Pupdate

July (finally) brought some decent weather, at least for a bit, including our trip to the Lake District (more on that later).

Milo also had his first post chemo scan, which looked good (and got its own post).

Berlin part 2

After getting stranded in Berlin at the end of last month it was good to have a return trip for Fluttercon that was less eventful (at least on the travel front).

The conference was great, and it was fab to hang out with some of the leaders of the Flutter community, which remains one of the most friendly and vibrant I’ve come across. I particularly enjoyed the package maintainers summit, which was an ‘unconference’ within the conference where we got to discuss with Google product managers how to improve the pub.dev package ecosystem.

With two trips to Berlin in two weeks I took the opportunity to look up some of the folk I know who have moved there over the past few years, and it was interesting to get their insights from within what’s become one of the leading tech hubs in Europe.

No easyJet compensation :(

To further explain what happened on the day; earlier in the day intense thunderstorms over Berlin Brandenburg (BER) meant that our ground crew we not able to safely work, and as a result the airport authorities deemed it necessary to suspend all ground operations until the weather improved. The delays knocked on to the rest of the flights for that day. Unfortunately, This caused your flight to miss the curfew in Berlin Brandenburg (BER) and we had no option but to cancel your flight. We do take reasonable measures to avoid delays and cancellations to our flights by having replacement crews and spare aircraft available in our network. In the circumstances, these options were not possible as the cancellation to your flight was a direct result of adverse weather conditions.

I’m starting to wonder what the circumstances are when you do get compensation?[1]

Lake District (again)

After the last few years staying at Keepers Cottage it was time for a change. $daughter0 wasn’t joining us, as she was just getting started on her industry placement, and the in-laws weren’t up for it this year[2]. But Graythwaite has been so good that we decided to return to the smaller Dove Cottage.

It proved to be an ideal location for walks with the dogs, as we could do various circuits of the estate without ever touching a road. The car only left the drive three times over the whole week.

Great Internet connection

One pleasant surprise was a fibre based Internet connection. Past trips had got very indifferent ADSL, but having 150Mbps was hugely better than 2Mbps. The WiFi didn’t reach to the far end of the cottage (from the access point in the lounge), but that was fixed by deploying a travel router in the midway corridor.

Maps

I previously described the OS Maps app as ‘really good’, but sadly they’ve been tinkering with it, and the app user experience has declined badly. Dangerously bad. Waiting minutes for a map to appear when you’re planning a trip is super annoying. The same white screen with no map (as your battery runs down) whilst you’re outside trying to find your way is totally unacceptable.

It was also perplexing that the shiny new West Windermere Way doesn’t yet appear on the online map, making it invisible to those who don’t already know it’s there[3].

New sofa

The brown leather corner unit we’ve had since ’08 was beyond tired, with multiple holes in various places. But finding a replacement has proven trickier than expected. Fashions change, and it was really hard to get something that suited the aesthetic we wanted.

The ‘Contempo’ in Pecan Brown felt like a least worst choice, but now it’s in place we’re pretty happy with it. It’s comfortable, the lighter colour lifts the room, and although we’ve lost a seat versus the previous configuration it’s got just as much space. The only thing we hadn’t considered is the higher back is harder for the dogs to get to, and more precarious once they’re up there (and an even more crazy leap if they choose to jump off).

Nc’nean

I first heard of Nc’nean when I received an offer to buy a couple of Batch 1 bottles, and I was impressed with their approach to building a modern whisky brand. I’d become a small time investor via the Seedrs EIS 100 fund, and the ‘Ainnir‘ maiden bottling was being offered to everybody who’d bought shares[4].

When I saw that there was a Nc’nean tasting coming up at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) it seemed like a good excuse to get some friends together, and they invited more friends, and in no time we had a huge group taking most of the tickets. Master distiller Matt took us through four different bottlings (including one that’s never been sold in the UK), and they were all excellent. His explanations for how they’re making such good whisky when the distillery is so young provided a great set of counterpoints to much received wisdom about whisky and what makes it taste nice.

I’ll be keeping an eye out for future releases, and my fingers are crossed for an SMWS bottling some time soon. Though for what it’s worth my favourite bottle on the night was their flagship ‘Organic Single Malt‘, which is widely available (e.g. from Amazon [affiliate link]).

ABS Sensor Replacement

On the way to drop off the dogs at kennels for EMFcamp (back in May) the ABS light came on in the XC60. My initial hope was a transitory fault, but it didn’t clear itself up. On the other hand, the car was driving just fine. Until the day I needed to take Milo to the vets for a scan, when it seemed to go into some kind of ultra-limp mode. It wasn’t safe to drive to the end of the street, never mind to the garage for a fix.

I’d already had a look at the fault codes with a reader, which pointed to the front drivers side ABS sensor. Sadly my initial attempt at removal failed completely. Though I was being too cautious, as I didn’t want to break the existing sensor (even though it had failed).

With a new sensor in hand (from eBay), and some YouTube guidance on removing stuck sensors I had a second try, and thankfully the fault is now cleared and the car is back in use (just in time for multiple runs to the tip with segments of the old sofa). The trick was to not be too bothered about breaking off the top of the sensor, as that clears the way to drill a hole then put a screw in, then the whole lot can be pulled out with a pry bar.

Solar Diary

This July was a slight improvement over last year. I also got the chance to clean off some of the panels that were looking a bit grubby.

The electricity generated for the month almost exactly matched what we used. Though there was still about 50% imported from the grid (and a similar chunk exported) as our usage doesn’t conveniently align with when the sun’s shining.

Notes

[1] Whilst I was waiting for my claim to be processed the news broke that the supreme court didn’t consider crew illness to be an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ that would absolve a carrier (in this case BA) from paying out.
[2] A decision that can now be filed as ‘just as well’ since my father in law had a stroke earlier in the month, and was in no shape to be driving the length of the country. Thankfully he seems to be improving as well as can be expected.
[3] Adding to the trouble is the top Google result for ‘West Windermere Way’ is the now outdated project page, which gives the impression that it’s still a work in progress.
[4] I suspect that I’ll see a much better return on the unopened bottle I’ve kept than I’ll ever get from my tiny shareholding. But I’m also glad I opened one, as it’s amazing whisky, especially considering it was bottled at the minimum 3y old.