post – Speak Easy

I’m scared

I’m scared for me. I’m going out for a longer hike today. It’s expected to be warm. Both the peaks and the final gill descent are rocky/bouldery.

I’m not sure whether I’m strong enough yet. And on the last similar long hike that I did, I ran out of water and struggled with the last descent in dehydration.

I’m scared for my boy. He’s not been well. He’s visibly sluggish. He hasn’t enjoyed the lakes like he used to. He sticks to me when he’s in this state, but I won’t be around today.

I’m scared for R. She has to manage the boy and my mom today. Mom switches between dumb and forgetful, and scheming and pigheaded. She’s a handful even when I’m around. R will have to manage her alone today. While also taking care of my boy.

Sunday diary

Cleaned, tightened and oiled the wooden garden bench.

Planted out a tray of alyssum.

Ate amazing pepper chicken for brunch.

Went for a swim.

Ate a full pack of triple chocolate cookies.

Slept an hour, huddled up next to the boy.

Planted the first hydrangea I got few years ago into a bigger pot (this time with ericaceous compost mixed with soil).

Planted three new hydrangeas into medium pots.

Planted two acers into bigger pots.

Ran out of ericaceous compost, so had to stop potting.

Took the kids for a short walk. Then lay in the rec for a bit, enjoying the setting sun, the chestnuts, the breeze, and the soft grass.

Went out for a quick takeaway dinner.

Now lying in the bed with R and two dogs, trying to remember what was that one thing I wanted to do before sleeping.

Still Alice

Another book that’s earned a permanent space in my head and heart. Been a while since I read it yet, ironically, can’t forget the many things in and about it.

Klara and the sun

Some books just stick with you. I miss Klara. I miss the sun.

Four checkmark day

Finished third week of getting at least a 10K steps daily.

Took the dogs for long walks in the downs both days of the weekend. Long, slightly hilly, and entirely off road. Just the kind of walks I love. Grabbed a coffee and some quiet time at the café in the evening, and then dropped K off at Woking.

Continue reading Four checkmark day

Four checkmark day

Finished second week of getting at least a 10K steps daily.

Went for a long walk with the dogs – down the downs and along the river. Went to town to grab a coffee and sit quietly at the café for an hour with a book. Then walked down and up the high street in the freezing cold. Met an old park run buddy ( Charlie) and his owner.

Now resting on the sofa, not thinking about work tomorrow. Instead, still slightly lost in the two books I finished this weekend. Both dealt with loss. One also had a lot of trail walking and outdoors.

The B key

A top view of the new keyboard and the old magic keyboard. The new keyboard is larger and has a full number pad on the side. The keys on the new keyboard are split into two halves. The halves are laid out at an angle to match the angle at which hands approach the keyboard while typing. There's a magic trackpad next to the keyboard. The new kayboard also has a wrist pad along its bottom length. — The new Logitech Ergo K860 and the workhorse Apple magic keyboard.

Got myself a new, ergonomic keyboard after using the trusty magic keyboard for better part of a decade.

A view of the new keyboard highlighting the tenting in the middle of the keyboard. — Tenting on the ergo keyboard.

It’s split, curved, tented, raised, and blends better with my dark desk top.

It’s also taken a machete to my productivity! First time I used it, I entered my password wrong 4 times. Had to go back to the magic keyboard to successfully login :(

Very very glad that I only took this small step instead of the huge leap I was planning with the ZSA Moonlander.

So, what’s with the B key?

Continue reading The B key

4 things

This week in ice, snow and dogs

If there was a theme of the week, for this week it’d be ice.

A bit of snow, a lot of hoar frost, a lot of freezing fog …. a lot of beautiful, crispy, clean white.

Cooked a bit. This is the only thing I took a photo of – stir fried beans with cooked-from-frozen curly chips and chicken schnitzel.

A wide Dell monitor showing an, apparently smiling, brown and white Staffordshire bull terrier. There's an Apple laptop below the screen. There's a window behind the screen with the shade half drawn.

The screen in all its glory during the setup

The new screen before mounting. The old monitor is partly visible behind.

Got myself a new monitor. It’s a beautiful, 21:9 ultra wide, curved screen. It’s also got a full powered hub so I’ve now got a single cable connecting everything to the laptop.

Sadly, Apple doesn’t support text scaling for non 4K screens, so the text is way smaller than what I’m used to. I think I’ll end up increasing default font sizes across my most used apps soon – Chrome, Obsidian, AS, VS Code.