The Diary of a Digital Nobody

My 2022 Diary – Week 7

February 21st, 2022 I’ve got Reggie with me in Filleigh this week, we’ll return to Twickenham on Thursday evening. Victoria and Olivia have gone to Venice for a few days and by the sounds of it they had a lovely time. The week started with an annual review with Danny and Marcel at ZNAPZ, it is the first review I have had in 3.5 years. It was a chat really. They would like me to get more involved in marketing now that Laurens has gone to IBM and to help the functional team to get through MAS 8 certification. There was a small inflationary increase, unexpected, but very welcome. Having Reggie at home inevitably increases my step count. In the morning and late afternoon, we go up Long Walk, not so far in the morning, nearly up to the arch in the afternoon. Reggie disappeared for 4 or 5 minutes which was alarming, bounded up a bank and into a copse of laurels on the chase of the few pheasants which are still around after the shooting season. I could hear him, but couldn’t see him, and no amount of shouting brought him back, until he returned into view on his own accord and was promptly put on the lead. Before lunch Reggie tells me it his time for a walk, almost on the clock of 12:00 each day. We now head into the field and the cleared woods and stream. The large group of snowdrops at the top are at their peak, to think that for 20+ years they have been out-of-sight of mankind covered over by a mass of brambles. With all the rain the ground is sodden, and with Reggie on the lead it can be a struggle to remain upright, the ground is always sloping down towards the stream. The waterfall we have discovered was thundering away and towards the bottom there is a cascade of stone steps with the stream dancing down to the bottom, the area I am studying for the potential ponds. I do not believe the stream is escaping over the bank into the waterlogged area with the massive rhododendron that has probably not flowered for decades. With all the rain it was more obvious where the stream through Spa Wood is running, and it is this stream which is overflowing into the surrounding area. Through the trees you can see another waterfall, smaller in height but much wider, it was very evident this week.  The game keepers must be putting out seed because there were two trapped pheasants in the netted compound, which were of great interest to Reggie, but out of reach with our new fence, I’m pleased we decided to put down stock proof fencing. Back out into the field Reggie runs back and forth going out of sight with the brow of the hill but returning into view and not always stopping for a chicken treat, checking his territory for potential bird intruders. For years I have never really gone in our paddocks, certainly not during winter months, and there are a few areas of snowdrops along the garden hedge but not visible from the garden. I’m maintaining the hour of podcasting on most nights, documenting mainly, I am still weeks away before my first recording. There was a Podcaster’s community call on Tuesday, not that well attended, which means that we get almost personal guidance from Richard Midson, one of the course organisers. The call was titled “How to make a podcast trailer”. It was very interesting and useful, more so because from my notes Richard improvised a Maximo Bite Size trailer. It was unbelievable, it sounded so good, and I’ve since found the place on the recording and written it down. The theme for my podcast has now materialised after weeks of being sure one week and not the next. Previously it was going to be a summary of the Maximo topics I was working on during the week, followed by a summary of my non-working life that I was going to call After Hours. A sort of weekly journal. Now it looks as if I will have a podcast to help people navigate through the subject areas of the Maximo functional certification that I was involved with last year. A second podcast will be the memories of my non-working life for which this script will be an episode, and I’ll use this to learn how to become a podcaster even if this is for an audience of one. It was a good week for Maximo Secrets. On Wednesday 16th February I exceeded my previous daily views record of 1,350 set nearly two years before in April 2020, with a new high-water mark of 1,460. A new record high for the week was also achieved 6,000 views. This was a bit of a surprise because I haven’t published anything new in the last two weeks, still working on articles for Linear Assets. On Monday I heard that I have been made an IBM Champion for 2022. This was great news; I had hoped that I would be successful following the three nominations I had received