Pupdate

A trip to the North East provided the chance for some beach walks, which was a new experience for the boys.

They seemed to enjoy it :)

Tynemouth

With some inspiration from Robson Green’s Weekend Escapes we looked for somewhere we could take the dogs with us for an Easter break to catch up with family and friends in the North East.

When Waters Edge came up I wasn’t really searching too hard for anywhere else. Percy Gardens was my aspirational place to live when I was growing up in the area, so I jumped at the chance to spend a few days there.

The place was much bigger than we needed, though we did have grand plans for dinner parties and maybe even some folk staying over. That all came to naught due to me picking up a cold at QCon and (sensibly) nobody wanting to risk catching it, but it was a lovely place to stay.

QCon

I’ve been to 22 QCons over the years, and spoken at or helped organise 8 of the London events. This year’s was easily my favourite. So many great talks, so many great conversations, and lots of fun with friends old and new.

I’d be lying if I said it was stress free. I’d invited 3/4 of the keynote speakers, which meant I was on tenterhooks from opening to close. But I needn’t have worried, as they were all great :)

Johnny Hates Jazz

Johnny Hates Jazz weren’t huge when they hit the charts in the 80s, but they had a memorable name, and I recall seeing them on Top of The Pops. So when the chance came up to see them locally it didn’t take much deliberation.

Of course they played all the crowd-pleaser hits from their early days, with much singing along (my wife went from ‘who are they’ to suddenly remembering the words). They also played some of their newer stuff, and I have to say I like the rockier sound that their lead guitarist brings :)

Cross trainer

After repairing the cross trainer in January it started squeaking again. Initially I thought the left side would need the same treatment I’d given to the right, which is a job I planned for the weekend. Then one morning I noticed the right hand crank at a funny angle; because I’d snapped the crankshaft :0

It had lasted through something like 20 years, and thousands of workouts, so I guess I’d got my money’s worth.

I’ve picked up a ‘nearly new’ Horizon Fitness Andes 7i on eBay, which initially seemed to be performing faultlessly (and almost silently). But after a few workouts there’s a squeak coming from the flywheel. I’m cursed :(

Solar Diary

Given that the weather remained steadfastly awful (as it’s been since mid Oct) this April wasn’t too far shy of last year.

A bit less iBoost to the water tank (and hence a bit more export) as the sender unit batteries ran out whilst I was away from the house (and even when I got back it took me a few days to noticed the error message and figure out what I needed to do).

Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch

One of the reasons we headed home from Tynemouth when we did was I had tickets for the Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch.

It’s an event that we first became aware of during lock-down when they partnered with Cookaway to do a cook at home version (along with a ‘cookalong’ featuring Cyrus Todiwala that really upped our rice cooking game). Since then I’ve been on the mailing list and received invitations each year, but it’s always clashed with work stuff. But this time it fell nicely on a holiday week, and provided a good excuse to get dressed up and head to the Guildhall. We met a whole bunch of interesting folk there, mainly from the various Livery Companies.