Weeknotes #12

Last week was draining, and that ran into the early parts of this week too - in fact the ‘classic’ weekend was much of a write off. But we had a bonus rollover weekend bank holiday!

I’m beginning to form plans for getting my own place. Having avoided the whole ‘uni’ thing, I was never really in any rush to have my own place. Life was comfortable, and I felt to need to shake that up - it’s the same reason I was at Tomango for 6 years. But having done the commute & startup thing in London, and now settled down in Brighton, I feel like the time is right.

Don’t get me wrong, the thought still scares the hell outta' me, but I know most of my fears will, in time, shape me and make me a more responsible human. It’s felt like a bit of a mountain; there are just so many things to think about. But I made some excellent strides on Monday. I’ve looked at a huge number of flats/houses online over the last year, but never booked a viewing.

That changed on Monday when I went and saw a flat in Haywards Heath. The process was a success, and the flat itself was lovely. I also made a trip to John Lewis to get a bit of inspiration, and check I’ve got a pretty complete ‘to buy’ list. This was a good move, it got me excited about having my own t h i n g s.

The prospect of buying a place has been pretty all-consuming, what with terrifying mortgages, utility budgets and the many, many things I’ll need to buy. I haven’t felt able, nor had the time to work on any coding outside of work.

On that note, I’ve been officially between projects this week which has been great to unwind a bit. It was also UX London this week, so the office was incredibly quiet for the few of us who didn’t head up. Lots of time to clear my head.

I headed up to Birmingham on Thursday to kick off a new project phase. The meeting itself was really helpful; the project is still quite divergent in scope and there are a lot of questions left to answer, but it was great to get everyone thinking about some of the assumed spec, and historic decisions. The six hours of trains was less fun, I’ll be honest. It was a hot day to be stuck in a metal box on wheels!

The previous two days were spent in preparation for the meeting, which turned out to be a prudent use of time. Much of Friday was spent prototyping in readiness for the project; the development work starts on Tuesday.

Photos of the week

If you’re going to cover a building in tiles, please replace them when they fall off.