Notes – Page 13

Note #25595

Back at work after a three-month break, and it turns out the first thing that I’d missed is my team’s quirky morning ritual.

Note #25585

After a night that alternated between raining and freezing winds here, at the edge of Storm Éowyn, this morning my skylight has ice patterns on it that look beautiful and almost organic.

Invertobang

My 8-year-old asked me “In Spanish, I need to use an upside-down interrobang at the start of the sentence‽” (I assume the answer is yes!)

A little while later, I thought to check whether Unicode defines a codepoint for an inverted interrobang. Yup: ‽ = U+203D, ⸘ = U+2E18. Nice.

(And yet we don’t have codepoints to differentiate between single-bar and double-bar “cifrão” dollar signs…)

Note #25565

Last year, a colleague introduced me to lazygit, a TUI git client with a wealth of value-added features.

Somehow, though, my favourite feature is the animation you see if you nuke the working tree. 😘 Excellent.

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.

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.

Note #25554

Goodbye, Trinidad and Tobago. 🇹🇹
You were wonderful. I hope to visit you again. ❤️

Note #25552

When you love Jesus but you’re sick of Him blocking your driveway.

Note #25538

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!

Note #25533

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!

🔗 https://danq.link/gh-trinidad

Top of the World

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.

My camera fails to do this view justice.

Note #25492

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.

Note #25490

Came half way around the world to find a surprising boat with a non-English name I understand.

(“Cariad” is Welsh for “love”)

Note #25480

A couple of hours into our ferry journey, we just got our first glimpse of the island of Tobago, where we’ll be staying for the next few days.

Note #25478

Just visited the Logos Hope, an ocean-going, volunteer-staffed floating book fair (run by a Christian charity, but it’s not-TOO-religiousy inside, if that’s not your jam) that’s coincidentally docked for a fortnight right next door to my hotel on Trinidad!

What a strange concept. Fun diversion though.