November 2024

Jack's birthday, snow and reading

I started the month on my bike with a wee trip to Pitlochry. It had been a while since I’d been out and about on my bike for a multi-day adventure, so it made a good start for the month. I think cycling is great for motivation practice: coming up to a long slog of a hill that you know you are going to be climbing for an hour or so and getting yourself in the mindset to keep going.

A view over the hills with a small loch near Pitlochry

It was Jack’s birthday at the start of this month. I can’t believe he is two! We asked what he would prefer to do on the day and he chose a trip to IKEA. A wander round interesting rooms, getting to play and then some meatballs. Perfect fun!

Jack standing in front of a washing machine at Ikea — Jack investigating the IKEA washing machine

We had the last Glasgow and Edinburgh JavaScript talks of the year. TravelPerk have sponsored the last few Edinburgh meetups, so we did a travel-themed event to close out the year, including some community intros as well as technical talks. I think the year has gone well for both meetups. We’ve maintained a good audience throughout, and through the livestreams and videos have an ongoing resource that people can draw on. I have plans to grow the meetups and community in 2025.

I managed to sneak in a competitive trail race at Glentress. I went down with H, Gordon and Amy. Gordon entered the half marathon and I entered the 10k. It was a big ol’ slog, but worth it.

Me, running past the camera at Glentress in a blur of vital physical activity

It was nice to celebrate Pete’s birthday at the Sheep Heid Inn. Happy birthday Pete!

A group round a table at the Sheep Heid Inn

It snowed in Edinburgh - and it lay for at least half a day. I managed to get some photos out and about.

Dogs chase around in the Meadows in the white of the snow

I managed to get back on with my reading habit this month:

Why War?, Richard Overy
Rebellion: How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart Again, Robert Kagan
The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism, John Gray
Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, Alex Hutchinson

I’m looking forward to December as I have some more client work to get stuck into: working with AWS and a full-stack JavaScript app. We’ll be having an EdinburghJS social, and hopefully I’ll get out and about to share Christmas cheer with friends.