from IBM. Danny wants to announce it, and I’ll add something to Maximo Secrets over the next couple of weeks, but I think we should wait until something is publicly shown by IBM. I’ll make a reference to this in the podcast trailer, Richard says that you should include something which indicates why someone should listen to you rather than someone else who may have a podcast in your area of expertise. There are probably only 7 or 8 champions representing Maximo worldwide, I wonder who they are, Amy Tatum and Craig Kokay seem to have been successful, but who else? It’s been windy this week, with Storms Dudley and Eunice, I’ll not see what damage has occurred until I return next week, a few slates are down for certain. It was windy also in Twickenham, not quite so bad I think, but cold as well, with windchill.  On Friday night we headed to Rick Steins in Barnes for Olivia’s Birthday, the 6 of us with Harry, Polly and Phil. It was very nice, food was very good, particularly the fish soup I had as a starter. It might be very difficult to not reorder that if we went again. The lightly curried fish for mains was also very nice, but in hindsight I think I should have opted for something which could not even partially disguise the taste of the fish. It was not at all overpowering, but I can’t say I’ve had fish curry before, and I’ve concluded that fish is better not in a curry and curries are better with anything other than fish in them. Dessert was also lovely, a chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake, that made no attempt to stick to the top of my mouth as cheesecake can sometimes do. Two bottles of wine, Spanish white specially selected by Rick Stein and a Vino Verde which I marginally preferred. The White Hart pub around the corner which Victoria and I went too first because we had overestimated how long our bus journeys would take, and arrived miles too early, was how a local pub should be and busy, Friday night I know, but with covid still around it was good to see that pubs were beginning to fill-up again.  As I am writing this we have just returned from a meet-up at Marble Hill Park with the Cockapoo club, that formed during first lockdown, several dogs of a similar age, not all Cockapoo as I discovered, one a Labradoodle, but all with some mix of poodle. Today I think there were 6 or 7 dogs and several owners whose names are just beginning to sink in. Victoria goes out socially with the girls every couple of months and there are dinners which apart from one I’ve not been able to make, being in Devon most of the time. Victoria is meeting Olivia and Polly up in town this afternoon, somewhere around Fitzrovia, I opted to stay back with Reggie, not that I’ve seen him since lunch, napping somewhere upstairs, I think.  First thing this morning we had to fix a fence panel which had come loose in the garden between us and our neighbour Annie, courtesy of storm Eunice. A ring at the front door, and we have just been greeted with a bunch of yellow tulips as a thank you. We are meeting Olivia and Polly for a walk in Richmond Park and then lunch at the pub Lass O’Richmond Hill where we had enjoyed a Sunday lunch for my birthday. We walked to Richmond along the Thames path, Reggie kept showing interest in the banks of the Thames and I didn’t want him jumping up at one of our girls with muddy paws, so he was eventually put back on the lead, not that he seems to mind. We coincidentally met up with Olivia and Badger on Richmond Bridge and walked up the hill together to find the gates were shut for the yearly culling of deer. Once Polly had arrived, we did a short walk on Petersham Common Woods below the Star and Garter and then back-up again for lunch. Lunch was disappointing, Reggie was restless, the two of them in a cramped area, it was hot by the fire and three of us got our lunch and Olivia’s seemed to have been forgotten. The service was fighting for our drinks order at the beginning of the meal, now they didn’t seem to want to look our way, and eventually I got up and pointed out the mistake. The roast beef came with no gravy, repeat process, get up find someone of interest, now two pots of gravy arrived. All-in-all it seemed to create a tense atmosphere which is best forgotten, except I am about to record the event for posterity. On the way home to Filleigh on Sunday evening just after reaching the top of Exmoor there was a huge hail storm that forced a slowing down to 30 as the ambient temperature dropped steadily from 6.5C to 1.5C over a period of about 2 minutes, a reminder that we are still in winter, and a reminder that tomorrow we’ll have another storm, Franklin and I haven’t yet seen what damage has been caused by Eunice.

