In my head this week had two big themes: CP day and housework.
CP day fell on Wednesday: it is my team’s quarterly all-in-office day. This round I was one of the organisers, and between holidays (and illness) we didn’t have much time to prepare. We split the day in two (as a proven format), with the first half being talks and a workshop with the theme of reviewing/discontinuing features, and the second half being a supported OKR session.
Like with other events (eg ENGINEROOM) there’s preparation, and the day itself. A few things needed tweaking in the days running up (including changing our prizes, corralling speakers and encouraging people to bake). The day-of ran very smoothly - so smoothly in-fact that we actually lengthened some sessions without (hopefully) anyone noticing. I planned in buffer time for time-keeping in a little spreadsheet, but we never needed any of it!
Remember the thing about the wallet? I forgot to transfer over my corporate card which meant I had to open the tab with mine. That being the only real drama felt pretty great later in the week!
Met up with LF the evening before, and walked via Muji past many bakeries until we got to Chinatown Bakery where I picked up brioche and pandan cake for CP day, as well as a single moon-cake for harvest festival. We checked out the new spoons in waterloo on the way back: Honest review, silly-expensive and mid.
Ah, yeah, we ended up with too many snacks.
Had an MRI of my chest at Guy’s Hospital as a routine follow-up to the problem I had early last year. If a head MRI is like a bizarro rave (where you can’t dance), a chest MRI is a bizarro guided meditation (where you can’t relax) with a computer narrator saying “Breath in, Breath out, and hold” followed by aggressive clunking and beeping. Time slows down as you quietly wonder how much longer you have to hold your breath. But! The contrast dye didn’t make me feel nauseous this time, and the entire appointment went super smoothly + ran on time in a great display of NHS efficiency. Walked out pretty happy!
I’m finding the slowdown in my feedback loops tricky as most of my workload currently is outside the loudest/busiest delivery streams. It’s so tempting to fill in the downtime with other activities (such as organising a team day), but that involves breaking focus which I’m actively trying to avoid. I’d love to learn more about how to tighten-up feedback loops, tips/suggestions/reading/etc all very welcome.
Enjoyed seeing EG on Thursday. Lots of chatter about Emily in Paris. At some point, I ended up with lipstick on my beer-glass.
Wrapping up the week I went to Coco Ichi: New hack is to order Kimchi on the side (not in the curry!) and to mix it into the curry after it has arrived. For £1 extra it’s a significant upgrade in every way.
Much of the weekend was spent cleaning and doing various bits of house-work. For an assortment of reasons (including my lease expiring) I’m doing the first true deep clean on my place in years, which also means fixing lots of small things or applying bleach to places which usually only get soap. I also filled several bin-bags with clutter: Kondo would be proud.
Closed the weekend at the PVO with CR, where I’m writing this outside, near a table of very loud Americans having an intense argument about something just as it starts to rain. I’m going to get the quiche.
