Monday started early with a hectic call with Egencia and finished with me repeating history in 2019 by going straight from lunch at Côte St Pauls to Sofia, via Heathrow. The Lizzy line made it significantly less stressful. But the flight was 2 hours late so all that stress came right back when we landed at 1AM and I couldn't find a cab. That bit didn't happen last time.
What brings me to Sofia this week is to work in-person (again) on the product coexistence problem. We've spent a long time examining architecture for the general case of deploying features across teams, and for a product pilot that we're kicking off next quarter. The approach we're taking and evaluating will involve writing contracts, allowing systems to include components from other systems, and so far it seems like a sensible, pragmatic cut-back approach to micro-frontends.
Also lots of progress with the exercise to enrich interactive content on FT.com. We had a small workshop to pitch an OKR, and my group pitched a really simple idea that allows us to spend several weeks prototyping the right developer experience before embarking on deeper integration. It sounds like that'll be happening next quarter and I'm really happy about it.
Navigating Sofia at night in the middle of a heavy rain-storm is a bit like completing a labyrinth on hard mode. My walk back to the hotel on Thursday evening involved wading through several rivers (normally roads), jumping through several streams (normally pavements) and climbing around fences which weren't there in the daytime. Those trainers are still soaking wet even after several days of sitting on a radiator.
It started with a "hey I know a great bar" and then me protesting as we were led to that one bar in the middle of Borisova in the dark and in the increasingly intense rain. By the time we got there, the cover charge was extortionate and the live-band were about to finish for the day, so we crawled back to a pub.
Somehow I feel really productive whenever I'm in Sofia. On top of clearing through most of my todo list, I even managed to catch-up with some of my old team and give a bit of advice about a few gnarly problems.
God I've lost so many games of Fußball this week.
On Saturday I went to Sofia Pride, which was also in the rain. It was a fantastic time, probably the most fun I've had in ages. Started out with a concert featuring local stars and then finished with a march through the centre of Sofia with — get this — thunderous techno. I danced for several kilometres, occasionally while alternating waving the ProudFT flag and my umbrella in time with the music.
Today has been considerably more relaxed. Walked around my old neighbourhood and tried out a fancy ramen shop - it was OK. Then Hristo and I walked to explore Sofia cemetery and nearly got locked in.
