Tag Archives: Work

Covid

So last week, my boss and I had a one-to-one review going over things that had happened since the last review. Generally OK, but he was definitely not sounding right.

Turned out that he had picked up covid, and since I was both sitting next to him and had a face-to-face meeting with him, I decided to test myself, but gave it a day before doing so to make sure if I did have symptoms they would have enough time to manifest properly.

I was clear and tested negative.

However my boss was bedridden for about two days before he started answering some of his slack messages.

Now, over the weekend, his bad luck got even worse, and we found out his dad passed away. So not only is he recovering from Covid, he now has to deal with the end-of-life stuff for his dad.

There’s an expression in Chinese which literally translates to “misfortune doesn’t come alone”

Wishing him a speedy recovery and I’m sorry for his loss.

Coronation and Linux

This weekend was the coronation of King Charles III, the first new monarch for most of the people in the UK. Some may have been alive for the late Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation but the are few now.

I was working coronation support cover on the Saturday from around 6:30am to about 3pm. Fortunately no major issues. One alert towards the tail end of the day, but that was about it.

Sunday were the street parties. Our local one was relatively small compared to the one during the Jubilee celebrations. Was great for the local kids though, and the weather was perfect for it.

Monday is a Bank Holiday so no-one was working in the London office, although the other offices were still working.

I chose today to retry doing my Manjaro file copy, and again it failed with checksum errors when I tried to back it up (even the btrfs check didn’t manage to fix it)

I guess I’ll have to restart my Manjaro attempts and not use btrfs — probably return to using ext4 and lvm.

Still Alive

I’m still here, covid and the flu didn’t take me out. Just been occupied by other things in life, including moving house. That is now pretty much finished.

My role at work has now changed and I’m now a Senior SRE, and with this comes a host of other tasks, including interviewing prospective new

McDonalds & Tesco

So I went to the local McDonalds to pick up a coffee and light breakfast and they were doing takeaway only, and only providing seating for delivery partners, like Uber Eats and Deliveroo.

My normal local cafe has turned into a KFC-like chicken shop and now opens at 10am instead of the usual 6am. Disappointed, but I can understand why.

At McDs, I placed my order just as the manager was asking a customer to leave. As he was, I noticed he had a bottle in his hand. Originally I thought it was a Maker’s Mark bottle, but actually looked more like a Courvoisier 1L bottle, which retails for around £35-£40.

This guy was nearing the end of the bottle when I arrived. Had he finished an entire 1L, 40% ABV bottle of Cognac at 6am in the morning? No wonder the boss asked him to leave. The boss was then on the phone, not sure who to, though. I waited for my breakfast outside, monitoring the display screen.

I’ve decided to put the McDs app on my phone in case that helps for the next time I’m ordering.

After my breakfast, I went to Tesco for the weekly shop.

I parked up and then noticed nearby (like three spaces away) was another Yaris. It was a black Yaris Hybrid, like mine, with a 68 plate (mine is a 67 plate). I thought “that’s ironic”, and went to do my shopping.

Came back after shopping, loaded up my boot, then sat in the car and tried to get phone paired with my car’s Bluetooth so I can listen to my Spotify music on the journey back.

Just then I felt my car’s back shaking. Looked in the rear view mirror and found someone trying to get into the boot. I’d already central locked the car, which means the boot won’t open. So I opened the window and said “Wrong Car”. The guy realised immediately what had happened, and so did I. He’s the driver of the _other_ black Yaris Hybrid, parked but three spaces away!

Post-Christmas Day holidays

Well, it’s the day after Boxing Day. The day where the majority of people who haven’t taken the interim days off on holiday, go back to work.

There was definitely a run-down feeling on the train ride into work and the trains were running a reduced (probably a Sunday service), so I ended up running for the earlier train since my normal one wasn’t there today.

Craving Vacation – Dilbert Comic Strip on 2017-03-15 | Dilbert by Scott Adams

Tine: I hear you have some vacation days coming. Planning anything big? Dilbert: I plan to catch up on all the work I couldn’t get done here because people keep interrupting me. Tina: That’s a sad vacation. Dilbert: Then why am I craving it right now?

Source: Craving Vacation – Dilbert Comic Strip on 2017-03-15 | Dilbert by Scott Adams

Japanese Company Fills Offices with Cats to Help Employees Unwind and Improve Productivity | Oddity Central – Collecting Oddities

Japanese Company Fills Offices with Cats to Help Employees Unwind and Improve Productivity | Oddity Central – Collecting Oddities.

Google is voted best place to work in the UK

It might be the best place to work, but getting into Google might be another thing. And staying there is a whole new ball game.

Work on Your Passion Project for 90 Minutes Every Day for 90 Days

For the next 90 days, devote the first 90 minutes of your work day to the one best opportunity in your life. Nothing else. Zero distractions. Just get that project done. Period.

Work on Your Passion Project for 90 Minutes Every Day for 90 Days.