This week feels like a count-down, but, even as I close the week I’m unsure what it was counting down to.
Did some writing about strategy and gave a small presso about the Golden Signals. The Golden Signals are a great example of Mutually-Exclusive, Collectively-Exhaustive framework thinking in the wild: As metrics they don’t overlap but they still let you clearly pinpoint if something is working, how well, etc. This is the point I want to eventually land: At a high level they're enough.
On Wednesday I woke up absolutely ready to fight the world. I channelled that energy into writing a 900 line pull request, and in doing so I reminded myself that I’m not bad at this whole software development thing.
On Thursday I yeet a message which I immediately regret.
After weeks of pitching drinks in the sun the day has finally arrived. And after weeks of beautiful weather, it’s the heaviest sudden rainfall Tokyo has seen in quite some time. We pivot to indoors and take turns trying to take photos of the thunder as it passes by. I buy an umbrella and walk home.
Friday marks a full moon. Co-Star has been telling me this means trouble? I’m flying back to the UK today, and I’m also WFH for the first time since last year. Lunch is fun, and we do a few chores involving actual arts & crafts and sending a letter. I receive a lot of expletive-worthy messages during lunch. Maybe this is what Co-Star was warning about?
My flight is just after midnight, and previously for this route I’ve always gone direct to Haneda following some dinner/drinks thing. But I don’t have any planned today and the waiting mode could not be taking longer. I finish some work tasks, do some laundry and channel some residual adrenaline into my best 5K time since 2016. Eventually I leave home at 10PM. I’m still at the gate way too early. And I realize I forgot to bring in the laundry.
For those of you on the IG, boarding did actually complete in 15 minutes BTW. I’m still shook.
On the plane I slept - just about - and watched two movies: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and A Real Pain (2024). A Real Pain is a strange movie, but a good one, and if pushed I might even recommend it one day. I did not enjoy The Grand Budapest Hotel.
When I land at Heathrow, I begin seeing headlines talking about how this is record heat weather, and immediately text a few friends asking if I’ve made a mistake. I come to realise later on that, while it’s not pleasant, it isn’t that bad.
I take the Bakerloo line and meet Z for breakfast at a Spoons. It’s incredible value and extremely passable. But I’m really here for the baked beans. It’s funny: Before moving, I barely had them. Today I want to drink them by the gallon.
Then I go to LF & JL’s birthday party in Regents Park in the sun. I bring some snacks, and some 7% tinnies from 7eleven.
Mid-way I’m summoned to Canary Wharf by C where I witness some poor FX, speak some Russian and am relentlessly and mercilessly bullied for some recent decisions which I still absolutely don’t regret.
Sunday we tick off “Pizza Express” from my restaurant bucket list, and I hop on a train to Birmingham.
I land in Birmingham, eat an M&S salad, go for a small run through the park and pretty much go straight to bed. The jet-lag has been kind to me, but not that kind.