My 2022 Diary – Week 6

February 14th, 2022 Victoria has returned to Twickenham with Reggie and Badger, and I will have a quiet week ahead of me. Steps will be down, although I am due to play golf on Sunday weather permitting, no doubt hours of sleep will go up, I’m guessing by at least one hour a night. I’ve played bridge three times this week, Monday and then Tuesday online, both with Alan, and Thursday with Carol. The online was good we came second East-West with 65%, the other two at Roundswell Community Centre were below 50% and only 43.75% with Carol, that was a surprise, the margins are thin, and less opportunity if you are not being dealt the cards and having nothing much to defend with. Alan and I did get together at his on Friday evening to go through a card together. I’ll need to work out a couple of new conventions he plays and remind myself of others that I have documented but may not be so fixed in memory to be recalled when under pressure. Anyway, it is good to be playing again after nothing much in the last year apart from a few weeks. I didn’t play when masks were mandated and all the windows and doors were left open, as I understand, it was cold. I’ve been doing daily Zoom calls with Tadas this week and recording them. At the weekend I spent time analysing the recordings and I wrote an article for the Podcasting community called My First Zoom Calls which I will publish next week. The impressions you have of yourself are not always the impressions which other people have of you, and I tend to think negatively about my verbal skills. I was not displeased with the impression I received from my own analysis and these unprepared calls provide me a benchmark of my natural voice, which has a tenor quality, with some range, and not the monotone that I expected. Next week I need to spend 15 minutes preparing for each call to see what difference that will make. At work I was really getting going with the articles on Linear Assets at the beginning of the week and then a curved ball came my way with two requests from Danny, one to review some tables that had entered a bid very late to see where it differed from the words we had written which was what the estimate was based on, and a second request to look at some features around Customer Billing and Tax. So, not a great week at work and a sudden realisation that if my podcast was going to be based on my Maximo week, then I would not have had much that I could have said this week. This has thrown me into some doubts as to whether the theme behind my podcast is the right one.  However, on the bright side I have been documenting “My Podcast Journey” each day, rather than trying to remember what had happened during the week at the weekend. This has resulted in a longer article, which shouldn’t have been a surprise. I have now published 6 weeks of my podcast journey, and Richard’s comment was “This is a podcast in itself”, for which I replied, “Now there’s a thought”. I’ll see how long this podcasting journey lasts for and whether it has a happy ending, and you never know, I might be able to do a podcast about creating a podcast and all the doubts and change of tack that occur along the way. At long last Rod from Glowing Grates arrived to assess the potential for a new marble fireplace, which will be the first step in this year’s internal project, to redecorate the playroom and kitchen. I’ll have to stop calling it a playroom as the children are now in their 20s. It is the room we use the most, with our doors onto the slate patio and the lawns beyond. Anyway, straight forward evidently, and it sounds as if he has been working with English Fireplaces for some time. The smaller William IV will fit perfectly, and we’ll add a Brazilian slate floor and slate slip. I did make it into the living room and lit the fire on Wednesday evening and did my podcast hour while listening to Led Zeppelin. It is a lovely room, which we hardly use, and warmer since we replaced the old single-glazed bow fronted window and door onto the formal garden. This was one of the window projects from 18 months ago, which got completed with its step last year. It has the same footprint but probably half as much wood and consequently a greater amount of light, and the step is slate instead of concrete. I call this the Hugh Gurney room as his oils are the only pictures, countryside scenes from around North Devon, of no great value, but I love them.  