I write a diary with on-and-off enthusiasm, but I’m not prone to being public with much of my life. These notes are an experiment in sharing more of what’s going on, in particular for sharing the things that I enjoy, yet tend to keep to myself.

I hope it will force me to look back and appreciate things. Sharing this in public forces me to outline the state of things in a way I can lazily assume future me would know otherwise. A consequence of that, I hypothesise, is a clearer picture for myself of which plates are spinning and what is giving and taking from my limited capacity to care.

• 🏁 Karting: I decided recently I had room for a new hobby, and chose to give Karting a go. Like most of the good ideas that come to me, this really came from 🧑🏻 Greengob . Last week we went, and came away with a trophy each. We also tried out recordng the session with GoPros to prolong the rush of the race, and perhaps get faster. We’re better at driving than recording our driving so far though.
  • 🦴 Cracked ribs: Not BBQ flavour, these particular ribs belong to me. As a consequence of putting it all on the line for that trophy, I took a heavy knock to my left rib and there’s a prominent bump on the bone now. The dangers of motorsport…, but I shall not be deterred. I’m reliably informed these things heal fast, but I’ve also learned that deadlifting with said rib injury is stupid.
  • Helmets & Other Hardware: This would be a good band name, no? As part of dedicating more to things I enjoy, I’m giving myself permission to actually spend money to make those things better – more on this another time. Protecting my afformentioned intercostal bones is priority #1, followed swiftly by a helmet with a better mounting for the GoPro.
• 🏋 Gym Tourism: Rather than getting up, waking up, going to the gym, coming back, getting ready, and then heading to the office, I took the radical move of going to a gym nearer the office, showering there, and heading straight in, for the first time this week. This mundane adjustment was like a re-awakening for the control-freakish routine-addicted part (all) of my brain. Emerging from a gym in the middle of the city felt like a freaking holiday. My fears of forgetting all the things I would need weren’t realised, and I made it to the office fully clothed and in good time. Oh the little things. Break patterns not promises!
• 🐈 Cat adoption: We adopted a cat from my soon-to-be in-laws 2 weeks ago. She spent one week under the bed, but she’s getting used to her new home now, and I think we’re just about getting used to a responsibility outside of ourselves. She’s really in to computers too: she sleeps on my keyboard. It’s nice to have another nerd in the house.
• Back to Linux: I’ve defaulted to MacOS over the past years, but I almost swallow my own tongue whenever I look at prices for even refurbed Macbooks nowadays. Instead, I found an old Thinkpad in a cupbard and I’m running Ubuntu there for now. With a little key remapping I’m rolling. The theory is that if I can work with a free OS on any old machine, then laptop replacements just got a whole lot cheaper.
• Back on the road: After an engine overheat emergency, caused by a discontinued part, we had a long wait & a deep e-bay search before getting our car back this weekend. I was so happy that I ran all 14 miles to the garage in this unseasonable September heat to pick it up.
• 🏃🏻‍♂️ More Marathons: After an injury-ending preparation for London marathon this year, I have a 2 year plan to re-qualify for London and finally fulfill my oldest dream, of running a marathon through these streets. To qualify for 2025 I need to run another marathon sub-2:55 (PB: 2:49). So that’s the plan for 2024, and I’m officially going back to Manchester to do it. Back to the streets of my old home town, where I qualified the first time around. I better get running.
• 🦘 Some interesting work projects: I can’t say too much about this currently, but some interesting things are happening, and I’m very lucky to get to be a part of some cool developments at Deliveroo. It doesn’t always feel that way, but I’m grateful for that at the moment.

That’s enough for this first update. I’m off to watch the Singapore Grand Prix. Have a good week.