Notes – Page 7

Note #26381

Trip to Waddesdon Manor with the kids for an Easter Egg Hunt.

Rarely seen nowadays, these UK road signs were eventually declared “too impolite” and “brusque” and have now almost entirely been replaced with the ones that Brits are familiar with today, which read “Terribly sorry for the inconvenience, I hope it’s no bother, it’s all our fault really, so sorry, really sorry, sorry, I’ll put the kettle on shall I?”

Daily Brushing

8-year-old, looking like a haystack: “Why do I have to brush my hair? I did it yesterday!”

Giant strategy

White’s move. Mate in three. A giant chessboard is the perfect environment to teach a child some basic chess strategy, right?

Note #26287

While adding an entry to OpenBenches (openbenches.org/bench/36677), I was struck by how much of an impact this woman – Jane Gregg – must have made on her local community.

In this community garden in Bampton, in the Lake District, a bench dedicated to her includes not only a plaque summarising her achievements but it’s also been hand-carved with the words “Jane an amazing human.”

Lake District art lesson

Brought the kids up Knipe Scar with limited and challenging art materials (huge sheets of paper and thick marker pens) for a lesson in drawing what a landscape makes you feel, rather than focusing on what you can actually see.

Note #26282

“I know that losing your job was hard,” my 8-year-old said to me this evening, “So you can borrow this.” He handed me his newest soft toy.

“It’ll help you feel better when you’re sad. Keep him for the week.”

😭

Rosgill Crossroads

I’m in an extremely rural area and I needed a phone call with my lawyer about my recent redundancy. Phone signal was very bad, so I resolved to climb a nearby hill and call him back.

“I’m at a crossroads,” I said, when I finally found enough bars to have a conversation with him.

“In your life?” he asked.

“I guess,” I replied, “But also, y’know, literally.”

A Surprisingly Shit Bathroom

This bathroom at the holiday home where some fellow volunteers and I are doing some Three Rings work, this week, has a few unusual quirks, including this surprisingly-shit bathroom:

The door has a lock… but there’s a second door which doesn’t.
Oh, and the first door’s lock doesn’t actually do anything. The door can still be opened from the outside.

Note #26262

The phone signal is so shit at this year’s 3Camp venue that I’ve had to climb a hill to take a call from a lawyer (whom I’m speaking to about my recent redundancy). Nice to be outdoors, though!

3Camp 2025

I’m off for a week of full-time volunteering with Three Rings at 3Camp, our annual volunteer hack week: bringing together our distributed team for some intensive in-person time, working to make life better for charities around the world.

And if there’s one good thing to come out of me being suddenly and unexpectedly laid-off two days ago, it’s that I’ve got a shiny new laptop to do my voluntary work on (Automattic have said that I can keep it).

Redundant

Apparently Automattic are laying off around one in six of their workforce. And I’m one of the unlucky ones.

Anybody remote hiring for a UK-based full-stack web developer (in a world that doesn’t seem to believe that full-stack developers exist anymore) with 25+ years professional experience, specialising in PHP, Ruby, JS, HTML, CSS, devops, and about 50% of CMSes you’ve ever heard of (and probably some you haven’t)… with a flair for security, accessibility, standards-compliance, performance, and DexEx?

CV at: https://danq.me/cv

Unacceptable language

8-year-old, angry: Give me that fucking thing right now!

Me: [Child’s name]! That’s not an acceptable way to ask for something!

8-year-old, calmer: Sorry. PLEASE can you give me that fucking thing?

To-go pint

Sometimes the kids need to leave your pub dinner before you finish your drink, and you need to take a “to-go” pint.

Note #26217

For a little while I got to lie in the sunshine and read my book in quiet solitude. But before long I found I was sharing it with a small child and his noisy games console.

Still delightful, though, and it feels wonderfully Spring-like out there today.

Kind: Notes