It’s so easy to get into the habit of not using a room, the front parlour in the traditional sense, and I’m making a conscious effort to at least use it twice a month. It has the piano, which has fallen out of favour for the last few years. Getting back to playing the piano is on my list of New Year’s resolutions, but in the winter, I need to light the fire first. So, after my podcasting hour there was 30 minutes trying to learn the piece that will hopefully become my intro music to the podcast. I spotted the first bloom on the red Camellia this week, hidden away inside the leaves and not at all exposed. The first signs of Iris Reticulata are appearing in the area by the tree house, I’m not optimistic though as there doesn’t look to be too many other shoots yet. The Russian Snowdrops (Puschkinia Libanotica) are out already, and I thought last year the Iris had appeared first.  This is the second year for the 2,000 bulbs planted in the area we cleared during the first lockdown project. This was an area with a few old shrubs that had been effectively killed off by the ivy creeping out of the hedge and which the only surviving plant seemed to be the mass of wild garlic that was creeping further and further into the lawn underneath our large Copper Beach tree. The crocus planted along the new path in our lockdown project last year are beginning to bloom and the areas of snowdrops around the garden are now opening, but not quite at their peak yet. Spring is beginning to show but no daffodils have opened, I wonder what the display of primroses will be like this year, last year it was the best we had ever seen.  The new path connects down to the greenhouse which consumed a lot of time during its installation last year and which houses our orange and lemon trees, the fruit of which are now getting close to being picked. I’ll have to research a few suitable cocktails where a few slices can be used as a garnish, no doubt a Wicked Wolf G&T for the lemon. It was unusual to play golf on a Saturday, a bit windy, but Sunday looked as if it would be wiped out by the weather, and it was. Some of the holes going into the southerly wind on the East were not reachable in two, but I had a stormer of a round, a clear 7 or 8 strokes better than the 90-92 range I would count as being a solid round, anything better than 90 I consider as being good and the event would be marked down in my diary. An 83, with 7 pars and a birdie on the 18th, where unusually there were no observers on the terrace or at the windows, three double bogeys and nothing worse, I can’t remember the last time that happened. I think I have discovered a technique which made the irons fly straighter and a tad longer, just moving the ball a fraction further to my left heel in my stance. Now I can’t wait to get out again and see whether any of the gold dust is still around, but I’ll need to wait at least two weeks, as next weekend I’ll be in Twickenham.

My 2022 Diary – Week 5

February 7th, 2022 Mike is back to continue with the wood clearance, although it is mainly brambles that are left, it gets wider here, and right at the top you reach the old stone wall which is supposed to be the boundary with our nearest neighbour. This wall is I think intact, but it is covered over with earth pushed from the top bank, old tyres, the remains of a shed and other debris that needs clearing.  The top area is much wetter. There looks to be a large area of snowdrops which will not have been seen for a couple of decades, covered over by brambles, another couple of weeks and the snowdrops will be out. There is one tree which lies across the stream with a 4- or 5-foot drop to the stream below, this will need to be winched out once the ground has become harder, it will be much nicer without it. By the end of the week, Mike has added a gate to give us access to the bottom of the valley and there is new stock proof fencing to delineate our boundary and to hold back any stray sheep. We have discussed where we would potentially put in some grass paths using a mini digger, some steps down to the stream in the middle, and at the bottom we’ll look to pull all the silt back onto the banks and create a couple of ponds. It will be interesting to see what happens now that light can access the ground, no doubt we will need to be out with some chemicals to kill-off the stinging nettles, but I’m hoping that some wildflowers will appear from dormant seeds. Mike is booked to return for a couple of weeks at the end of May. I’ve had Reggie and Badger, Olivia’s black Cockapoo and Reggie’s nephew, staying this week with me. The Fitbit I got for my birthday shows nearly double the number of steps than last week, not quite the 10,000 steps each day. The one hour less sleep per night is not unexpected. Reggie and Badger have been down to see Mike and they were fine until Reggie decided to explore the valley. It might have looked funny to see me chasing after them trying not to slip over on the muddy inclines. When I got back into view, Badger with a little hesitation came back after my call, and Reggie then followed, both safely back on lead, but I have learnt my lesson. The shooting season is now over and the gate going up to Long Walk has been opened. We have done the walk up to the arch a couple of times before it gets dark, but I am conscious there are still pheasants around and Reggie goes back on lead before we get anywhere near the woods at the top. Reggie is still alert to their cries as they return to their roosting spots, I think off-lead if one came into view then he would be off. It normally takes a month or 6 weeks for the game keepers to round up the last remaining pheasants, although some stay wild for the summer.  