Year: 2025
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The final weekend of my sabbatical was spent, like the first one, at a Three Rings event. As a side activity to the volunteer work, everybody was asked to put their name on a paper plate and leave it on a particular table, allowing others to semi-anonymously add compliments, thanks, or kind words about its owner.
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Dan holding a plate containing his name and a collection of compliments, listed in the full post.
Comments on my plate:
* Your my faveriot [sic] brother (gee, I wonder who THAT one was from 😂)
* Always seems to be doing interesting things. A maverick! Thinks outside the box
* Awesome
* Thank you for inventing this (a) system & (b) corporate model!
* Always smiley and excited
* Thanks for always pushing lots of new features!
* Puts up with idiots willingly and patiently
* You literally dreampt this whole thing into existence!
* Quirky
* Innovative solutions!
* Helpful in all ways!Fabulous. I might wall-mount it.
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Goodbye, Trinidad and Tobago. 🇹🇹
You were wonderful. I hope to visit you again. ❤️
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Dan and Ruth clink champagne glasses between the booths of their club class seats.
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When you love Jesus but you're sick of Him blocking your driveway.
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Orange garage on a tropical hillside, on the front of which are painted the words: 'Jesus is Lord. I love him.' And then below and between those lines: 'No parking'.
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We'll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ishida
I just finished reading We'll Prescribe You A Cat, and while I enjoyed the stories within, I felt like the overarching plot that bound them lacked a satisfying payoff.
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This is funny, but I'm confident Wrexham's potholes have nothing on the Trinbagonian ones I've been experiencing all week, which have sometimes spanned most of the width of a road or been deep enough that dipping a wheel into them would strike the road with your underchassis!
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Humorous handmade road sign welcoming visitors to Wrexham as 'Pothole Land', stating that there are 'two kilometres of award-winning potholes with very little actual road to spoil your fun' and guaranteeing 'the deepest, longest, vs widest potholes in Wales'.
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Yesterday, Ruth and I made the first ever attempt at a geohashing expedition in Trinidad & Tobago, successfully finding a hashpoint in Chase Village in the West of Trinidad!
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Geohashing expedition 2025-01-15 10 -61
Braving an off-the-beaten-track explore on Trinidad during a State of Emergency, Ruth and I found our way to a geohashpoint on the island, becoming the first people ever to do so not only in this graticule but also in this entire country!
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Small-World Serendipity
We travelled 7,000km across the ocean only to find, by complete coincidence, that the Caribbean’s biggest cymruphile is the captain of a boat we chartered when we fancied a morning of reef-snorkelling and turtle-spotting.
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Wrote note for GC71F0E UFO Light (Alien Alphabet)
This checkin to GC71F0E UFO Light (Alien Alphabet) reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. Cache page no longer shows image, and backup link doesn't work either. Needs CO attention.
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After driving 300 (vertical) metres up a terrifyingly winding road, we find ourself at 'Top if the World', one of Tobago's highest points. Being able to look down the steep sides of this long-extinct volcano to the sea on both sides is quite spectacular, and the Caribbean and Atlantic horizons seem so far away that you can almost believe you're seeing the Earth curve.
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Tropical cliff view to a bright blue ocean far below.
My camera fails to do this view justice.
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The Nylon Pool is a sandbar in the Buccoo Reef, off the coast of Tobago. Despite the distance from the shore, it's only about waist-deep. Truly mind-boggling.
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Dan stands waist-deep in seawater; land is visible in the far distance.
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Came half way around the world to find a surprising boat with a non-English name I understand.
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Small six-seater day boat named 'Cariad', afloat. The letter I is dotted with a heart symbol.
("Cariad" is Welsh for "love")
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Dark Patterns Detective
A fun website that aims to educate the visitor on the dangers of dark patterns is let down only slightly, in an ironic fashion, when it links to its author on LinkedIn, a website plagued with dark patterns.
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Did not find GC3PJYY Paradise
This checkin to GC3PJYY Paradise reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. Found the location and the hint object, but a thorough search did not reveal the cache. I think it might be missing, and the previous log (erroneously tagged as if it were found but clearly indicating in the text …
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James Acaster's Classic Scrapes
James Acaster's Classic Scrapes - which I received during our Christmas Eve book exchange - was an enjoyable, occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, series of anecdotes with thematic links connecting them. It's perhaps not for everybody, but it was a great gift for me!