June 2023
We arrived back from our two month trip to New Zealand at the very end of May, so the first part of June was filled with jet lag and getting back to work. This was helped by Harriet’s 40th birthday present for me: an espresso machine. I love coffee. It’s part of my daily morning ritual. I’ve had an Aeropress and a Chemex for years, so this is a nice upgrade. One thing I love about this gift is that because I’ll use it every day, I will think of Harriet’s kindness every day, which is a gift itself.
Edinburgh has had beautiful weather this month. That means light mornings for walking just after breakfast and strolls with Hazza and Jack in the Meadows. Alby’s, a new sandwich shop opened up in Newington. We have tried it out a couple of times for chicken and halloumi sandwiches with a side of chips. If you are looking for a filling lunch to take to the Meadows then this is a good shout.
Running has been fun this month. I have been heading out towards Blackford more often, appreciating the sun shine. I managed to join Edinbar Runners for their monthly jaunt around the Meadows, and caught up with a few EH3 folks on their training run for the Seven Hills race. It was good to head to Edinbar runners, I finally met a colleague of mine from my contract with Shelter during the early pandemic lockdowns. We had regular standups on Slack video calls, but had never met!
EdinburghJS went well this month. We had Patrick and Pat speaking about cellular automata and green computing. We have 50+ attendees fairly regularly now, and positive audience feedback for the quality of the talks. We’re on a summer break now, with a social event in July and August fully off. We’ll be back in September for our next series of talks.
I haven’t had much time for reading this month. I had an Open University exam for my part-time course in History and Politics, so spent time revising for that. I made progress with:
and finished:
The rest of the month we’ve been spending weaning Jack. It’s been tremendous fun. He’s done from occasionally trying bites of mushed food to feeding himself and grabbing food out of our hands. He’s still not got great spoon-control, but he’s making a superb effort. We’ve tried him on all sorts of flavours and textures, both fresh and some Ella’s “Taste Explorer” pouches. It has started to feel like I’m having a meal with him when we both settle down to our breakfast. Such a joy!
Until next month 👋
p.s. New Zealand and Australia photos are still in-progress. Hopefully I’ll back-date my journal in the next week or two!
