This week at work felt quite heavy in terms of operational activities - it flew by and I had only really made progress in one discrete area.

• Some people from Nikkei were in town this week. As the two most established London teams, Customer Products & Internal Products combined our monthly team-wide showcases to welcome them. I’m glad we did it if only to see how different teams organise & run similar cultural events. And so far it’s already given rise to at least one inter-departmental table-tennis feud and/or tournament.
• As always, hugely impressive seeing the sheer skill of Japanese-English interpreters. Both during the snapshot, and later in an impromptu one-on-one, that is a level of multi-lingual mastery which needs to be seen to be believed. Meanwhile, nearly Wanikani level 3 - huzzah.
• Alice started a book club at work, where we read a chapter of the revised Pragmatic Programmer and talk about it weekly. First week was fun. My favourite note from the conversation was: “Stone frog soup - what???”

Have you noticed that it’s rather warm lately?

• Last week Bloomberg took quite a bit of money from me, and tried to convince me I couldn’t ask for it back. After a mild email-based kerfuffle involving citing CMA guidance - I am pleased to report that I won. Know your rights folks. That was air-conditioner money.
• Switchbot have quietly expanded their uniquely lo-fi energy into other areas of home-automation, including the Meter Plus - which tracks humidity & temperature over time. It’s been uncomfortably warm in my apartment lately so I picked up a few to get a baseline.
• So far I’ve proved that indeed it is uncomfortably warm, but that like the central line in summer, it seems to be latent heat that I can’t quite shift. Any advice? Preferably that doesn’t involve buying an air conditioner?

There was a party and some other stuff, but talking about food feels more apt:

• On Friday I finally went to Marugame and it was fantastic. Curry udon with sides of brocoli & red pepper tempura for £10. I can see why it had such long queues when it opened - and paired with Koya - London suddenly seems like a nice place to be for udon.
• Oh and that is such a great deal compared to the “naughty child” ready-meal brand who on top of overcharging, popularised the wrong meaning of “katsu” for everybody in the UK. Yes, it came up in conversation again this week. 😞
• Come to think of it, I went to Koya on Tuesday with L&T - and to Coco Ichiban today with my sister. Am I overcompensating for last week’s over-eating of pizza? What even is a balanced diet? These are all good questions - but I think it’s time to get my run on.