This week for the first time this year I have noticed distinct birdsong, I think Blackbirds, but I am not sure. That’s another thing I’ve wanted to do, learn to distinguish birds and bird song. There is a good series on BBC Sounds regarding bird song, we’ve listened to a few, and I think this year I’ll learn just a couple and then listen out for them until I can always distinguish the sound, then move on to the next couple of birds.  Around the garden there are signs of bulbs, and some snowdrops are out but it might be another couple of weeks before they are at their peak. The heads on daffodils are beginning to form but the only ones that are open are the ones Victoria bought from the supermarket. Several of the pots with bulbs in them are starting to show sign of growth and Victoria has moved them out from under the veranda. I had a lot of doubts over my podcast at the beginning of the week, like why am I thinking of doing a podcast, what’s in it for me? The more I thought about it the more I thought that just listening to a podcast on Maximo would be dull, besides if you are going to listen to someone don’t you need to be invested in the person rather than just the information that the podcast will bring. By the end of the week, I had convinced myself that I should split the podcast in two, the Maximo piece, what I’ve been working on during the week, and the piece about me, what’s been happening to me this week outside of work, I call it – the indulgent me, although I am not sure that will work as a title. However, it is the bit talking about my non-work life which I would enjoy more, the Maximo piece still feels very much like work, and I am aiming to deliver the whole podcast outside of work hours. I now have a clear path ahead and only a few doubts, that are not nagging half as much as they were at the beginning of the week. I have been busy on the podcasting project and I am documenting a weekly post called My Podcasting Journey which I will release to the podcasting community on each day of next week. This is certainly helping me to get into the 1-hour rule habit, work on the podcast for 1 hour or the length of a CD but no more. I started trying daily Zoom calls with Tadas this week with limited success. Tadas is a Latvian intern who is on an engineering degree in The Netherlands. Danny, my company’s main shareholder, met him in Beers and Barrels round the corner from our office, I haven’t seen the office for nearly two years now. Danny has asked me to introduce him to Maximo which we will do for an hour each day, my thought is that I could record what I am saying via a Zoom call and then analyse my speaking voice from the download that Zoom provides. Tadas couldn’t hear my voice, so we resorted to our default method of using Slack, perhaps we’ll work it out next week. On Saturday we all went to Crow Point, it was deserted, but then it was cold and windy. Crow Point is at the end of the second largest sand dune system in the British Isles called the Braunton Burrows, a UNESCO designated biosphere reserve, and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Saunton Golf Club where I play golf is on the leeward side at the top of the burrows on the opposite side of the dunes from Saunton beach, one of the surfing beaches of North Devon. Reggie and Badger loved the walk, Reggie running off into the distance to come haring back again, Badger staying much closer. We walked around to the old pier used for training the troops prior to D-Day, now dismantled by the waves and wind, and then wound our way up over the windward side of the leading dune into the calm behind. We found the boardwalk which is noticeably being reclaimed even in the one year since I was last here, and made our way back to the car park, still deserted. Coffee and some of the remaining Christmas cake were very welcome on our return.  We’re still definitely in winter, but the hours of light are getting wider, and it does feel as if we are moving out of the darkness, and spring will soon be just around the corner.

