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Development, systems administration, parenting and business



Journal, ISO week 2018-W31

last week

Car (child) trouble

Monday morning challenge this week was a flat battery in the car - apparently due to cabin lights being left on, presumably thanks to a small person!

I've previously fixed this by removing the battery and charging it in the house. But removing the battery from a Prius Plus is not very easy and I …

Tags: journal

Photo Friday: 2018-08-03

As the sun is bright and the temperatures hot, here are a few fittingly bright yellow flowers. I'm not aware of any hidden bees this week.

All taken in Norfolk in May 2018.

Yellow flower

Yellow flower

Yellow flower

Tags: photo-friday

Journal, ISO week 2018-W30

last week

Time

First week in a while that I've managed to plan whole days for specific projects, rather than each day being a jumble of several. Also the first in ages that I've consistently left the house to work (using a couple of local co-working spaces).

For the next few weeks of summer holiday I'm intending to keep working …

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Photo Friday: 2018-07-27

It has finally rained! For about two minutes there was marginally cooler air blowing through my window.

Now, almost instantly, it's back to being all to warm though.

We went to an excellent science festival at Wakehurst last weekend so of course I took a few photos of flowers (and a bee).

Flower at Wakehurst

Flower at Wakehurst

Flowers and bee(s) at Wakehurst

Tags: photo-friday

New HMO licensing from Oct 2018

Last week I attended the monthly meetup for the excellent Crawley Property Meet which included a presentation by the person responsible for HMO licensing in Crawley.

From the 1st October 2018 the national rules on HMO licensing are changing so that they cover a lot more properties. Previously HMOs less than three stories high were not included, but from October …

Tags: property



Journal, ISO week 2018-W28

last week

To walk or not to walk

It's a difficult decision - whether to walk into town to use an office space or not.

  • For walking to the office
    • Proper air conditioning
    • Chance to bank a cheque (they do still exist, at least in the world of British Gas!)
    • Chance to return/exchange some shorts
    • Less disturbances during the day, …
Tags: journal

Photo Friday: 2018-07-13

No flowers this week but still some good sunshine and a colourful tree.

Sunlit colourful tree

And a bonus summer house in the distance, from the same day in June 2017.

Trees and distant summer house

Tags: photo-friday

Journal, ISO week 2018-W27

"yesterday"

Journal geekery

I write the initial text for these journals on my main computer, often as quick notes during the day. To make that easy I made myself a little script (actually a fish function):

function tj
    set T (date +"%Y-%m-%d")
    vi ~/journal/$T.md
end

Since I've now changed to recording a weekly journal, I've also added the …

Tags: journal

Journal, ISO date 2018-07-02

"yesterday"

I've decided this will be my last daily journal for a while - they are just taking too much time to write and edit. I'd really like to hear from anyone who's enjoyed reading my musings, found them useful or has any other feedback - please comment below o r send me an email.

This isn't to …

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Journal, ISO date 2018-06-29

"yesterday"

Apparently government revenue from stamp duty is falling because the housing market has slowed down. Probably a combination of Brexit and increased taxes on landlords.

Today

Nursery run this morning - so that our big two could walk to school again for their Golden Boot challenge.

Also had to pause this afternoon to do the nursery collection …

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Journal, ISO date 2018-06-26

"yesterday"

Today

  • 25% cleaning (yes, during the working day - my parents were visiting to babysit this evening so no other time left)
  • 25% mixed emails, consultancy bits, a little PaTMa and some All Secure Domains support
  • 50% rental property paperwork

Evening was a secondary school visit - great to meet our oldests new form teacher and hear …

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Journal, ISO date 2018-06-22

"yesterday"

Growing up

Walked our big two children to school this morning, although the oldest was so late getting ready I left without him - with instructions to catch up. Of course he decided to only do that at the last moment so he could walk to school on his own! Thankfully he did survive and I didn't …

Tags: journal