Clear. 9 - 10℃

Blog ≫ 2024Health stats 12/3/24

🚶 4982 steps

Passing clouds. 10 - 11℃

Blog ≫ 2024Oh third night on call went as smoothly as the first

I'll do on call again, it was fine. The daytime bit of work was harder than the night times, was really busy, which meant my brain was still whizzing away at night. But I did not get disturbed this third night, and I did get some sleep.

My next time on call will be over the Easter bank holiday weekend, and the week leading up to it. I guess the extra pay from that can go towards that ski trip then, rather than anything nice for me.

Blog ≫ 2024T1 has the option of another ski trip...

We said no last time when it was to Canada, because he was too young. Now the school are off to Norway in 2025, and we're giving him the option to go. Will see if any friends go, and if he wants to. He'll be nearly sixteen this time round.

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Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in Hythe near Folkestone. Wed to Clare and father to 2, I'm a full stack web developr, and I do mostly javascript / nodejs, some ruby, other languages etc. I like pubbing, parkrun, restaurants, home automation + other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.

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Yep, deliberately unstyled.