My 2022 Diary – Week 4

January 31st, 2022 Mike, who we use for garden projects, started on the clearing of the wood beyond the paddock fence this week. We don’t actually know how much land we own the other side of the fence line, and we have lived in Filleigh for nearly 22 years. The area, which is wider at the top and bottom, narrow in the centre and is bordered by a stream which is our boundary has been screened from view by brambles, stinging nettles, debris that has fallen out of the trees and no doubt a few fallen trees as well. When Mike was planting the new hedge down the side of the paddock in November and we surveyed the project he was calling out the trees, a hazel copse and a fair number of ash trees which I just hope won’t succumb to ash dieback. I didn’t return to Filleigh until Monday night and when I looked out mid-morning Tuesday, I could see smoke rising from the bottom area from his bonfire. Time for a cup of tea and see what progress has been made. By the time I had wandered down the hill in the wind, there was not much tea left in the mug, I will need to be more careful in the future, part of the missing tea had created a stain down both trouser legs and the wet of the grass was creating a tidal mark up my legs, I really must buy myself some wellington boots. Wow, it is much bigger than I thought, half a thumb on the plans equates to about 50 metres/yards. Mike showed me signs of an old wire fence the other side of the stream clearly marking the boundary, the stream has worked its way into other flatter areas as silt has built up over the decades, but there is a clear bank the other side and a line of trees with odd bits of rusted wire attached.  Mike has already been out with the chainsaw and sorted a pile of logs that can be used for the fire and a pile of rotting logs that can be used as a wildlife habitat. A few old bottles have been found including a Californian Fig Oil which it seems was used for constipation. It certainly has been an exciting week, as each morning and afternoon I’ve popped down to see progress, and I can’t wait until the weekend for Victoria to see it as well. The row of young alders leaning across and obscuring the boundary fence line, which at 30 to 50 degrees were reaching out to the light have now been felled and the end of the stream is now flowing freely before it disappears into the laurels on the Castle Hill Estate land. This has created another pile of logs for carting somehow up hill and to our house. This now exposes a lovely living tree that crosses the stream at a similar angle, that has ferns growing out of the thick moss on its upper side, gorgeous. Mike is making rapid progress; the whole hazel copse is now cleared and at this part the stream tumbles down a set of stone steps although the silted area is very soft, and thoughts of future projects are now springing to mind. As the wood is cleared you can see further into Spa Wood, which is Estate land, unseen by anyone except Gordon who lives in the old shooting lodge in the wood, Gordon has been down to investigate, Mike says. That part of Spa Wood looks to have the early signs of bulbs appearing, bluebells, wild garlic, both seem a bit early, but there is a definite haze of green. At the end of the week, Mike has made it up to the top where the brambles are thickest, and he has cleared an access to the gate at that end. There are a few more trees that have fallen here crossing the stream which runs much steeper at this point, and through the branches of one fallen tree you can see a waterfall about 4 or 5 feet deep, with the clear sound that would have been masked from us up to this point. It is fantastic, on the banks of the gorge there are green ferns of prehistoric dimension, and it is only now you can see down the valley, and how steep it is in places. The middle section has a convenient looking area that goes down towards the stream edge, perhaps a few steps down at both ends and I expect this would give you a view up and down the stream. Oh yes, future projects are bounding into mind, perhaps there is the potential for one or even two ponds at the bottom. At the weekend I spoke to Paul our nearest neighbour apart from any residents in the next-door cemetery, he is an arborist and gardener, and he joined me for a walk down the valley. Paul and Jo’s house looks down the valley and houses several bats of different species which he tells me pour out of their roof eaves and head down this valley, they probably roost in the thick ivy clinging to the ash trees. Paul was very enthusiastic, pointing out the early signs of Scarlet Elfcup (Sarcoscypha austriaca) a fungus which lives in the damp and mossy areas and lives off fallen branches and dead wood, until then these had gone unnoticed, I wasn’t looking down. “The hazel copse is prime ground for dormice”, he says, “the barn owl that lives around here and the buzzards that live at the top of that tree will love you, they’ll be perching in those ash trees or hovering around the end of this wood waiting for something to move”, I hope it isn’t the dormice. Everything else this week pales into insignificance compared to Mikes work and the excitement of my daily visits. I played bridge online with Alan again this week scoring slightly better than the previous week. Hopefully the mask rule will be relaxed soon, and I’ll return to playing in Barnstaple. We used to have a good number of tables, whether that will return time will tell, but I expect some will be happy staying online rather than face to face. I made my first contribution to the Podcasting for Beginners Community by posting an article ‘Module 1 and 2 Complete – What Next?’