Kind: Notes

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.

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Slack screenshot of Dan saying, at 08:57am: 'You know how many people pika-waved at me on a morning while I was on sabbatical? None. None at all. I missed you guys.' The quote is bookended by an animated GIF of Pikachu waving and another of Pikachu dancing around a heart. Five people have reacted with a mixture of Pikachu dances and waves.

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.

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Skylight window viewed from the inside. The outside has a layer of ice punctuated by thinner patches of whirling, seaweed-like patterns that crisscross around it as if formed by a living thing.

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.

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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.

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.

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'.

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'.

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.

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.

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")

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.

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Across the sea, a rugged island begins to emerge over the horizon, through distant clouds.

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.

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White and blue passenger ship docked alongside a building whose roof reads 'Welcome to Port of Spain'.

My 12:55 flight is, according to this departure board, delayed to... 12:55!?

Either it's running a full 24 hours late, or this board is untrustworthy.

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Airport departures board, showing (among other flights) the 12:55 to Port of Spain is 'Delayed to 12:55'.