15 minutes tops to look back on the previous seven-to-fourteen days, which I tend to do most weeks. Sharing in case it’s useful to someone somewhere out there, somehow…

What did I enjoy?

The front garden is finished. Deck down for a bench, beds in for fruit and veg, some portable containers. It’s small but there’s space enough. And done a weekend ahead of schedule. Meant on Saturday we could put aside all the DIY and enjoy it for a bit, while the weather’s nice. I read 100 pages of a book. Every morning I get the chance to have a quick potter around the fruit and veg, check on it, water it. Can’t complain.

Been out and about for work reasons quite a bit over the past fortnight. Good convos. A few interesting things. Seen some people I’ve not seen in real life for something like six years. A few trains. Nice. (Also made me wonder about that old Leeds GovJam and Leeds Service Jam vibe that Covid put a halt to. Maybe time to rekindle it?)

My son has been on anti depressants for a month now. The past weekend he seems lighter, for him things have an air of beauty to them, he seems more chilled. I was (and still am?) a bit hesitant, especially so close to his A level finals. Parenting, hey.

Tried a newer approach to planning my work, seperate stacks for the lines of work. Previously one big pile, things to do tagged, see everything, see whatever is on or off. Now there's 4 piles (even one for community stuff). It just makes things more visible, easier to prioritise and understand what can be done when. It works for me, OK.

Ran the Leeds marathon. Ran is possibly pushing it, as a searing pain in my left leg for two-thirds limited my ability to actually run, but doing 42km in just under 5 hours / 6 mins 57 seconds per KM, throw in the hills, The Hills, THE HILL and the heat, will have to do.

Popped into Leeds hours after they'd won the second division title. Good vibes in the city centre. Nice to experience. Same for Bradford going up. Not my teams but too many friends who support them to not mention them. (Especially my barber.)

Danny Last’s football photography over on Instagram is supreme.

Nature is amazing, existence is amazing etc.

Into season 3 of Cheers. Still can’t get enough of Sam’s rugby tops and body warmers.

Not sure enjoy is the right word but Warfare is quite the watch. Speaking of trauma, Thunderbolts* is quality but crikey there’s a bit towards the end that triggered some memories from my youth.

A 108 Gigapixel scan of Girl with a Pearl Earring? You got it.

Four day working weeks.

My tight use of social media apps still paying off. Twitter/X: never on it. BlueSky, pop on every two or three days for about 5 minutes tops. Instagram: disciplining myself to about 5 minutes during the day, and then a “catch up” before sleep. LinkedIn: no app on my phone, only access through a browser. I guess Slack is a social app these days, a no notifications schedule set there. A few WhatsApp groups I am on are set to “mute”, I’ll dip in when I want to. My mind is calmer, my mind feels better fed.

What else?

Giving Inflow a try still to see if there's any tips in there for ADHD I've not encountered. Being forced into lessons for things I am pretty on top of feels too one linear route through for me, to the point of wasting my time. Asking me “do you feel you need help with this?” would be a neater way than forcing it on someone.

I’ve been trying to limit my time in the shower. Woh, too much? I put a song on (sometimes it’s the radio but a song is a song) and try to get done in one song. Shave too? One more song. Why? Get in, get clean, get on, lots to do. Also saves water and gas, especially in my mind when the river Aire is so low at this time of the year already. Deadlines, eh.

A lot of work discussion on what is “a full team”? A team of people in roles or a team of people with the skills needed? Short term, medium term, long term, whichever, there’s always a case "no one else is coming, it's up to us". Get on, I guess.

Lots of talking about, listening to things about Agile, and pondering what does Agile mean these days. Release value as early as possible, regularly? Make, test, learn? Are we still doing these things?

Looking forwards.

Agile Manchester on Wednesday.

Down to London at the end of the week. (Finally getting in The Face exhibition while I am there.)

The boy’s exams start Monday 19th May. Buckle up.

And finally I got this far and didn’t mention what a terrible cunt Donald Trump is. Well done, me! 👏🏼 Ah, the aesthetics of fascism, hey.