. There seems to be so many actions to take. I need to try to have my first Zoom call, record the session and start learning how to edit with Audacity and Descript. I need to set my grand vision and short- and medium-term goals, create a podcast logo, and source some suitable royalty free music, or learn and record a piece myself.  I’ve started listening to Richard Midson’s podcast called “Can I Make A Hit Podcast” on my iPhone, Richard is one of the presenters on the podcasting course. I’ve now realised I’m thinking of creating a podcast but have never listened to one previously myself. I’ve got to say that after only three episodes, his podcast is super useful. Richard has been researching why some podcasts are successful and why many others fail, the term is podfade, and only 8% of all podcasts make it through the first ten episodes. Why am I thinking of doing a podcast again? I must do that grand vision, it will hopefully give me the answers I need, otherwise I may fade before my first episode is delivered. Anyway, I’ve convinced myself that if I do create a podcast, I’ll make sure there are 10 episodes, so that I can be in that 8% who have presumably made a success of it. Richard’s podcast is called AtHitPodCast2020, all one word. One suggestion that Richard made is set yourself a target of one hour each day working on the podcast, much more than this and you probably won’t be able to sustain it. Another suggestion that came from one of his previous guests was focus on documenting, and presumably document each night while things are still fresh in mind. I’ll try this next week.  I did go online with Canva and created myself a podcast logo for my podcast which I will call Maximo Bite Size. I’m quite pleased with it, especially as it didn’t take that long to produce. Victoria likes it, and I’ve posted a request “Your Honest Opinion” for the podcasting community to give it their critique, and I gave them permission to use four letter words, if that is what they think. Victoria was down with Reggie and Badger at the weekend, next week I’ll be looking after both dogs, Olivia and Harry are going to Jamaica. After the excitement of showing everyone the valley, Victoria is equally enthusiastic, the rest of the weekend was a bit of a washout, no golf, and I had my tax return to complete.  One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to learn to bake a cake, I’ve never made one before. I have set myself the target of one per month having learnt my lesson from last year’s resolutions with regards to making a pastry dish and an ice cream or sorbet every week for the first 10 weeks, it all got a bit much. The cake was coconut and cherry, with a bit of orange peel which we thought enhanced the coconut. It was really nice; I’m fearing I can only go downhill from here. It was a little moist the way I remember it as a kid, perhaps a little cream achieved this. It was a touch too dark on top, not at all burnt, perhaps a minute too long in the aga. It wasn’t in the right sized cake tin, too big a diameter, the next size down and I think the proportions would have looked better. A triumph on which to finish a good week.

My 2022 Diary – Week 3

24th January 2020 It was back up to Twickenham midweek, to look after Reggie during the day. He went to Doggy Day Care for one day again this week, we need to ease him back into his old routines, step by step, following his ordeals at the beginning of the year.  Learning how to podcast is gathering steam, the more I listen and understand what it is like to become a podcaster, the more threads I need to follow-up. It is slowly looking as if this could be a full-time job rather than just something I do for a couple of hours in the evenings. I’ve completed the whole of Module 2 now although I’ve skipped some of the homework pieces, for example record a Zoom call, download and try-out the editing software, I’ve never been on a Zoom call as far as I can recollect. Having intro music and music at the end seems to make a big difference to the podcast, but you can’t use anything that is copyrighted, so in my mind I have decided to get back on the piano and record some of my own, now I need to decide what would work.  Richard Midson who is one of the course lecturers has recorded several podcasts in his time, but he has suggested one called Can I Make A Hit Podcast, the link will be available in the transcript. I listened to the first couple of episodes, and it is very interesting indeed and I will listen to more of this next week. It will inevitably be creating more threads to follow-up.  