Weeknotes 1476

Weeknotes

• Even though I’ve technically been on holiday the last couple of weeks I’ve still been really busy—though less busy than was originally intended, which is good.
• The first week of this three-week period was pretty busy both work-and regular-commitment-wise; lots of meetings of various kinds. Standout was I went to the first in-person Brighton Data Forum in ages; it was lovely to see so many people showing out, the talk was by Eric Drass and in what, imo, was a very sensible move for a talk about "post-truth", he mostly talked about his art, which I really appreciated.
• We went to see a couple of private audiologists about some better hearing aids for CM, and it seems like the ones that they do are much better but also north of four thousand pounds—which one audiologist described as “as much as a holiday” (I’m not sure where he holidays, but it’s clearly pricier than where we go). Apparently you can get them for quite a bit less at Boots or Specsavers, though, so guess where we'll be headed this weekend!
• We went to a vegan market where we saw the folks who used to run BeFries, the best place for fries in Brighton until it was cruelly snatched from us. They now just make sauces as BeSaucy, and we made sure to pick up some black truffle mayo.
• A couple of weeks ago, the first week of my two weeks off and the last week of CM's between-job break, we had a bit of a (cringe) 'stay-cation' and did a bunch of Brighton touristy things we hadn't done or hadn't done in a while.
• First up was the Pavilion, which CM had never been to (and which I’d only visited for the first time a couple of years ago after eight years living in the city). It's probably the best touristy thing in the city—it really does look remarkable inside.
• We then had a little attempt at a Fun Challenge which I inevitably found incredibly stressful: buying each other a low-price bit of tat in Snooper's Paradise. I got caught up trying to find The Best Thing and rather than the "£5 in 15 minutes" ended up stretching to something like "£10 in ~60 minutes". She got me a nice jar for epsom salts and a jug to keep on my desk so I remember to water my desk plants, and I got her a fancy fan to cool her down. I also bought myself a commemorative royal wedding mug from Prince Andrew's wedding. In my favourite detail, the back of it has a family tree that shows their most recent shared ancestor. It seems weird to draw attention to that, but hey, it's the guy who thought the BBC interview to talk about his friendship with Epstein was a great idea, I don't think he could plausibly be accused of good judgement.
• The next day we went to Saltdean Lido, where it was grey and nearly-raining but still very pleasant. Afterwards we had coffee at a cafe under the cliffs which I thought was delightful; I’m far more Saltdean-positive than I thought I would be.
• The Wednesday was our actual anniversary, and we went to the Bowie photography exhibition at the Brighton Museum, which was genuinely excellent and I would recommend to pretty much anyone, well worth the price of entry, especially if you’re a resident; then up on the i360 which I haven’t been on since a work Christmas trip several years ago, and is just as nice in the day as at night; and finally to Terre A Terre, one of Brighton’s more venerable vegan/vegetarian food establishments. It was delicious and we ate way too much.
• That Friday I had a couple of work-related appointments—saying goodbye to a favourite client who’s moving on from their current position, and my old company’s summer bash at an industrial estate brewery in Lewes. Really nice to see folk in person again after such a long time. I also met several people who I'd been working with for nearly a year but because of lockdown I hadn't seen in person, and they were mostly exactly as I expected.
• My D&D group has been generating some really fun stuff recently. We're currently in the castle of the evil vampire lord, but honestly we're mostly just messing around a getting up to Japes. Josef and I opportunistically stole a dragon skull from one of the vampire's wives while she was arguing with another wife we'd managed to grievously insult while trying to get her to fight us. It was great. I've never really enjoyed D&D this much until I stopped trying to be the DM myself.
• I went to the physio who told me my knee pains when lifting were likely due to my muscles not working together properly and not, as I had suspected, an injury sustained falling down the stairs at work a few years back, which is the best news I've had in ages. I'm not broken yet!
• We went to the hospital on a Sunday for CM to get an MRI, and it was so eerily quiet. The MRI was less traumatic than we expected, mostly because apparently you don't get injected with the contrast that makes you feel like you've pissed yourself, which we were worried about—that's for CT scans.
• Last week was mostly just resting. It was great.

Links

• I've realised that what I find the most fuss for these posts is the links and I share them all on Pinboard anyway; just check that out if you want links!