Tag: weeknote

Weeknotes 43/2023 & 44/2023

Posted on November 4, 2023November 5, 2023 by Doug Belshaw

I didn’t write a weeknote last weekend as we were deep into moving house. It took a full week, from exchanging contracts on Friday 27th October to completing on Friday 3rd November. We planned it that way, as it meant that Hannah and I could both take a week off work while the kids were on half-term holiday, and could help out.

Having moved plenty of times before, although not for almost a decade, I didn’t think it would be that much of a big deal. After all, given that we’re renting around the corner from our current house, surely hiring a van for a couple of days would be enough? Oh my days, how wrong I was. When we’ve moved previously, it’s either been just us as a couple or while the kids were small. Now, with four adult-sized humans and all of the accumulated stuff, it was quite the task.

We decided not to go ahead with the purchase of a house after getting a flood report, so the place we’re renting is a listed building that’s almost 400 years old. It’s an old coach house with a large and easily accessible cellar. There is a lot of our stuff in there, accompanied with an oil-filled radiator and dehumidifier. Hopefully, there’s plenty of stuff which we can do without for a bit and just leave down there.

Upstairs, the house is comfortable and would make a great Airbnb. However, although it has been for sale, we’re not interested in buying: there’s no garden, and the parking situation is horrendous. Our plan is to find somewhere to buy pretty soon so that we don’t have to extend our six month rental term. As our combined requirements are reasonably specific, this might not be easy, but one thing we can agree on is that we’ll definitely be getting a removal firm to help us shift things next time!

The move has consumed almost all of my waking physical and mental efforts, and I can’t even really remember what I was working on in the days up until we started moving things across. I’m sure it will all come back to me when I get back on Monday, though. I’ve got a separate room in the house as my office, our 4G/5G router plus mesh network is giving good coverage and speeds, and the kids seem happy enough.

In a couple of weeks time, when I’m back to my routine, this week will largely be forgotten. I’ve got my MSc to get started on, new and existing projects to work on, and some planning to do for ePIC 2023 in Vienna in early December. In between doing all of the life admin involved in moving houses, I’m going to look to see if Team Belshaw can get away on holiday during the first week of January. Some sun and relaxation would be nice.

Photo taken by me of sundial above the front door of our rental property, which would suggest it was built in 1661. Although, if that’s true, it means that the story I was told about Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) once staying there can’t be true!

Weeknote 42/2023

Posted on October 22, 2023October 22, 2023 by Doug Belshaw

Aha! The same number weeknote as my age. Awesome.

This time next week we should be partly moved into our new (temporary) house. Thankfully, it’s not next to the River Wansbeck, which very nearly overwhelmed the flood defences installed after the events of a decade or so ago. The tree being swept away by the river in the above photo used to stand at the bottom of the garden of the house mentioned in this post. That sound you hear is of us dodging a bullet in deciding not to go ahead with purchasing it 😅

I’m composing this post pretty early on Sunday morning having just done some last-minute edits to Thought Shrapnel newsletter #444. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you don’t know what you’re missing. Or maybe you do, which is why you unsubscribed. Or maybe you use the RSS feed to get the posts without my additional solo waffle? You do you.

This week I have been mostly:

Completing a badged course in preparation for the postgraduate study I’m starting next month. I wrote about that here.
Pleased that Laura is back from her three-week sailing holiday. She seems to have had a good time and is well-rested. Laura’s moved her excellent newsletter to Substack, which you can subscribe to here.
Having a Covid booster jab. I’m in a ‘vulnerable group’ because I’m asthmatic, which means I get extra protection. I’m not complaining, although I feel a little achey this morning.
Packing boxes, given that we’re moving next week. We… have a lot of stuff and we’re moving ourselves by hiring a van. The house we’re moving to must only be about 500m away from where we currently live, as the crow flies.
Helping my daughter prepare for, and then interview, my parents about some family history. I wrote about it in this post.
Planning for the first Community Conversations workshop that WAO is running with Participate. We’re using the ORE community as an example to talk about value cycles. It’s free, so please do sign up!
Setting up a new project with MIT Digital Credentials Consortium (DCC). We’re getting onboarded and then helping with documentation and asset-creation.
Catching up with various people and talking to others I’ve never had the pleasure of talking with before via my virtual coffee calendar slots. Please do take one if you fancy a chat ☕
Getting involved with our monthly WAO co-op half-day. We did some reflection and planning, which was useful.
Attending a great SI Networks session entitled How to Communicate with Systems Maps. This is going to be an important practical part of my upcoming MSc, so I wanted to get a head start. There are some really interesting people doing some fascinating stuff!
Viewing some houses. People are still being a bit unrealistic about pricing, I think, given the state of the market.
Putting together a significant follow-up to Part 1 of Using Open Recognition to Map Real-World Skills and Attributes. In Part 2, which I’ll publish after my colleagues have added their thoughts and feedback, I not only provide a flowchart for the system I’d like to build, but wireframes for the main user experience workflow. I’m looking forward to publishing it, because I want someone to build this!

My children’s football matches were called off this weekend due to the storm, but my son’s basketball game went ahead. They absolutely smashed the opposition, and he scored three baskets and made three assists, playing Point Guard. I’m saying that as if I have any clue about basketball; I don’t, but enjoy watching him play, and he played well.

Next week, we’re following up some potential new work with Greenpeace, starting the work with MIT DCC, and running the workshop with Participate that I mentioned above. I’ve also got plenty more packing and logistics to get sorted, and then on Friday we should be exchanging contracts on our house and getting the keys to our rental. We’ve then got a week to move everything across before completion.

I may get some time to work on MSc-related things, in which case I might have a go at the Mastering Systems Thinking in Practice short course through OpenLearn. I do like a badge, after all 😉

Weeknote 41/2023

Posted on October 15, 2023October 15, 2023 by Doug Belshaw

Aaron looking into the distance in Northumberland National Park

I’m sitting typing this on my laptop while sitting in my car at an EV charging point. I’m knackered.

The above photo was taken a few hours ago in Northumberland National Park during a walk I did with Aaron Hirtenstein, who lives on the other side of it to me. We had a great conversation over the few hours together, including idly wondering whether taking people up to see these amazing sights we almost take for granted would be something people would be interested in doing. It’s the perfect place for the kind of conversations you can’t really have anywhere else.

I haven’t felt great this week, either mentally or physically. I wrote about the former in a post entitled All aboard the U-shaped curve, and I’ve done daily Covid tests for the latter, all of which have been negative. I may just have a lingering cold, but my Garmin smartwatch keeps telling me I’m stressed, so I suspect my body is fighting off something.

Laura’s back next week, which I’m pleased about as three weeks without the person with whom you work most closely is a long time. I’ve enjoyed working with Anne and John, of course, but I’m looking forward to Laura bringing some energy back from her time off.

I’ve been setting up new client work (more on that soon) and working on existing client stuff. I’ve had a few very pleasant virtual coffees with people. You can book a slot here.

The ‘body battery’ on my smartwatch currently stands at 11% which is well below the 66% my car is on. I’m going to publish this, have a little snooze, unplug the car, and head home for bed.