There was a visiting guest to the podcast community Ken Gagne who has made a success of podcasting in the US. It was interesting hearing how he initially set out doing solo episodes, but then found having a co-host was more fun. He uses Twitter and Facebook for social media, but you need to be active and not just use them to announce a new episode. The whole area of how I make myself known beyond LinkedIn will need some thought, another thread to follow-up. I go through life consumed by one new project or another, to almost the exclusion of all others. Over the years, I have dabbled at playing Bridge, the card game, very absorbing and you can think of a set of cards as a puzzle, whether playing the cards or defending, so it sits naturally with my logical mind. Once we came out of covid lockdown I started up again, only to be frozen out again a few weeks later. Anyway, this week I have started up again, online, it’s called RealBridge, where you also get to see who is playing. I’ll have to dig out my bridge notes to get back up to speed with all the conventions I used to play, the signals, cards, defence tactics, etc, but this time I won’t let it consume me, promise. On Saturday we went to The Old Cinema in Chiswick to the showroom of English Fireplaces. They had a good selection on show, but nobody around to help, you had to make a phone call. I suppose this makes sense, why have someone sitting around all day in the hope that someone will come by, a phone call to arrange a survey is just as easy. There were two likely candidates that will fit in with our Victorian house and the William IV just nudged it. The Old Cinema is an Aladdins cave of curios and furniture, mainly antiques I think, there were quite a few people selling antique glasses, so there may be some old cocktail glasses to add to my collection, I’m sure we will revisit sometime. On the way back to Twickenham we got off the bus early and went to the Marble Hill Fireplaces showroom where there were a couple of people to assist. They had a lot more fireplaces to look at, but nothing caught our eye as much as in the showroom in Chiswick, and besides, the person who briefly assisted us was soon nowhere to be seen and having hung around for a few minutes in the middle of the downstairs showroom easily visible to the other person in the office, we just departed and headed for Sidra, a favourite Lebanese for a wrap take-out. Olivia, Victoria, and I went up to London Saturday night to see 2:22 a Ghost Story at the Gielgud Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue. I didn’t fancy the underground, I have great difficulty wearing a mask for long, so I walked while Victoria waited at Waterloo for Olivia. It was really very good and one of the best things I have seen for years. I much prefer plays over musicals or Shakespeare, no offence William, but while yours are a spectacle, and I’ve seen a few in your hometown of Stratford, well a lot of the time I just don’t get it, I get the gist, but I miss out on so much of the dialogue that it distracts from my experience. Sunday was my birthday, I won’t tell you how many years, OK, 64. I’ve no thought of retiring yet, that’s not true, I think of retirement quite a lot, normally every Sunday when I play golf because it is one of the topics Peter my golf partner and I do talk about. I do want to continue with Maximo Secrets for many more years, there is still so much to write about, my current retirement target is 70, but I’ll play it by ear, that is all you can do.  I’m now a proud owner of a Fitbit. I haven’t had a watch for a few years now and as I rarely walk around with my phone, I am forever asking Victoria what the time is. But I don’t think it was providing the time that she was thinking about, all three girls think I need to get up and about and out of my sedentary life. I should be doing my 10,000 steps a day, get on the Couch to 5K programme, and get out more on my bike. All of this I know is true, but I’m no couch potato, I hardly watch TV, especially this year with the all-consuming podcast course.  We walked to Richmond Park with Reggie and met up with Olivia and Badger for a walk and lunch afterwards at the Lass O’Richmond Hill, this is now known as the Lasso because if you don’t spot the apostrophe that is how it can easily be read. Anyway, lunch at the Lasso was very good. I love my roasts and often cook them for myself when Victoria isn’t returning to Filleigh. Often when going out for Sunday lunch the meat is hidden below a plate of vegetables and by the time you have worked your way down the meat ends up being a disappointment. Not so at the Lasso, the opposite in fact, well at least it was on what I ordered. It was all very enjoyable including the walk down through the streets to find the Richmond Hill Bakery and some delicious cannoli.  In the evening I spent time looking at flights for a short holiday to Lisbon and hotels where I could use up some points, and after checking with June that she could look after Reggie, it was all booked and we have something to look forward to at the end of March, which will be Victoria’s first week of her Easter holidays. During the day I receive four notifications of badges from the Fitbit as it recorded 19,000 steps, 25 floors, and 9 hours of sleep, not at all surprised with the sleep it was a tiring day. Next week should be exciting, Mike should be here to start clearing our wood.  LINKS Richard Midson’s podcast – Can I Make A Hit Podcast http://www.CanIMakeAHitPodcast.com [http://www.CanIMakeAHitPodcast.com]